How to buy piece of garden behind my house?

clairehi

ok folks this is a bit complicated so bear with me.

Our house has a small garden. We would love to buy part of the garden behind it to extend it. The piece of land in question is about 30 foot square. However I am not sure who it belongs to. It may belong to the house next door to us, who have access to it and appear to use it as a small washing green area. Next door have no other private garden area than this, only a shared driveway. There is more to the story but I will not get into it now. However the piece of land I am interested in is not included on the title deeds map for next doors house which I downloaded from the LR. (Its not included on ours either unfortunately!)

To further complicate things, the occupants (who we do not know well) do not appear to be the named owners on the title deeds, perhaps they are tenants.

Finally I have no idea how to value the piece of land. I dont believe it has any open market value as it could not be built on, so it is purely a case of what it is worth to us vs them.

any ideas what to do next?

lotto-dreamer

You can try doing an index map search (Form is called a SIM).

Download a SIM form from the Land Registry. You can then attach a plan (make a copy of the one which includes your own property) and mark up the piece of land that you are interested in by edging it in red. State on the SIM form that you are searching the "land edged red" (give address details as best you can)

The result which comes back should show you if this land is registered and give you a title number. You can then order a copy of the title using the title number given and this will give you the name and address of the proprietor.

To read up on Index Map searches:

http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/lrpg010.pdf

clairehi

I can try this but I dont think the land is registered. If not, what should be my next step? I know the name of the man who owned the land back in 1991 (he used to live next door and died) but dont know who he passed it on to.

lotto-dreamer

Only thing I can think of is for you to try to obtain a copy of the Will as you have previous owner's name.

This might show who the land passed to as if it was passed by assent it would not have had to be registered at the time. If it was sold though, it would have required compulsory registration and would now be registered.

Not sure how you would go about this though but I assume you would contact the Probate Registry perhaps to get copy of Will??




Hopefully someone else will come along who can offer more advice!

clairehi

Thanks.

I have some other paperwork which has the names of his trustees and their addresses, but this goes back to 1993.

It seems a bit odd that the next door neighbours have access to and are using this piece of land, as it is not registered as part of the property although it is adjacent to it.

A further complication is that within the area that is registered as their house there is an "annexe" which is not really an annexe as it is lived in by someone else and has a separate house number. The "annexe" does not show up on the LR records at all.

lotto-dreamer

I hope someone else will come along with a bit more knowledge to help you.

In the meantime, you need to watch out for the neighbours using the land (even though it's not theirs) as they might be able to claim it for themselves by 'adverse' possession (and thus apply for possessory title).

I think you used to be able to use land without anyone objecting for 20 years before being able to claim adverse possession but there have been recent cases and the rules are changing - so check up on this as it could affect what you are planning to do if someone else gets in first.

Sorry I cannot be of anymore help - suggest keep bumping up this thread and try to get more advice