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

Kwisatz

Thanks for the additional information, I feel as though the two year comment was something the estate agents just said to try and reduce my worrying and uncertainty over buying the property.

This morning I did a title plan search for my neighbours and they own the entirety of their gardens so there’s little chance that I’ll have anybody trying to claim it off me considering I have my fences around it (I had a panic at 2am last night thinking perhaps they owned the end of my garden but it doesn’t seem the case)

The sellers have been in the house for >25 years so could elect for the additional land. How long would that process take?

Land_Registry

Kwisatz wrote: »

The sellers have been in the house for >25 years so could elect for the additional land. How long would that process take?

If you mean how long an application to register their claim would take then a conservative estimate would be between 2/3 months.

Much depends on the supporting evidence initially and it is likely we would then visit the site as well.
As such timescales can be longer but 2 months would be a conservative estimate

Kwisatz

Thanks for the update! I just got an email back from my solicitor stating:

I am in the process of drafting the Statutory Declaration for the other side solicitors regarding the ‘adverse possession’ claim of this land. It needs to be proved that for the last 10 years the land has been used to get possessory title, as the present owners have been in occupation since 1988 they have sufficient ownership of the land. At this point possessory title should be obtained, it is however at the Land Registry’s discretion if they would like to grant freehold title at this stage. Once the title has been registered as possessory, you must wait a further 12 years, after which you can then apply for freehold title absolute if you should wish to do so.

I get what they’re trying to do, with a Statutory Declaration they’ve got proof that the sellers have owned the land for the 12 years required in an effort to get either a possessory title or a freehold absolute. I don’t think they’ll get an absolute title (Noticed one neighbour does own it absolute and the other by the looks of it has it possessory) but I’ll be happy with a possessory title for it.

Do hope it doesn't delay me too much longer

pickles13

Thats exactly what we did. We also insisted before exchange that the seller provides our solicitor with funds to process this for us after completion, which she agreed to as a condition of exchange.