Claiming unused land next to our house

kitty123

My husband bought our house 10 years ago in an ex council/local authority estate. Along the side of our house is a long strip of land which leads nowehere. We think it was previously a walk-through but there is now a wall at the end and bungalows were built where the path would have originally led.

We have been using the land as noone else can access it and it is attahced to the side of our garden (through our fence). It was very overgrown so we have trimmed it all back and built 2 sheds on it. We haven't fenced it off as this is not very practical for various reasons (uneven, sloping ground etc).

My husband contacted the Land Registry who say it is unclaimed. The local council also deny they own it. We ave contacted people in another road who's gardens back on to it but are seperated by trees/fences - none of them know anything either.

Where do we go from here to find out more? Do we need to involve a solicitor? We would like to know how we can officially claim the land/buy it to be our own.

ormus

if you fence it off and no one complains/objects, then its yours after 10 years.
(maybe 20 yrs. can never remember which it is).

Myrtle

You need to do this officially though and register a claim with the Land Registry who will then write to your neighbours to see if anyone contests your claim. If no-one does then or for the whole ten years, it's yours. You can't just wack up a fence and then after 10 years claim it. You used to be able to, but the law was changed recently.

kitty123

Thanks guys.

Does anyone know if we need to complete a Land Registry FR1 form? This is the "application for first registration". We are having a look, but do not understand a lot of the information they need!

Also, the Land Registry Act 2002 (brought in in 2003) states the number of years is 10 for claiming land :-)

Valli

actually I think you'll find...



it's mine!

seriously - good luck with it!

edgex

Check your deeds, there might be some info on them as to who owns it.

Im surprised the council are saying that they dont own it, as they would have owned all of the land at some point.

kitty123

edgex wrote: »

Check your deeds, there might be some info on them as to who owns it.

Im surprised the council are saying that they dont own it, as they would have owned all of the land at some point.

My husband checked the deeds and then went to the Land Registry, who officially have it recorded as unregistered land. Therefore if they have no record of an owner the council definitely don't own it (or anyone else).

We are struggling to read and understand the documents on the LR website. We can't work out whether we would have to apply to be "Possessors" of the land and be given the title - then use it for 12 years from that date before being transferred to "absolute" owners. We have discovered it is still 12 years for unregistered land, not 10. There are different rules for both registered and unregistered.

We have been using the land as side access to our house, therefore changing the padlock, built a gate into our fence to access the main garden and have 2 sheds and a compost heap built on it. We also maintain the weeds and brambles on it. But how do we "prove" it?? This is what seems to be so difficult. Fencing it off isn't the answer any more.

tomterm8

see http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/lrpg005.pdf .

In essence, the only way to prove that you are in posession of the land is to fence it, or in some other way bar other peoples access to it. At the moment, you are only in posession of the land the sheds are on.

If this is crown land as I suspect, the limitation period is 30 years, otherwise it is 12.

kitty123

tomterm8 wrote: »

see http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/lrpg005.pdf .

In essence, the only way to prove that you are in posession of the land is to fence it, or in some other way bar other peoples access to it. At the moment, you are only in posession of the land the sheds are on.

Surely the fact that it is already fenced all the way round (with the original fences, a wall/iron railings and our garden fence) and we bolted and chained the gate with a different padlock/lock is barring anoyone else's access? Noone can possibly access that land except us.It's difficult to describe without seeing the land, but there is no physical access to anyone except us.

tomterm8

Yes, that asserts posession. You need to make sure there is proof as to when the posession started... i.e. pictures, witness statements etc.

kitty123

Bearing in mind we are only serioulsy thinking of claiming now, how can we retrospectively prove our use? We may have photos of some work on the area, but I doubt very much we can prove it from exactly 10 years ago. Would the land registry expect us to start the 12 years from first proof? We first wrote to them in 2006 for official confirmation, even though we had been using the land for longer.

I can't access the link you gave me in your previous thread - how do we find out if the land is Crown owned??