House I'm buying doesn't include the whole garden!? A strip lease??

Kwisatz

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice really. I’m in the process of purchasing a house and the solicitors have just had a response from land registry showing the boundaries of the property. Unfortunately it’s smaller than I thought it was...there’s ~3 m of the back of it that’s not actually included. When I went to see it there was a shed on it and the hedges make it look like it’s part of it.

My solicitor says no one actually owns the land and so I can claim it after I’ve owned the new house for 10 years but it’s not really something I want to do on the chance than someone nicks my garden! I called my estate agents and asked about it and they were aware of it and apparently it’s quite common in my area. They said it’s a strip lease and that I could claim it within 2 years. Turns out the original plan was to put a road behind the houses when they were built in 1930s but rather than have to maintain the land they let the house owners use it as part of the garden. Some of the houses on my side of the road have already claimed it as their own so it’s almost impossible for them to build one there now.

Has anyone come across this? I can’t seem to find anything on google on strip leasing (it keeps coming up with strip club leasing…:() and does anyone know if its 2 years or 10 years before I can call it my own?

lynsayjane

I'm so sorry, I'm no help but I couldn't stop giggling at the google search.

I guess the estate agent/solicitor would have the correct information? If some of the neighbouring houses have claimed the land perhaps ask one of them?

pickles13

I have a similar situation. The house I am buying has a small parcel of land that is unregistered land. The seller has provided photographic proof that she has been using the land for 35 years (fenced off) and has provided a signed document to my solicitor. She has also provided the funds for our solicitor to apply for adverse possession. Ideally, she would have done this herself, but we didn't want to delay exchange so agreed to do it provided she pays for it. Like you, we were not made aware until the land registry forms came back.

Our new garden backs on to the access road for the houses. I had a drive down there two days ago (after we exchanged) and noticed that all except one of the houses has 'claimed' this extra land as their own.

It did give me a headache for a few days, but it never put me off the house, as even without that part of the garden, we still have a large garden, and the house more than makes up for it for us.

PS...We have been advised by our solicitor that we can apply for adverse possession immediately due to the signed document and proof that the seller has been using it for over 10 years.

pickles13

Oh, and our mortgage company had to be advised because their security was no longer over that part of the garden. They were absolutely fine with it.

Hoploz

Rather than waiting till you have owned the land for a period (either 10 years or two) why can't your seller claim it first, then pass it on with the sale to you?

Sounds like pickles13 did something similar.

Kwisatz

I did the search from work lynsayjane! As soon as it came up I was like nope nope nope!
Thanks for the update pickles13, I just looked at the google maps view from above and it seems all the houses have claimed it for themselves and no one has a smaller plot as outlined by mine. Also the house backs directly on to allotments so there’s not much chance of a road going in there. I’m not going to ask my direct neighbours about it in case they’re like, “yea that’s totally my garden…” but will ask people down the road!

Glad your mortgage offer wasn’t changed as that was also another worry, hopefully mine will go the same way.

Like Hoploz said, I’m going to ask my solicitor to ask the sellers to claim the land and then sell me both if possible if it doesn’t take too long to go through.

Thanks!

DaftyDuck

Heads off to do a Google search... heads back some time later...

This appears to be quite common, particularly with Victorian terraced housing and long streets. I haven't directly experienced it, but two rental properties I own are a couple of streets away from this situation. Of the ~50 houses on that side of the street (and the same from the next street across), maybe 30 have completely occupied the "green lane" in the middle, and have done so for decades. The others, through general unkemptness, have huge sycamores and horse chestnuts at the foot of their gardens, and obviously haven't bothered. It's about 20 metres across in this case, so substantial.

There really is no way now that access could be sought by reclaiming those garden bits.... which, in its own way has now bitten those owners in the rear. The gardens are long enough to split in half, Cambridge encourages infill, and the cost of housing/rewards for building are astronomical. If that lane were in place, each household could easily reap a hundred grand plus. If they clubbed together.... they'd retire early.

The fact that the reward would be so high, yet it's not been done there shows how impossibly difficult it is to reverse the claim once it's achieved.

Sure, you could get them to do the leg-work, but I'd just risk it myself, if others have occupied the land. Else they might get ideas, bump the price up, or sell to someone else. No doubt it'd be better to do all the legals, but if it is unlikely to be reclaimed, just use it in the interim.

Land_Registry

Looks like the other posts have covered this for you and pickles13 actual experience is spot on and very helpful.

I have not heard of the term 'strip l;ease' before but as mentioned such things and terms can be quite 'local' in meaning.

The key thing re purchasing the property is to understand what rights the legal owner might have in reclaiming their land and then insuring against those risks. Your conveyancer should be able to explain this to you and reassure you over such risks. Such matters are, based solely on reading other threads on such subjects, often points to be negotiated with the seller.

Finally, the claiming within 2 years may relate to how long the seller has been in occupation ie they have another 2 years to go? Our online guidance explains more on how such claims are handled from a registration perspective but the law is complex so do rely on your conveyancer

ellie27

We were looking at a house with a garden that sounds very similar to how you describe it.

Looking down all the gardens were the same at the back and there was a big long rectangular area beyond the gardens. A lot of the houses had claimed theirs and moved the fence back. The house we were looking at had not done that. The owner said 'and that bit of land beyond the back fence you can claim just like all the others. We just have not done it since our garden is big enough anyway. You need to clear the area and put up some posts to mark out the area you are claiming and if nobody makes a fuss over the space of 3 years then its yours'

We didnt buy the house in the end, not because of this though.

Land_Registry

ellie27 wrote: »

You need to clear the area and put up some posts to mark out the area you are claiming and if nobody makes a fuss over the space of 3 years then its yours'

3 years is insufficient to support a valid legal claim on land, in England and Wales, as to ownership I'm afraid. This is explained in the Practice guidance I linked to, which also defines one of the essential requirements, namely 'Factual possession'
Factual possession signifies an appropriate degree of physical control. It must be a single and [exclusive] possession, ....... The question what acts constitute a sufficient degree of exclusive physical control must depend on the circumstances, in particular the nature of the land and the manner in which land of that nature is commonly used or enjoyed. Everything must depend on the particular circumstances, but broadly, I think what must be shown as constituting factual possession is that the alleged possessor has been dealing with the land in question as an occupying owner might have been expected to deal with it and that no one else has done so.”

Where the land was previously open ground, fencing is strong evidence of factual possession, but it is neither indispensable nor conclusive."

Clearing the area and putting up some posts is a good start but everything depends on the circumstances so do take legal advice as to what may be sufficient.

stator

As long as you a sure no-one else owns the land then I would go ahead with it.
If it was owned by someone else then it could possibly be a 'ransom strip' designed to prevent you from doing something in the future, like building a house at the back of your garden. But it doesn't sound like that is the case.