Building on land owned over 10 years?

[v3rob11]

Hi,

Please can anyone clear this up for me?

Is it true that if you have owned some land for over ten years you are leagally allowed to build on it?

[Ethel]

Only if you get the proper planning and building permissions

[buildersmate]

And anyway one can apply for Planning Permission on a piece of land that one DOESN'T even own.

[georgedoran]

No. its something to do with, if you build on a picec of land, and the bulding is clearly visiable, and no one objects or the counicl finds otu abotu it for 5 years or something, its all leagel and everything. there was a program on ITV about it i think, someone bulit this awfull house in teh cotsworlds, and hid it behind hay bails for a few years.

there is somthing about, if say you rented some land of the council, an then you stopped renting it, but it remaind at say, the bottom of your garden, and you kept using it even though you didnt rent it, and the council didnt say anything for 12 years, leagally it is yours. as long as you have been using it for 12 years and the councill have not noticed.

[bushbaby_de]

i think there are two issues being confused here. Adverse possession (squatters rights) allow you to claim the land as yours if you have maintained it etc for more than 12 years without the rightful owner using it or objecting to your usage. If you build something without planning permission it becomes immune ffrom enforcement action after 4 years, or 10 years if a change of use of the land is involved. HTH