Anyone know how long adverse possession might take?

[LegodOut]

We're a couple of months into the conveyancing process for buying a house. DH noticed that the boundary on the ground does not match the title deed. To cut a long story of negotiations short, the owners (who hadn't noticed the discrepancy when they bought the house) are going to apply for adverse possession for the unregistered land and once granted, will provide us with a indemnity policy to cover us for the next 12 years before the possessory title becomes absolute. We therefore won't exchange until the possessory title is granted.

Does anyone have any idea how long this might take? Days/weeks/months/years? It's a straightforward case (statutory declarations from the owners covering the past 20 years, arial photos showing the unchanged boundary since the title was drawn and a dotted line on the title plan which apparently indicates the draughtsman wasn't sure of the boundary when he drew the plan) but could this take months and months??

I'm pretty sure that the law changed on this and it is now almost impossible to get adverse possession if the land is registered to another owner so have you checked that the "squatted" land doesn't appear in someone else's title plan?

I've no idea how long it would take to change the title but the LR is pretty slow in its dealings so even if it were to be unopposed, I imagine months rather than weeks.

thanks. Land registry have confirmed the land is unregistered.

Urgh months. Not what I wanted to hear!

If they've stated that, it might be relatively smooth. Have you asked them how long the process takes? Usually government depts have targets for standard procedures.

Land registry have help lines. They are just the cost of a call and I've used them a few times they've been really helpful.

Thanks everyone!

The helpline told me it entirely depended on the complexity of the case and who gets assigned it etc and wouldn't give any indication of timings (but I will call again and see if I get someone more helpful). I was just hoping someone might have been through it recently and give me a steer. I don't know whether this means we will lose our sale or not - our buyers want to move asap so I can't see them holding on for more than a month or so.

Why is this house buying process so complicated!!

It took us 6 months to get an adverse possession order on a section of land that was registered to someone who it turns out was dead. We were lucky it had been owned previously by the same family so only required one statement to prove that the land had been within out properties boundaries without challenge for this time. Our solicitor submitted this evidence to the land registry who then wrote to the registered address asking for a response. After I believe it was 60 days with no response we could applied for this land to be added to the title of our property.
There has been a change in the law, but the issue predated this can't remember the details.
Don't under estimate the cost getting an adverse possession order the true cost of ours should have been over £6000 with the amount of solicitor hours it took.

Sorry for all the poor grammar.