Buying unadopted land

Lovetoread

Hi all,

I've just purchased a house a couple of months ago. During checks, the solicitor mentioned down the side of the house was "unadopted land" so wasn't entirely sure who's responsibility it was. It measures about the size of my current garden, not massive, but not tiny. The space used to have garages when the houses surrounding (including mine) were council owned, but that was many years ago now and there is just useless land there.

Does anyone know anything about adopting/buying this land?

I've done a small bit of research but it looks like you have to pay a fee to the council before they tell you anything, or a fee to land registry before they tell you anything too.

G_M

'Unadopted', so far as I know, usually applies to roads (or common land) on new estates, which the council has not 'adopted' ie taken responsibility for in terms of mainteance.

Where a road is adopted, the council is responsible for it. If 'unadopted', the owner (usually a developer) is responsible.

In this case, it appears that the council owns the land, since they used to have garages there, but have not adopted the land, so the Highways Dept will not maintain it.

The key is to check ownership of the land (not the same as whether 'adopted'.

Do a Land Registry Map Enquiry here and check the land Titles.

Land_Registry

G_M has linked you to the online service which may reveal information if the land is registered and if the title details are available. You will need to use the Detailed Enquiry option and zoom in on the specific piece of land using the aerial imagery. You will only be charged a fee if you actually select to view/download information (if any).

If no information is available or you cannot zoom in sufficiently then I would suggest using the form SIM as mentioned in the guidance and make a postal application. The SIM result will confirm whether the land is registered and if so under what title number(s). The fee is usually £4.

If the land is registered then you should be able to view the details online. If it is not then there will be no record of ownership and our blog article may give you some clues as to how to go about trying to identify the legal owner

Lovetoread

Thank you both for your replies, they're very helpful.

G_M, you're right, I searched through my deeds last night and the unadopted land does refer to the (old) road which was used to get to the garages which are no longer there. I will have to do a search for the land and see what it comes up with.

Thank you.

Jeffrey_Shaw

Lovetoread wrote: »

Thank you both for your replies, they're very helpful.

G_M, you're right, I searched through my deeds last night and the unadopted land does refer to the (old) road which was used to get to the garages which are no longer there. I will have to do a search for the land and see what it comes up with.

Thank you.

'Unadopted' does not mean 'unregistered', of course.
If the strip is unregistered, ensure that your solicitor tries to track-down its estate owner. You could offer a small consideration (+ the owner's legal fees) to encourage him/her into selling it to you.

System

Not forgetting that even if you manage to buy it there may be a ROW across it preventing you doing much with it (based on the fact that it used to lead to garages).

Is the land the garages were on landlocked without the road I.E. no other defined route to it

Lovetoread

The bit of land is the other side of the back of my garden fence. The only other person who is in 'contact' with that bit of land is one other person, with the back fence to their garden, like mine. There are no gates at all in their or my fence.

There is also a foot path (although way out of the way), but that was there when the garages were there too, and wouldn't interfere if I were to decide, and able to, buy it. It's about 25 square metres and it would only be to make my garden longer, going parallel to the footpath like it currently is, until it met the opposite house's garden, like my neighbour's gardens.

I guess the easiest way to describe it is because there were previous garages there, my house, being at the end of the road, lost garden space, where as everyone else on my side of the road has that space as their garden.