Farmer in squatters' rights fight (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Farmer in squatters' rights fight

A FARMER was fighting at London's Appeal Court yesterday for squatter's rights over substantial land and property in Aston Magna.

Barrister Mark Wonnacott told three judges that Gerald Taylor has taken "adverse possession" of Old Farm House, Aston Magna.

Last year a judge at Worcester County Court found against Mr Taylor and his wife Margaret, and ordered the land be returned to original owners Batsford Estates (1983) Company Ltd, based in Moreton.

In 1972 the company, which runs Batsford Arboretum, planned to grant Mr Taylor's father Algy and uncle Cyril permission to live at Old Farm House at a rent of £1 a year for the rest of their lives.

But Mr Wonnacott said that, because of a drafting mistake, the brothers were only formally given the right to stay on the farm under an annual tenancy. Batsford Estates tried to evict them in 1985 but, after a legal row, decided to let the matter "go to sleep" so that the brothers remained.

The barrister argued that, from then on, the estate had failed to stake a claim to the property and, as Algy carried on living on the farm without challenge for 12 years, he became entitled to it under the "adverse possession" principle, commonly known as squatter's rights.

When Algy died in 2000, 13 years after Cyril, the Old Farm House went to Mr Taylor.

Mr Wonnacott added that, during the 1970s and 1980s, Mr Taylor had also taken possession of a field and buildings attached to the farm, and was also entitled to them.

At the County Court a judge found Batsford Estates had given Algy "implied permission" to remain on the farm, and as he believed he had consent to stay there, he could have had no intention of taking adverse possession of the land.

But Mr Wonnacott argued that Algy had never been told he was entitled to live at Old Farm House, and also said that Mr Taylor had never been given permission to use the land, as Batsford Estates claimed.

The case, in which Mr Taylor is challenging an order to give up the land and a legal costs bill of at least £30,000, is due to last two days, and is being heard by Lord Justice Pill, Lord Justice Gage and Sir Martin Nourse.