<P> The House of Lords rejected the Court of Appeals decision and restored the decision of Neuberger J . </P> <P> This was one of the last cases to be decided before the Land Registration Act 2002 came into force, which required that any land acquired through adverse possession had to be registered using the Land Registry . As such a registration would result in the original owner being informed this would allow them to object to such possession . The effect is to make it far more difficult to acquire registered land through squatting . </P> <P> The case was litigated as J.A. Pye (Oxford) Ltd and Another v United Kingdom in the European Court of Human Rights . The ECtHR originally ruled that obtaining property via adverse possession was contrary to Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to the peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions). On appeal, the Grand Chamber subsequently held that although there was an interference with Convention rights, it was a proportionate and thus permissible interference; see J.A. Pye (Oxford) Ltd and Another v United Kingdom (2007) 46 EHRR 1083 . English law on adverse possession is therefore human - rights compliant . </P>

J a pye (oxford) ltd and others v graham and another