Advice needed on adopting land please.

paidinchickens

Hi I was wondering if anyone could advise me.

My DH bought our house in April 1999. At the end of our road is a waste piece of land my DH said still belongs to the house builders.

Every year he has cut the grass and picked up all the litter and I joined him when we got together four years ago. The reason we did this was to make the street look better and for selfish reasons.......so the boys (when they were little) could play footie on there safely and near to the house.

The boys have now grown older and can go to the local park and we would like to grow vegetables and fruit. One part has blackberries which we would like to keep as we have the whole family up to pick them for jams and wine.

DH rang the council who say they have not adopted this land and to speak to the house builders. He rang the builders who have said they are unsure who is in charge. They said they could not see a problem with using it for veg but could not give us written permission as they did not know who in their company had the authority.

Every year we go out and trim back the brambles that grow over the road as no one has been near this land since 1999. We also pick up all the litter.

Is there a way of adopting or claiming this land?
What would be the first steps in doing so?
Can I grow veg on this land (no sheds or anything) without getting arrested?

I would appreciate any help and advice and was pointed in this direction by the OS board

Thanks in advance

PIC

taxsaver

Google 'adverse possession'.

If you fence off the land and exclude the owner and all others for a period of (I think) 12 years, you can claim title.

paidinchickens

taxsaver wrote: »

Google 'adverse possession'.

If you fence off the land and exclude the owner and all others for a period of (I think) 12 years, you can claim title.

I found the adverse possession info but could see nothing about having to fence it off only if I had taken care of it??? thank you for your response x

Yorkie1

I'm pretty sure that adverse possession requires you to have used it to the exclusion of all others - i.e. asserting your rights over it. If others can still use it, then I don't think merely tending to plants on the land is sufficient.

paidinchickens

If we just use it for growing things (a sort of allotment) would we be arrested for trespass?

lincroft1710

Trespass is not a criminal offence it is a civil offence, you can only be sued for trespass. As everyone seems to deny responsibility for this land, it is extremely unlikely anyone will query your activity on the land. However you must always bear in mind that it is not your land and there is always an outside chance that the owner may order you off the land and seek to have it returned to its previous condition. But I stress it is an outside chance.

taxsaver

No, trespass is not a criminal offence but only a civil one. This means that you can only be sued for damages, but as the builders don't seem to care or even know about the land and in any event you are not causing them to suffer damage, you should be fine on that score.

ceridwen

I've put my thoughts on this over on your original post on this - ie fair enough to grow food there, but it will "belong" to everyone in the road because the land "belongs" to everyone in the road. So - i would go ahead and plant food and be prepared to receive help with gardening it on the one hand and help harvesting and eating it on the other hand.

I think it could make a nice little communal project for the people in the road as a whole to do together:)

Re the blackberries that are there already - chances are that other residents in the road are also picking them and that they all think the land is Council land and its the Council that is mowing the grass. So the choices probably boil down to:
1. It becomes a lot nicer/friendlier road to live in - as you all share the produce from this bit of land
OR
2. It becomes a lot more UNfriendly a place to live in - as everyone else gets upset if one house in the road annexes the land for itself alone.

paidinchickens

ceridwen wrote: »

I've put my thoughts on this over on your original post on this - ie fair enough to grow food there, but it will "belong" to everyone in the road because the land "belongs" to everyone in the road. So - i would go ahead and plant food and be prepared to receive help with gardening it on the one hand and help harvesting and eating it on the other hand.

I think it could make a nice little communal project for the people in the road as a whole to do together:)

Re the blackberries that are there already - chances are that other residents in the road are also picking them and that they all think the land is Council land and its the Council that is mowing the grass. So the choices probably boil down to:
1. It becomes a lot nicer/friendlier road to live in - as you all share the produce from this bit of land
OR
2. It becomes a lot more UNfriendly a place to live in - as everyone else gets upset if one house in the road annexes the land for itself alone.

I would love for this to be a communal garden project that would be great. Unfortunately most of the people in our street are in the forces and are away for great lengths of time or work very long hours. There are two elderly people on the street one of which holidays away a lot of the time and one who appreciates the fact we tidy the place up but when I mentioned the gardening he was not really interested. It is such a shame as where we live is not the friendliest of places and this could be a great place to get together!

Bigmoney2

Also be aware that a change of use of land can require planning permision. This land could be registered as building, agricultural, or amenity land. The land registry should know who owns it and what it can be used for.

Jules

patman99

With any luck it will show as a 'Ransom strip' or 'no-mans land'.