A landmark victory has been recorded by a squatter who has been allowed the right to register title to a property that he has renovated and occupied for the last decade.
Keith Best, a builder, applied to register title to 35 Church Road, Newbury Park, Ilford, East London, using the fact that he had been in ‘adverse possession’ of the three-bedroom home for 10 years.
Following changes relating to section 144(1) of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, residential squatting was made a crime, rather than a civil offence, in September 2012. As a result of this, the Chief Land Registrar attempted to block Mr Best’s application for title.
However, Mr Justice Ouseley ruled at London’s High Court that the decision must be quashed as it was “founded on an error of law”, despite the fact that Mr Best had been committing an offence of criminal trespass since section 144 was implemented. Section 144 was, the judge ruled, not intended to be linked to the old laws of adverse possession – otherwise known as ‘squatter’s title’ – but instead to assist homeowners who went away and found that squatters had moved in during their absence.
The judge added: “Parliament should be taken to have thought that the public policy advantages of adverse possession at common law meant that the mere fact that the adverse possession was based on criminal trespass did not and should not preclude a successful claim for adverse possession.”
The judge did, however, give the registrar the go-ahead to appeal the decision, referencing Mr Best’s case as a test case that was tipped to affect a host of other similar cases in the future.
The registrar was also ordered to make an interim legal costs payment totalling £100,000 to Mr Best. Total costs for the case are estimated to be around £200,000.