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Buying house - Title plan shows more land.

Hi.

First post - after some advice on something I have spotted on the title plans of a house I am buying.

The house is surrounded by fields. The title plans of the house show that an area of land currently used as part of the larger field around the house is actually part of the title of this property. I've obtained the title plan of the field from the Land Registry and sure enough, the field title plan does not include this piece of land. So as far as the land reg is concerned, this land would be mine??.....

I questioned this with my solicitor and they basically said, your land will be what has a red line around it. This is fine, but I have searched back as long as possible and from google maps etc. I can see that the field has occupied and used this land for a very long time. Does anyone know where I stand and how I would go about making sure I can claim this land back once I move in.

I'm not going to start being problematic and demanding the land back straight away, as the farmer has crops in it, but after the next harvest I would be keen to get a fence up and extend the garden for the benefit of my kids. It would be a lovely area for them.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Many thanks.
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Comments

  • CarlD
    CarlD Posts: 6 Forumite
    Penitent wrote: »
    Have you asked the vendor about it? They may have an agreement with the farmer.

    I can't approach the vendor as they sold the house as a part ex to a builder.
  • Tiglet2
    Tiglet2 Posts: 2,464
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    You might be best to speak to a solicitor who deals in land law, rather than conveyancing. If the user of the field has occupied the land for a very long time, they may think they "own" it by adverse possession but it doesn't sound like they have formally acquired the land, otherwise the Land Registry title plan would show the altered boundary. If the occupier formally claims the land now, you will, I suspect, object.
  • CarlD
    CarlD Posts: 6 Forumite
    From what I can tell, they have not applied for adverse posession, or the title plans would reflect that. So it!!!8217;s a case of obtaining the land back by eviction. I agree that the safest option is to involve a solicitor who specialises in land.

    If anyone has any similar experience I!!!8217;d be interest to hear about how it ended up.
  • CarlD
    CarlD Posts: 6 Forumite
    I agree entirely.

    Is there anywhere else I should look or try to obtain info from, other than speaking to a solicitor (which I!!!8217;m going to do anyway)?
  • CarlD
    CarlD Posts: 6 Forumite
    OK, tried the previous owner. He had no idea. I can't approach the farmer as he is renting the field from its owner, and I don't want to get involved with the owner of the field until I've had further advice from my solicitors.

    My conveyancing contact at the solicitors I am using is going to speak to a land specialist in the practice.

    I wonder how this will turn out!
  • Penitent wrote: »
    You don't even know the circumstances of him using the land yet, so I think it's a bit early to talk about evicting him.
    Yeah, the land could have been sold but not registered as belonging to the the owner of the rest of the field, especially as if there's been no other reason to update the registry yet
    CarlD wrote: »
    OK, tried the previous owner. He had no idea. I can't approach the farmer as he is renting the field from its owner, and I don't want to get involved with the owner of the field
    Why not? He might actually own it.

    You haven't bought the property yet, but want to "claim it back" Wow, hope you're not moving anywhere near me . . .
  • I would say most people would want to establish for sure and certain whether any land that was down as being theirs is still theirs.

    If they find out it has been legitimately acquired - ie sold to next door - then that's one thing and end of the matter.

    If they find out they still own it - then, hopefully, there might be a way to get it back again. On the other hand they have advance warning as to what the neighbour is like and might decide that is too big a "black mark" against the house to buy it with someone like that for a neighbour - as they would obviously wonder what else the neighbour would try to do/has done that they "didnt oughter" and, even if they decide to do nothing about it/cant do anything about it = they'd feel resentful every time they decided what they wanted to do with that bit of their land, but couldnt because the neighbour was on it.

    The thing I would be trying to work out too (besides contacting the Land Registry to see if they could cast any light on whether it was still my land or no) would be whether the price I'd be paying for the property would reflect the property value with or without that bit of land.
  • Linton
    Linton Posts: 17,064
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    Why not get your solicitor to put a formal query to the vendor's solicitor - at this stage you need information to be guaranteed in some way. I would have thought your solicitor would want to the nature of your title clear before contracts are exchanged. Getting some word of mouth private statement from the vendor, even if you did have contact, would surely be inadequate.
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596
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    whether the price I'd be paying for the property would reflect the property value with or without that bit of land.
    Obviously without, as it's only cropped up after price has been agreed and solicitor has looked at the title. Which is as it should be, as the seller isn't offering vacant (or any other sort of) possession of that bit.

    I don't think it's all that big a deal, it's a boundary discrepancy which is in the OP's favour. Would be interesting to get the story from the seller (if they know any more about it) but I suspect it will turn out to be no more than an interesting title quirk rather than a practical problem.
  • noh
    noh Posts: 5,794
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    CarlD wrote: »
    Hi.

    .... but after the next harvest I would be keen to get a fence up and extend the garden for the benefit of my kids. It would be a lovely area for them.

    Any advice would be gratefully received.

    Many thanks.

    You would may well need planning permission in order to fence off agricultural land for use as residential curtilage.
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