Claiming maintained Land

Chrisj_

Hi

I have lived in my property for 23 years and have maintained the land at the bottom of the property. This land is currently owned by the forestry commission, am i able to apply for ownership of the land as i have maintained it? Any help that or advise greatly appreciated!

Thanks

moneyistooshorttomention

What are the Forestry Commission using OUR land for? (ie the rest of the land).

Have you been maintaining a bit of land the public has access to and would we still have access if the land was no longer in public ownership?

Davesnave

Unless you have had the land fenced-off and can prove you've had exclusive use of it, unopposed, you won't be successful in gaining adverse possession.

You may download a booklet on adverse possession from the Land Registry web site, but laws have changed recently and it is quite a complex matter.

G_M

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-land-and-2-registered-land

Chrisj_

The land runs directly off the back garden, there is no fence between the land and my garden and we have always used it as an 'extension' onto the garden. No one else has ever used the land as it is just a small strip that runs across the bottom of our garden

I will have a look though the documents

If we do put a adverse possession claim in what is the cost to this?

Thanks

princeofpounds

What matters is if there is a fence, or other obstruction, between the land and everything else, not your garden.


If you don't have exclusive possession, forget it.

G_M

Chrisj_ wrote: »

If we do put a adverse possession claim in what is the cost to this?

Thanks

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-land-and-2-registered-land

moneyistooshorttomention

I can confirm that trying to steal someone else's land without having "exclusive possession" of it won't be successful:)

Brock_and_Roll

Oh and by the way, the Forestry Commission are really, really hot on this kind of thing (and rightly so as it is OUR land). If I were the OP, I would keep quiet and continue to enjoy the use of the land as by making an application it may alert the FC who will come along and fence it off!

Davesnave

Brock_and_Roll wrote: »

If I were the OP, I would keep quiet and continue to enjoy the use of the land as by making an application it may alert the FC who will come along and fence it off!

^This.

There's a number of houses near me which used to be FC property, but have since been sold off. Some look as if they might have fairly 'loose' boundaries with the surrounding hundreds of acres of woodland, but that's something which no one wants or needs to worry about...unless there is proven cause for concern. There's plenty of space for all.

I'd let sleeping dogs lie. I know someone who's recently lost the use of land they'd used for many years, and this was very upsetting, despite an awareness that it could never be theirs.

PasturesNew

The whole background to "claiming land" was always that it was unregistered land, with owners unknown. And you'd have to have fenced it off and maintained it for 20 years.

Doesn't sound at all like you meet that criteria on any level.