in relation to obtaining adverse possession of land in the uk ,?

Question

can i claim possession of a piece of land in front of my property if it has drainage lines and a telegraph pole on it ?

Answer 1

Maybe. Depends on who owns the land in the first place - if the city/state owns it, then NO. Otherwise, yeah you can do it, but it might be difficult. Often, you must fence in the area you want to claim.

Answer 2

Who owns it now?

In the UK, government owned land is immune from adverse possession.

If it's privately owned then yes you can, but you must occupy it "openly and notoriously" for at least 12 years, longer in some cases. That means occupying it, paying the property taxes on it, showing that you treat it as yours, usually fencing it off, etc etc.

If the current owner shows up during that period, he can sue you for trespass, so be VERY sure that the land is truly abandoned before you start. Also, if he waits until the day before the 12 years is up before telling you to leave, you have no claim to get the 11 years and 364 days of property taxes back, plus anything you built on the land becomes his.

If there are power lines across it, it almost certainly isn't abandoned, because the power company would have needed to obtain an easement to run their lines, which they'd have needed to contact the owner to do - and they have a lot of money to track down owners.

Richard