Claiming land attached to my property

tiamaria

Hi, thank you for all your replies, seems i will be opening a real can of worms, however, if you were to see the land, its not really of use to anyone except me. I don't even really have any objection to buying it (at a reasonable price) if I knew the owner.

I have made an appointment with a solicitor to find out a rough idea of costs and what it involves, i'm not expecting it to be easy though, it never is is it:rolleyes:

I have looked on the land registry website, there's no problem finding it but it doesn't give me any information on it like who it belongs to (would be good), I suppose I could send them a detailed map but I'll see what the solicitor says first? I'm 70% sure it belongs to the local council but they've not used it or maintained it for at least the 24 years i've been here, and if they wanted it they wouldn't have put their boundary wall on the outskirts of it. It really was just a rubbish tip before i took it in hand.

Re the right of way, my neighbour is also my very good friend and is happy to relinquish it for the alternative one i've provided for her, i just need it to be done legally for when one of us sells.

John_Pierpoint

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

I think "ordinary" people need an address, a patch of "unused" land will not have an address, as in my example of a patch of land used for fly-tipping.

The clerk could not find it but I've got a good visual memory and spotted it from its shape on the map. The description was something like "land adjacent to Chelmsford Road".

Many thanks, this is brilliant and only 6 quid. (I don't think it was available 5 years ago, the last time I used it for real. The "open register" only started about 20 years ago. In those days everything was done on paper and it cost about 20 GBP to get what appears to be 6 GBP now - I was fighting a new road proposal and devised a system of "Snopaking" out field boundaries and then sending off a photocopy of the map for checking. Eventually the Registry tumbled me and sent a map back saying "there are half a dozen titles in the area specified. You will have to send a search fee for each one!" You had to pay a fiver (?) to get back "nothing known". Prior to 20 years go all this was secret, but there again the Government now has an interest in nosey neighbours, its called "shop a stamp duty fiddler".)

I would certainly do this check, before setting off to spend good money with a solicitor and if you go armed, with the title and the plan, the solicitor would be much better able to offer good advice.

Afterthought: I've just had a closer look at my own home. I already have the plans of the surrounding titles. This system tells me the plan is not available for some of them; I think this happens when the plan is too big to fit on a sheet of A4 BUT if you call in on the registery in person, I'm sure they will show you the big plan and let you buy a copy. (There is also a "charge" on one of the titles which costs an extra fiver to get a copy of it, this could be something like the local authority claiming back the care home fees as and when the owner passes on).

Have fun

John

tiamaria

Just to add, I've looked for my nearest land registry and it's 60 miles away:sad: