Adverse Possession of Land

The decision of the House of Lords in J A Pye (Oxford) Ltd v. Graham [2002]3 W.L.R.221 has not only reaffirmed the importance of possession in the common law tradition as had been understood historically, but it has also explained that it is long sustained possession that is the root of a successful claim to adverse possession. It does not matter that the adverse possessor does not have an actual subjective belief that he is acting as the owner. Neither does it matter that the possessor is willing to pay for the occupation of the land, providing that there is possession which is inconsistent with the paper owner's title. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.