Untitled land cannot be adversely possessed
The question that comes before any other is not how many years someone has lived there but whether the plot has a title deed. If it is untitled, adverse possession does not merely start late — it cannot run at all. Once a deed issues, the ten years begin from that date.
Phenhnung Thabthimthong
Partner · YACT Association
Published 7 August 2026 · Updated 14 August 2026
What section 1382 actually requires
Section 1382 of the Civil and Commercial Code provides that a person who possesses the property of another peaceably and openly with the intention of owning it acquires ownership after ten continuous years for immovable property, or five for movable. The phrase most often read past is the property of another, because it is what decides which land can be the subject of such a claim at all.
Untitled land cannot be adversely possessed
Judgment 8393/2540 holds that so long as land remains untitled it cannot be adversely possessed; that is possible only where there is a title deed, because only titled land can be owned. Judgment 2889/2536 says the same: untitled land cannot be owned, and no question of acquiring ownership under section 1382 arises. Land held under a certificate of use is likewise a matter of possessory right rather than ownership.
So the clock starts when the deed issues
The consequence is the one most people do not anticipate. Judgment 8393/2540 states that time for adverse possession begins from the day the land came to have a title deed. In that case the deed was less than ten years old when the petition was filed, so no ownership had been acquired, however long the possession before it had run. The petitioner held a possessory right only.
The case that came out the other way, on the same rule
Judgment 3095/2552 is the mirror image. The petitioner had bought land held only under a certificate of use, and so had a possessory right and could not adversely possess. A title deed was later issued, and counting peaceable and open possession with the intention of owning from the date of that deed to the date of the petition exceeded ten years, so the petition succeeded. The two cases differ in the date of the deed against the date of the petition, not in the law.
Claiming to own it already closes the door
Judgment 2397/2563 adds a further layer. Possession giving ownership under section 1382 must be possession of property another person owns, and must be adverse to that person's right, meaning the former owner must still have a right in it. Where the petitioner's own pleading asserted that they held the possessory right themselves, the Court held they could not claim to have acquired the land adversely, and no such issue arose in the case at all.
The order in which to check
Taken together, the four cases give a workable order of checking that begins with the land's documents rather than with the number of years lived there: whether there is a title deed, and if so when it issued; then ten years counted from that date; then whether the possession was peaceable, open and with the intention of owning; and finally the wording of the petition itself, which must not contradict the land belonging to someone else.
AUTHORITY
The judgments this rests on
Supreme Court judgment 8393/2540
So long as land is untitled it cannot be adversely possessed; that is possible only for titled land, and time therefore runs from the date of the deed. The deed being under ten years old, no ownership was acquired.
Supreme Court judgment 3095/2552
Where land was held only under a certificate of use the petitioner had a possessory right and could not adversely possess; but a deed having later issued, and more than ten years having run from its issue to the petition, the claim to ownership succeeded.
Supreme Court judgment 2397/2563
Possession under section 1382 must be of property another owns and adverse to that person's right; where the petitioner asserted the possessory right as their own, they could not claim to have acquired it adversely.
Supreme Court judgment 2889/2536
Untitled land cannot be owned, and no question of acquiring ownership under section 1382 arises.
QUESTIONS
Questions this raises
Thirty years of occupation, but the deed issued only last year.
Under judgment 8393/2540 time runs from the date the land came to have a title deed, so the years before it do not count toward the ten in section 1382. What existed in that period was a possessory right, which is a different thing from ownership and has protections of its own. Checking the date of the deed therefore belongs before any decision to petition.
We moved in with the owner's permission.
Section 1382 requires possession with the intention of owning, and judgment 2397/2563 stresses that the possession must be adverse to another's right. Living there under someone else's permission is therefore a fact to be examined — when and by what circumstances it changed — rather than something that simply accumulates from the day of moving in.
LAW
The legislation
- Civil and Commercial Code, section 1382
ENQUIRIES
