Section 296 — Property Law Act 2007: Easements, etc, can no longer be acquired by prescription

296 Easements, etc, can no longer be acquired by prescription (1) After 31 December 2007, no period of time runs, or continues to run, in favour of a person who, but for this subsection, would, at the expiry of that period, acquire, by continuous use or enjoyment throughout that period,— (a) a prescriptive right to an easement; or (b) a right to become registered as the proprietor of an easement. (2) The rule of law permitting a court to act upon the fiction of the lost modern grant is abolished. (3) This section does not affect, or prevent a person from continuing to use, enjoy, or have the right to exercise, after 31 December 2007, rights of the kind specified in subsection (1)(a) and (b) and that existed, or that had accrued, immediately before 1 January 2008. (4) Despite the Limitation Act 1950 , an action may be brought at any time for the possession of land free of an easement if the purported easement was used or enjoyed in circumstances amounting to trespass. Compare: Prescription Act 1832, 2 and 3 Will 4, c 71 ss 1 , 2 , 4–8 (UK)