unregistered land

[White Noise]

Has anyone on here ever tried to claim any unused or abandoned land as there own . Just looking for some basic advice . Thanks

[HCR]

Yes, while I was working for a local authority. In the end the legal bods decided it was a bad idea, and that we should simply carry on maintaining it as our own, but we went right up to the point of claiming of it.

 

I can't think of a great deal of general advice to offer really, either from that experience or from when I studied Law. With it being unregistered, the whole issue of easements is different, and the crucial point is whether or not you had 'notice' as obviously there will be no entries on the charges register... Only a court can decide whther you did in fact have notice should a dispite ever arise (e.g. Joe Bloggs from down the road suddenly announces that he has the right to drive his tractor across it) so beware of that.

[renewablejohn]

Best of luck. We have a piece of land granted to the farm by Act of Parliament back in 1797 which I have shown was part of the farm records right upto the 1930's and shows as unregistered on the Land Registry records. We where told by the CLA that Land Registry was having a push at getting all land registered so we applied only to be refused as we did not have definitive records from 1930 onwards. We now have to wait 12 years and apply again but with no guarantee of success and even if it was registered it could still be challenged.

[White Noise]

Yes, while I was working for a local authority. In the end the legal bods decided it was a bad idea, and that we should simply carry on maintaining it as our own, but we went right up to the point of claiming of it.

 

I can't think of a great deal of general advice to offer really, either from that experience or from when I studied Law. With it being unregistered, the whole issue of easements is different, and the crucial point is whether or not you had 'notice' as obviously there will be no entries on the charges register... Only a court can decide whther you did in fact have notice should a dispite ever arise (e.g. Joe Bloggs from down the road suddenly announces that he has the right to drive his tractor across it) so beware of that.

 

Thanks for your advice . Did your legal team at the Council decide that it was to much aggravation to finally claim the land ?

[White Noise]

Best of luck. We have a piece of land granted to the farm by Act of Parliament back in 1797 which I have shown was part of the farm records right upto the 1930's and shows as unregistered on the Land Registry records. We where told by the CLA that Land Registry was having a push at getting all land registered so we applied only to be refused as we did not have definitive records from 1930 onwards. We now have to wait 12 years and apply again but with no guarantee of success and even if it was registered it could still be challenged.

 

A landscaper near me has been on a vacant plot for 8 years . The land previous to his occupation had been vacant and overgrown for 20 years plus . He is now planning on claiming the land as his own ? I personally think he should just stay put and not rock the boat .

[Big Bolt]

I agree why open a can of worms and maybe lose his plot , but maybe he wants to build on it , and not waste his money , it must be someones so why not make some digging first look on old maps or old airial photos the raf did all of england in 47/48 see if it was used .

[oslac]

My understanding is that you must claim the land for a period of 12 years - uninterrupted and non-contested. After this time you may apply to register the land in your ownership. I also think that you will have needed to have enclosed the land to show that you have had sole control over the land for this period of time.

 

The onus is on you to prove this and therefore records of occupation and enclosure is likely to be required.

[difflock]

I believe in Northern Ireland this is known as "adverse posession"

We lost 1/2 a lane to a neighbour because our soliciter "cocked" up

Or rather he refused to believe what I told him:001_tt2:

This bit should have been under our title when we bought the property, but a section of the lane literally "fell off" the map at some previous transfer of ownership:lol:

Btw!

I understand English law was changed moderately recently to make claiming of "squatters" rights, on registered land leastwise, more difficult.

After a couple of high profile High Court cases.

One of which involved an entire farm sold to a "holding company" or "land-bank" somesuch investment type body, who when they finally woke up:blushing:, perhaps due to liquidating assets, and realized they had bought it.............................. had already lost it back to the previous owner who had never ceased using it.

[HCR]

Thanks for your advice . Did your legal team at the Council decide that it was to much aggravation to finally claim the land ?

 

From a council's point of view, land is generally a liability rather than an asset - we were maintaining at anyway and the advice was that we would be liable in the event of any claim. We would never have been able to do anything useful (ie profitable) with it so there was no point in increasing our on-paper liability.

 

There was actually a hell of a lot of 'no man's land' in that borough, often the result of developers not completing on arrangements to hand land over (eg the green spaces etc) or in some cases badly drawn plans which left gaps between parcels that belonged to no one - clearly they did in reality belong to someone, but trying to trace the chain of heirs from 1860 for a foot-wide strip of land at the top of a crumbling retaining wall is unlikely to be fruitful

[woodyguy]

We had a case recently and the 12 year unopposed possession was what counted. If you've enjoyed access to it and fenced it off then it could be yours!