How to protect your land or plot from encroachment and adverse possession

Adverse possession claims rarely arise out of nowhere. They grow over years on vacant plots, farmland owned by families who have moved away, and property left with a caretaker. The good news is that the law favours an owner who keeps watch and acts in time. This post sets out the practical steps, and the remedies if someone does move in.

Keep the land visibly yours

• Mark the boundaries. A fence or compound wall and boundary stones that match the survey sketch make any encroachment obvious and easy to prove.
• Visit regularly, and record it. Dated photographs taken on each visit are simple, strong evidence that you have been in control of the land.
• Display ownership. A board giving the owner’s name and the survey number discourages squatters and shows that you assert your title openly.
• Pay the taxes yourself and keep the receipts.

Keep the records current

• Check that the patta and chitta are in your name and that the survey number and extent match your documents. In Tamil Nadu these can be viewed online on the Tamil Nadu e-Services land records site, along with the survey sketch.
• Get an encumbrance certificate from the Registration Department’s TNREGINET portal from time to time, to see whether anyone has registered a document over your land.
• Keep certified copies of your title deeds, parent documents and any partition or settlement deeds in a safe place.

Put permission in writing

Adverse possession needs possession that is hostile to the owner. A person who occupies with your permission cannot claim it, however long they stay, but you may need to prove that permission years later. So:

• give a caretaker or watchman a short written letter or agreement saying they occupy on your behalf;
• put every tenant on a written tenancy agreement, and keep the rent receipts or bank records; and
• keep any letter or message in which an occupier asks for permission, offers rent or offers to buy. Statements like these recognise your ownership and are inconsistent with a claim of hostile possession.

If someone occupies the land

Do not try to throw the occupier out by force. In Ravinder Kaur Grewal v. Manjit Kaur (2019), the Supreme Court repeated that a person in settled possession can be removed only by due process of law, even by the owner. The legal routes are:

• You are still in possession, but someone is threatening to enter: file a suit for a permanent injunction, with an application for an interim injunction, as soon as the threat arises.
• You were dispossessed without your consent in the last six months: file a suit under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, 1963. Possession is restored on proof of your earlier possession and the dispossession, without going into title. No appeal lies, and such a suit cannot be filed against the government.
• More than six months have passed: file a suit for recovery of possession based on your title, within 12 years from the date the occupier’s possession became adverse (Article 65 of the Limitation Act, 1963).

Do not rely on letters alone. A legal notice records your objection, but what protects the land is a suit filed in time. If you are unsure when the other side’s possession began, act on the earliest possible date.

The criminal side

Entering land in another’s possession to commit an offence, or to intimidate, insult or annoy the person in possession, is criminal trespass under Section 329 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. It is punishable with imprisonment of up to three months, a fine of up to ₹5,000, or both, and up to one year where a house or a building used to keep property is involved. A police complaint can stop fresh trespass, but getting your land back usually needs a civil suit.

Owners living away from Coimbatore

Non-resident owners face the highest risk, because no one is watching the land. The Law Commission, in its 2023 report on adverse possession, did not recommend any special protection for them. A trusted relative holding a registered power of attorney with clear instructions, regular photographs and a local caretaker on a written agreement fill most of that gap.

Common questions