I bought some land from the council 30 years ago. The adjoining land was badly overgrown with weeds eight feet tall. I’ve been maintaining their land all this time; I did write to them years ago asking them to do something about it, but there was no response. Do I have any claim on this land that I’ve been looking after?
Probably not. You have to use it as your own, without any contradiction from the owner or without any acknowledgement that it doesn’t belong to you. If you had fenced it off 12 years prior to 2003 (when the law on adverse possession changed) you may have been able to lay claim to it. But if you do that now and the land is registered at the Land Registry the council will be notified if you try to claim it and will have the opportunity to evict you.