Buying a house - Garden not on our deeds but someone elses!!

Robinsonandi

Me and my wife have put an offer in on a property advertised with garage and garden. While searching for the deeds for the seperate garage plot, my solicitor found out that the plot where my garage and garden are were registered in 2011 by Gleeson homes. Gleeson built a development behind my garden around 20 years ago. My garden was built around 60 years ago on unregistered land (a farmer told locals they could build there ) all the other houses on my street had there garden registered to them about 20 years ago. So why would Gleeson homes apply for the title to my garage and garden? My garden is only 5m x 5m and is split from my house only by a path. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

As an update - emailed Gleeson for an answer and they just told me to purchase a copy of the full land registry search including plans. Wonder if this will help.

agrinnall

It certainly can't hurt to get the plans from the Land Registry. But to be honest I'd be walking away to look for a property with less complications, sounds to me like the current and/or previous owners never bothered to properly claim the land as theirs and it's now a mess.

G_M

Robinsonandi wrote: »

..... While searching for the deeds for the seperate garage plot, my solicitor found out that the plot where my garage and garden are were registered in 2011 by Gleeson homes.

....they just told me to purchase a copy of the full land registry search including plans. .

Please clarify:

What Title/Plan was your solicitor looking at?
What does the Title/Plan for the property you are buying show? (or is the property still unregistered?)

If theproperty is registered, all your solicitor need do is send you the registered Plan, which he should have, for you to compare against the land you think you are buying.

HE cannot check, because he's never seen the property so does not know what to look for.

maninthestreet

I'm not clear - are you referring to the property you wish to buy, or your current property?

uk_messer

Whatever is with the property will be outlined in the Title Deed. The only other thing the deed can detail is whether others have a right of way etc.

P.S. Bit confusing you calling it your property when you haven't bought it yet! ;-)

DRP

uk_messer wrote: »

Whatever is with the property will be outlined in the Title Deed. The only other thing the deed can detail is whether others have a right of way etc.

P.S. Bit confusing you calling it your property when you haven't bought it yet! ;-)

there could be a second title if the garden was purchased separately.

OP can check on the land registry website using the map search option

Robinsonandi

OK Just to clear up any confusion. Any reference I made to property is in reference to the one have put an offer on.

The house has deeds and title in place and everything is fine

The garden was built on unclaimed land (Just like the rest of the street) many years ago, but not claimed through the land registry.

In 2011 Gleeson's registered it as theirs through the land registry.

Robinsonandi

G_M wrote: »

Please clarify:

What Title/Plan was your solicitor looking at?
What does the Title/Plan for the property you are buying show? (or is the property still unregistered?)

If theproperty is registered, all your solicitor need do is send you the registered Plan, which he should have, for you to compare against the land you think you are buying.

HE cannot check, because he's never seen the property so does not know what to look for.

Just the house has been registered to the owner, not the garden

Robinsonandi

DRP wrote: »

there could be a second title if the garden was purchased separately.

OP can check on the land registry website using the map search option

Both me and my solicitor have confirmed with the land registry that the garden has indeed been registered by Gleeson homes

ValHaller

Robinsonandi wrote: »

Just the house has been registered to the owner, not the garden

In your position, I would be telling the seller to sort it out and get good title, rather than running around myself.

The more fast and loose way to play this is to reduce the offer to a level you are satisfied with assuming <developer's> claim is upheld and get a conveyance on the whole property including the contested part. You will need this supported by a statutory declaration from the vendors which shows that they have had exclusive use. Unfortunate you have raised a flag over it to <developer's>, because you cannot undo that. Depending on how long the vendors can claim exclusive use, you might get it registered to you instead - or you might have to wait a few years.

edited to remove developer's name and I suggest OP and others do too.

G_M

Robinsonandi wrote: »

Both me and my solicitor have confirmed with the land registry that the garden has indeed been registered by Gleeson homes

Then the owner of the house cannot sell it. Only the developer can sell it.

The owner needs tosort this out beofre you go any further, and I suspect it will take (many) months.