How can I find the owner of an unregistered path?

Maureen43

Hello All

My house backs onto a path overgrown with ash trees of varying heights.

I want to contact the owner to ask if the trees can be pruned or cut down.

I applied to the Land Registry who have said that the path is unregistered.

Despite googling I can't find any advice on where to go next to find out how owns the land.

I really want to get these trees sorted so can anyone help?

Thanks
Maureen

getmore4less

Check for TPO

Hoploz

I would suggest speaking to the council

Furts

This might seem like a long shot, but get a copy of a current OS Map showing Rights Of Way. If the path is marked as such then it may be Adopted. If so it is the responsibility of the Council to maintain it.

Hence, if trees are overhanging and causing a hazard to the path. the adjacent land owner with the trees should be chased up. I would expect the Council to do that chasing, but you may have to put pressure on them.

Bear in mind speaking with your local Councillor. or parish Councillor, would be beneficial in this scenario.

Land_Registry

Our blog article offers a few ideas re trying to trace the owner of unregistered land/property.

It invariably comes down to detective work and there are no guarantees that you will identify them and then trace or get them to also take action - as such as others have posted sometimes it is easier to come at the problem from another angle such as what rights have you got to prune/lop the trees for example if they overhang your property

Davesnave

You can prune any trees which overhang your boundary, but no more than that.

If the trees are along a pathway it might be reasonable also to trim so that the pathway is maintained, or to get the land owner to do this, but that would first depend on the legal status of the pathway.

While you may not like the trees, the land owner may be intending to use them for firewood, which is one of the principle uses for ash coppices. It is incidental that ash is one of the most prolific self seeders, which is also why it grows in neglected places. I once extracted 54 ash seedlings from 1m2 of a back garden in a single spring!

As an aside, thanks to a disease, chalara fraxinia, many ash trees in this country are dying or may die in the future, so the problem may resolve itself. However, British trees are proving more resilient to this disease than at first predicted, so its spread here has been relatively slow compared with Europe.