Limitation of Actions Consultation - Law Commission

1. ACTIONS TO RECOVER LAND
6.4 By section 15(1) of the 1980 Act no action may be brought to recover land more
than 12 years from the date on which the right of action accrued, whether to the
plaintiff, or to the person through whom the land is claimed. Land is defined
widely as including:
corporeal hereditaments, tithes and rent charges and legal or equitable
estate or interest therein, including an interest in the proceeds of the
sale of land held upon trust for sale, but except as provided above in
this definition does not include any incorporeal hereditament. 9
6.5 Section 15(6) and Schedule 1 of the 1980 Act contain detailed rules to ascertain
the date when the right of action to recover land accrues. Under section 18(1)
these provisions apply to actions by those with equitable interests in land in the
same way as to those with legal interests. A key requirement for all actions to
recover land is set out in paragraph 8 of Schedule 1, which provides that no right
of action to recover land may be treated as having accrued until the land is in
adverse possession. The concept of adverse possession is discussed at paragraphs
6.19 to 6.35 below.
(1) Accrual of the Right of Action to Recover Land
(a) Present interests in land
6.6 The general rule for an action to recover land where the plaintiff, or his or her
predecessor in title, was in possession of the land, but has been dispossessed or has
discontinued possession, is that the right of action is treated as accruing on the
date of the dispossession or discontinuance (that is the date on which another
person entered into adverse possession of the land). 10
This, as opposed to the more
complicated scenarios contemplated by the 1980 Act, is probably the most
common situation in which adverse possession occurs in practice. 11
6.7 Where the plaintiff, as beneficiary under a will or intestacy, is bringing an action to
recover the land of a deceased person who was in possession of the land at death,
and the deceased was the last person to have possession of the land, the right of
action is treated as accruing at the date of death of the deceased. 12
On the other
hand, if the deceased was dispossessed before he or she died, then time will not restart
in favour of the beneficiary.
6.8 Similarly, where an action is being brought to recover an interest in land passing
under a transfer or other assurance which took effect after the right of action
accrued to a previous holder of that interest, that action must be brought within
9 Limitation Act 1980, s 38(1). See comments in para 6.2 above in relation to the acquisition
of incorporeal hereditaments by prescription.
10 Schedule 1, para 1. See para 6.19 - 6.35 below.
11 T Prime and G Scanlan, The Modern Law of Limitation (1993), pp 182 - 183; A McGee,
Limitation Periods (2nd ed 1994), p 206. It has been suggested that adverse possession
occurs most frequently in the context of encroachments onto the boundaries of
neighbouring land: K Gray, Elements of Land Law (2nd ed 1993), p 284.
12 Schedule 1, para 2.
94