What do you own if Land Registry plot differs from what you were offered?

acreed

Just a question out of interest at the moment and probably the other way around to the expectation.

We are going to view a property tomorrow which is offered for sale having a fairly small garden.

The Plot on the Land Registry is much bigger and it looks like aproximatley the bottom half of the Land Registry plot is being used by the next door neighbours. Fenced off and everything.

Presumably we will find out all about it tomorrow but I wondered, if we proceeded to a purchase and bought the whole plot, would we be able to evict the neighbours or will they have some equivalent of "Squatters rights" (adverse possession)?

Thanks,

Al

JohnB2007

Firstly i would reccomend asking the vendors cautiously - if you make them aware their property comes with more land they WILL increase the price of the house. Ask them subtle questions, maybe comment that you dont like the fence and would like to replace it, how long has it been up and who put it up? that sort of thing.

Look on a website for "sold prices" for the property you're viewing to see when the current owner moved in and the one before that etc just to build up a picture of events. The neighbours may have been sneeky a few years ago and been getting away with it up to now.

Land registry has the final word although i believe it can be quite a messy process. Could end up in big dispute and eggs over fences etc if it gets nasty. There is a possibility that the current neighbour wasnt the one who moved the fence and will gladly give it up.

After you've viewed it, if you like the property, go back the next day and knock on the neighbours door and tell them you're considering purchasing the property and wanted to ask a few questions about the neighbourhood and if they have any problems on the street, that sort of thing. Then you can try and see what type of person they are and how much of a struggle you're going to have on your hands. If it's a lot of land then in the long run it'll be worth every penny!
Good luck

Richard_Webster

Whilst the neighbours could have stolen the land and the sellers haven't realised it, it is actually much more likely that they have already arranged this with the neighbours. When your solicitor gets the contract you may only be offered the part of the land in the Land Registry title that you have seen. They may sell the other part to the neighbours at the same time.

That's perfectly possible and not at all illegal.

After all most people DON'T look at the Land Registry plans etc when looking round houses so if they see the garden a certain size and are happy with that, they can't very well complain if that is what they actually get!

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients

RufusFrog_2

I don't think your solicitor will exchange contracts if there is a discrepancy, it will be considered a defect in the title.

If you like the house, it might be worth paying the £3 to download the neighbour's plot from the land registry plus any other deeds (£5 for the extras I think) - the sale of the land may be recorded on their title but not on the property you've viewed - in which case it could get complicated and you should consult a solicitor before taking it any further (or walk away).

zzzLazyDaisy

The rule is that a buyer is entitled to rely on the registered title as being an accurate description of the property that they are buying.

However, mistakes do happen and they can cause a lot of bad feeling and expense in unravelling them.

There was a defect on the land registry title for the house that I bought. The Sellers' solicitor had made a mistake on one of the documents when they bought the house, and it was never picked up (they were the first people to register title).

I refused to buy the house until it was sorted out - it took months and involved obtaining statutory declarations. The land registry were, franky, most unhelpful - their view was that their records MUST be correct, because that was the information given to them at the time the house was registered by the sellers.

If OP proceeds with this purchase, s/he needs to raise the matter with the solicitor at an early stage.

susieb

I've got a problem with land registry as well. We have bought a new build and the contract from the builders had the development drawings on it and we where happy with the boundaries, fences where erected by the builders as per the drawing and all was fine, we move in, meet the neighbours and it comes up in conversation that this one particular strip of land which was marked as ours, the neighbourrs think is theirs as they got the plans altered. I had still not got the title deeds from land registry, but went online and downloaded them as sure enough, it looks like this strip is not ours.
I have gone back to my solicitors to get them to investigate, but I presume whats on the land registry has to stay, which means we lose some land and also allows the neighbours access to the garden at their side from the front of our house (i know that sounds strange but its hard to explain)
So my pont is how can the builders sell this strip twice, surely if they did allow the neighbour to have it registered to them, (they bought a few months before us) they should have changed the drawings in our contract before completiton. We still have not had the title deeds via solictor or land registry, but the ones I downloaded on line are different to the contract we purchased on.
Has anyone got any idea how this will turn out.

pboae

susieb wrote:

Has anyone got any idea how this will turn out.

I've no idea, but I have a friend in a similar position with a new build. The fencing etc that marks their property matches the plans there were originally shown, but doesn't match the land registry plans, which has a strip at the back belonging to another plot.

The developers have now said they want the extra strip of land back, but during the process it's emerged that the land registry plan also shows that most of the next door neighbour's garage is on my friend's land. At the moment they are all arguing over who owns what, and no-one seems to know what the outcome will be. :-\

My guess is that what is on the land registry will stand, unless there are documents to prove it was changed after registration.

pingu79

My dad gained a small strip of land at the back of his property when builders built some new houses. It was because it would be cheaper to give that bit away than to have to go to court and argue the boundary with each of the original residents.

I think it sounds like the owner sold part of the garden at somepoint to the neighbours. On a house we were buying the vendor had sold part of her front garden to provide a driveway for the neighbours caravan, this didn't show in the deeds or anything though so she probably just did an agreement with the neighbour than following a proper legal route.

bionic_banjo

Hi,

Whilst the land registry plans are a fair indication - they are not warranted as being 100% reliable. The only way you can know what is included in the sale is by talking to the vendor / their solicitor, who will look at the root of title if the paperwork is in with the deeds of the house. Make sure you are 100% clear on where the boundaties lie before you proceed. Amendments can be made to the registered title if necessary.

With regards to squatters rights etc, thats another diverse subject altogether. Suss out the vendors story first and take it from there.

mrsS_2

Land Registry is not always right! When we bought this house, the front garden was under 2 separate title deeds, the bit nearest to the road apparently not having been registered at the same time as the rest of the plot to the same owner.

My solicitor had to prove ownership from the previous people and get the 2 deeds amalgamated.

Incredibly, our house had been bought and sold several times with this problem with no difficulty at all.