The High Court has cleared the way for the sale of 20 acres of land, once worth €3 million and now selling for €500,000, after refusing an injunction to a farmer who claimed 'squatter's rights'.
Peter O’Reilly claimed that because no legal action was taken since 1998 requiring him to remove his grazing cattle from the land on the edge of Cavan town, he owns it under the law on adverse possession or squatter’s rights, which applies after 12 years of uninterrupted occupation.
The land at Keadue is due to be sold by Allsop at auction on Thursday with a recommended price between €545,000 and €560,000.
The land was earmarked in 2005 for a major development but was later sold with planning permission to local developer Cathal Brady for €3 million.
Ulster Bank had a charge over the land which it sold to the Promontoria Aran Ltd fund, which later appointed receivers to sell the land to help discharge Mr Brady's debt.
Mr O’Reilly, of Crubany, Cavan, had paid annual rent between 1981 and 1998 to the previous owner of the land, Cavan County Council, and used it for grazing cattle.
He said no legal proceedings were ever taken after 1998 to remove him from the land on which he has provided a cattle pen/crusher and water tank and also installed a gate and fencing. He said he has been in continuous occupation for 37 years and even after his rent payments to the council ended in 1998, he still qualified for adverse possession because he continued in occupation for more than 12 years.
Occupation challenged
Dominic Hussey SC, for Mr O’Reilly, said once no one took legal steps to challenge his occupation; he enjoyed uninterrupted possession since 1998 and Promontoria and the receivers had “no business putting it up for sale” once he claimed ownership.
Mr O’Reilly’s application to register ownership with the Land Registry is currently being processed, counsel said.
Promontoria and the receivers, in opposing an injunction preventing the auction, disputed he had enjoyed 12 years uninterrupted possession.
When the council in 2005 entered an agreement with a third party to build a major development of the land, Mr O’Reilly did not object and never stopped architects or engineers surveying the land, Bernard Dunleavy SC, for Promontoria and the receivers said.
That, plus an agreement with a neighbouring landowner for access during construction of the project, amounted to significant acts of dispossession.
Mr O’Reilly was notified by solicitors for Mr Brady in 2009 he was trespassing, representing another break in the alleged continuous possession which is disputed, counsel said. Mr Brady also supported the sale by the receivers.
Counsel said his clients wanted the auction to go ahead and prospective purchasers had been fully informed of Mr O’Reilly’s claim and of his side’s position in relation to that.
Refusing to halt the auction, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said, if Mr O'Reilly wins his main action, he would be entitled to ownership and damages would be an adequate remedy. The balance of convenience was against an injunction as any new purchasers would be joined in the adverse possession claim and could resist it, he added.