These men have a cheek

mrsyardbroom

This afternoon my husband was tending a small piece of land that we have used as our own for 28 years, when two men in suits came along. They said they were from a local estate agent and they were investigating who owns what property in the area. As soon as they found out that we didn't have a title deed they said that in that case the property would belong to the local china clay company. They marked it down as someone else's property, took our name and address and walked off.
As far as I can see they have no right to our piece of land. We have had it fenced gated and locked for 28 years. It isn't registered and despite our best efforts we have never been able to trace the owner. I feel really mad about this. We rescued that little strip of land from a mess of brambles and scrub and we removed a fair amount of rubble and rubbish in the process.
We questioned local people about the land and one elderly resident said he could remember someone using it many years before me came along but he didn't know if they owned it or not. The man had died many years before that and the land hadn't been used since. None of the adjoining land owners could help.
I think we have a good case for claiming a title. Has anyone ever done this and been successful. Any idea how much it would cost?

hazyjo

Have you spoken with your local council as to who owns it?

Jx

Mallotum_X

Why did you tell them it wasnt your in the first place, and then give some random people your name and address.

maninthestreet

What documentary proof do you have that this is actually your land?
You were under no obligation to answer any questions you were asked, yet you admitted to these complete strangers you did not have a title deed, and then gave them your name and address.

Werdnal

The China Clay company may not actually own it, but they might have ancient mineral rights to it. A lot of the land around us, has mineral rights allocated to the local mining company dating back 100's of years. They can evict people, re-house them and start a quarry!

Even privately owned houses can sit on land they have rights to mine. I don't fully understand how it works, but when we bought here, we had it thoroughly checked to make sure we were safe from them.

TBH, if you have not actually registered the land in your name, I think you may be on a sticky wicket to do anything about it. You took it on and improved it, but still do not legally own it.

You are not in Cornwall by any chance? Did they give any idea who they were? Can you contact them/the company and find out what the situation is?

wnoktnwbr

Mallotum_X wrote: »

Why did you tell them it wasnt your in the first place, and then give some random people your name and address.

People that take over a piece of land that isn't their own and make it nice for no real personal gain are generally the sort of people that want to be nice and helpful.

mrsyardbroom

First of all I didn't tell anyone it wasn't our land. It was my husband who told them everything. He is aspergic and had no idea that it wasn't the right thing to do and I wasn't with him to stop him. Twenty eight years ago we tried our very best to find out who owns this land including every local land owner, the council, the land registry and local people who might know. We also paid for a commons search. In the end everyone got so fed up with us asking they said fence it in and use it and if it belongs to someone they'll soon shout.

paddy's_mum

The Land Registry is your friend in this matter. Look up possessory title and/or adverse possession to understand your position.

mrsyardbroom

The Land Registry said we should get a solicitor to deal with it. The solicitor said the person I want isn't there today. That's why I asked if anyone else had claimed a title to land and been successful as I want some hope that all isn't lost.

sirmosh

It sounds like you didn't have permission from anyone to use the land which means you'll have occupied and had exclusive use of the land for long enough that it'll be yours by now. If you did have permission to use it then the person owning it can have it back. Try gardenlaw.co.uk for this kind of thing, there are a lot of people who know a lot about this kind of thing over there.

mrsyardbroom

Thank you for that. I know I can put in a claim for the land as we have used it as our own for such a long time. I just wondered if anyone else had done it successfully. I'll try the garden law people and see what they say.

The China Clay company may not actually own it, but they might have ancient mineral rights to it. A lot of the land around us, has mineral rights allocated to the local mining company dating back 100's of years. They can evict people, re-house them and start a quarry!

Even privately owned houses can sit on land they have rights to mine. I don't fully understand how it works, but when we bought here, we had it thoroughly checked to make sure we were safe from them.

I think you'll find that owning the mineral rights on a person's land means that the person who owns the land isn't allowed to extract minerals from it. The company can't just evict people and start quarries, even if they own the property. There are many legal processes to go through before they can do anything and they must have planning permission. Many years ago I actually helped a neighbour to stop the china clay company from using the land at the back of her house as a massive spoil tip. Everyone said it was impossible to win but my neighbour was a very clever lady and whatever the company threw at her she came back with something to top it. She spent 12 years battling with them and eventually won.