Unregistered land

RadoJo

I'm hoping for a bit of advice concerning a strip of land at the end of my road. I am keen to buy it to park on given that our road has quite a parking problem, but I have pursued all the avenues available to me without getting anywhere.
The land is not registered with the land registry and doesn't belong to the local or parish council. I have looked at the planning permission for the house next to the strip of land (it is definitely separate - it has a fence around it.) and it appears that the land is owned by the people who built the house. Unfortunately, it seems that one may have died (the house was built 40 years ago) and the other is proving impossible to track down as the address on the planning application no longer exists and Googling him has turned up no records at all.
I believe that we could just start using the land and hope that nobody objects so that we could potentially end up with an adverse possession situation in 10 years, but does anyone know of a more direct or official way to go about this process. We are happy to buy the land (would prefer it in many ways) but have no idea who to even approach.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

paddyrg

Can you track down the estate/next-of-kin of the dead owner?

Land_Registry

RadoJo wrote: »

The land is not registered with the land registry and doesn't belong to the local or parish council. I have looked at the planning permission for the house next to the strip of land (it is definitely separate - it has a fence around it.) and it appears that the land is owned by the people who built the house. Unfortunately, it seems that one may have died (the house was built 40 years ago) and the other is proving impossible to track down as the address on the planning application no longer exists and Googling him has turned up no records at all.
I believe that we could just start using the land and hope that nobody objects so that we could potentially end up with an adverse possession situation in 10 years, but does anyone know of a more direct or official way to go about this process. We are happy to buy the land (would prefer it in many ways) but have no idea who to even approach.QUOTE]

As you would probably imagine Land Registry deal with registered land and as a result are not often able to advise on matters pertaining to unregistered land.

With regards what you have posted I would agree with paddyrg that it is often a good idea (especially where 40 years has passed) to check if the assumed owners are all still alive. I am guessing that when checking on one possible owner you checked the other(s) and established that they were at least not dead - hence the efforts to Google

If the ownership trail reveals that the owner(s) are in fact deceased and that there are no next of kin i.e. they died intestate then in some cases prospective purchasers can approach the Treasury Solicitor - the legal name for this is "Bona Vacantia" and relates to ownerless property which passes to the Crown. It is the basic legal premise in England & Wales which supports the tenet that all land is owned. The TSol effectively administers the estates of those who die intestate or indeed dissolved companies
As you will appreciate though it is important to demonstrate that a) the owners are the owners b) that they are deceased and c) that they died intestate.

The alternative is of course the adverse possession route - see our online material

There is no hard and fast rules to follow here as every situation is unique. The fact that we are dealing with a piece of land, which appears to be 'open' also creates issues.

In the circumstances I would strongly recommend seeking legal advice on the matter based on the information you have already established.