 Hopefully by now you've had a chance to consider the five questions in this activity. We'd ask you to address whether in five different factual scenarios a squatter can be said to be in adverse possession. The first question was whether you're in adverse possession if you go around to a friend's house for dinner once you've been invited there. Are you in adverse possession? The answer here is clearly no. First of all you're not in possession because you are not in exclusive control of your friend's house when you visit the premises. Secondly, even if you were in possession your possession wouldn't be adverse because you are there because you've been invited by your friends, you're there with their consent. The answer into the first part is very clear. Secondly, would you be in adverse possession of some marshland if you discovered it and started to shoot some birds over it? Now here your conduct looks to be quite trivial in relation to the land. Can you really be said to be in possession of land where you do such trivial acts? Well the facts of this particular question is based on a real case called Red House Farms and Catchpole which was decided in 1977 where the court decided that what counts as possession is going to depend on the geography of the land. Now in such a case where the land is marshy there's very little that anybody even the real owner can do on the land and therefore in order for a squatter to show that they are in exclusive control in possession of the land it's going to take relatively little conduct in order to show that you've taken control of the land. In that case shooting over some marshland was held to be enough to show that you were in possession of the land. It showed both factual possession and an intention to possess and if you are shooting over the marshland without the owner's consent then you are in adverse possession and if you do so for 12 years you might become the owner of that land. Thirdly what if you moor your boat on somebody else's land? Are you here in adverse possession? Of course your boat is not actually touching the land below the water but if you think about it what can you actually do in order to possess the land at the bottom of the lake? There's very little even the owner can do with that land beyond mooring a boat on the property. Now the case is actually accept that mooring a boat over some land can count as possessing that land so if you're there mooring your boat without the owner's consent you arguably are in adverse possession. Fourthly what if you stay overnight in a hotel room? Are you again in adverse possession? Well here you're not actually in possession of the room and this is because you're not in factual exclusive control of the property. The hotel retains a degree of control over the room for example they're able to send in their cleaners. Equally you're not in adverse possession either because you are there with the hotel's consent so you would not be an adverse possessor in these circumstances. Finally what if you rent a house as a tenant? Are you here in adverse possession? Well first of all here you are in possession and this is because when you lease a property the landlord gives you exclusive possession, exclusive control of the premises of the house. So you are in possession of the property but you're not in adverse possession because if there's a leasehold agreement in place the landlord has given you permission to be there so you're not an adverse possessor but if the leasehold agreement runs out and the landlord is not happy for you to remain there but you do in fact remain on the premises from that moment onwards you're an adverse possessor and if you stay without permission for a further 12 years you may well become the owner.