The Dark Side of Land Registration

ransmission of possessory titles Apart from highlighting the principle that possession is good against all but the true the true owner, the well-known case of Asher v Whit/ock (1865) LR 1 QB 1 demonstrates that a possessory title is capable of transmission on death either by will oron an intestacy. [...]because adverse possession gives all the rights and powers of ownership, the possessor acquires, to all intents and purposes, a legal estate in fee simple absolute in possession subject only to the true owner's paramount right to recover the land until such time astheirtitle is extinguished by limitation. [...]this has been recognised recently in the Law Commission's consultation paper, Updating the Land Registration Act 2002 (2016), where it is stated that there may be little incentive for an adverse possessor to register a... title [because] doing so may draw attention to his or herclaim to the land and, therefore, prompt the registered proprietor to commence proceedings to bring the adverse possession to an end." According to the Land Registry, this second ground is rarely successfully used in practice.