Legal right to Home?

My grandmother lives in a house for the best part of 50 years. The deeds of the house are registered to the parish council as part of the church. In the earlier years she paid rent, however she has not paid any rent to the church for over 20 years. since she originally inhabited the house, she and the family have paid for all of the financial upkeep of the house. there has never been any upkeep or intervention by the parish or the church. she has never had a rent book, or given any receipts for any rent paid. what is her legal situation here? is she the rightful owner? what does she need to do to legalise it?

Moved from Other Financial Issues.

Hi Nevs,

She may have a right to the house under adverse possession, if she has not paid rent for over 20 years and if no-one has questioned her occupation of the house, or sent her a letter demanding rent. It will come down to all of the circumstances of her occupation of the house. She should see a solicitor.

It is very difficult for a tenant to establish a squatters title.

In very general terms, the basis of a squatters title is that you must first be a trespasser; An overholding tenant does not usually constitute a trespasser.

I would not hold out any great hope of establishing title. Your grandmother's best bet might be to see if she can buy the house fairly cheaply, while holding out the possibility of making a claim based on posession.

Have the church threatened to remove her from the property? If not then I don't really see the problem.