I have found a run down empty house BUT.....

lauren1983

hi

ive been looking into this aswell.
sounds interesting.
Is there anyone out there who has done this or maybe has abit of advice?

thanks

lauren

roswell

good theory but really its just theory, you need to prove you have been there for 12 years before you can claim sqatters rights, unless you fance squatting / loosing any investment money in the hope the owner never comes round / dies / decideds to sell go for it. I looked into it a year ago after looking for a owner for a property the owner was in a old age home we thing going on what my gran told me , then some time 6 months ago the property was sold can only guess he passed on.

rozeepozee

Well, it does happen, or else there wouldn't be all the case law and legislation on it. However, I suspect in specific circumstances and increasingly rarely these days. I do have personal experience. My cousin bought a plot of land a few years ago at a very good price. The guy selling it lived in the terraced house adjoinng it and fifteen years previously had fenced it off and after 12 years claimed a right of occupation over it and the land became his. He got some money for nothing and my cousin got a bargain

cattie

There was a case reported in the national press a few years ago now about a squatter successfully claiming a £200,000 property. I don't know if anyone else remembers it. Read about it here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/399102.stm

MyUserNamesTaken

BobProperty wrote:

Dunc - looked into this years ago. Great theory but try and find someone who has actually done it through to the end and obtained anything this way.

I know someone who has actually done it. He moved into an abandoned house in Plaistow, East London. Managed to claim adverse possession after living in it for 12 years uninterrupted. He's flogging it now for £180K.

Ian_W

I'm rather afraid that catties 1999 case and MyUserNamesTaken's mate may not be quite up to date. There was legislation in 2002 which made it far more difficult to claim "adverse possession" of registered land but those wanting to get freebie land/property should be more concerned about the Human Rights Act implications.

In Beaulane Properties Ltd -v- Palmer, [April 2005]the claimant was the owner of greenbelt land near Heathrow who sought an injunction to prevent the defendant from entering the land. The defendant claimed that title to the land should properly be transferred to him as he had been in adverse possession of it since 1986.
The claimant argued that the effect of the relevant legislation would be to deprive it of its land without compensation which was incompatible with the Human Rights Act.
The court upheld the claimant's argument and, although it found that 12 years adverse possession had been completed in 2003, the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 meant that the defendant's claim failed. Title to the land would remain with the claimant.

In addition and much more importantly, in Pye v UK the European Court of Justice, also this year, ruled that:
"Article 1 of the Human Rights Act 1998 which entitles a person " to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions" had been breached by the long established right to possessory title after 12 years uncontested occupation which was reiterated only relatively recently in the Limitation Act 1980.
The European Court said:
"The taking of property in the public interest without payment of compensation reasonably related to its value is justified only in exceptional circumstances...... this principle is not confined to taking a property for public purposes but is equally applicable to the compulsary transfer of property from one individual to another"

Unless someone comes up with a more recent contrary judgement, it seems to me that adverse possession [squatters rights] where the owner of land comes forward to claim it, even very late in the day, will not work. Perhaps that's why the owners of this info about empty land and buildings are more concerned with selling it through premium line numbers on websites, than exploiting it themselves to make a shedload of cash. Someones signature on these threads is, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is ...

Rozzee, you're the retired human rights lawyer, have I got it right or not?

rozeepozee

IanW, your post made me grin. You're right, I am a retired human rights lawyer but my main specialism was trying to get clients who'd been sectioned under the Mental Health Act discharged from hospital, so, ironically, I'm a lawyer who is an expert in how to get people out of others' property rather than into it :rotfl:

The law on adverse possession has been around for ages but it doesn't surprise me that the Human Rights Act (which is relatively new legislation, dating back to 1998) has resulted in the changes you describe, it's dramatically changed huge swathes of law. Well interpreted, Ian, I think you may have missed your vocation!

scheming_gypsy

sod it... fool proof way..

stick a for sale sign up in the garden.
wait 2 months and replace it with a sold one.
move in
do it up
sell it
the neighbours won't know and neither will the real owner till it's too late.

Illegal, immoral but also fun

Ian_W

scheming_gypsy wrote: sod it... fool proof way..

or more likely:

stick a for sale sign up in the garden.
wait 2 months and replace it with a sold one.
move in
do it up
try to sell it
buyers solicitor says
owner turns up and says, "thanks very much, Mr Gypsy, for doing up the place, been waiting for someone to, Now F@rk Owf.
:mad: :wall: _pale_ :doh:

scheming_gypsy

then you bury him in the garden