Council claim land is theirs - do I have a case, or do I give it up?

ChrisH87

Hi all,

I have a bit of a dilemma - there is a large (2500m2) section of waste land (previously a club) next to my property - at the back corner of that land is a small section (about 10m2) that has been separated from that land by a large wall, and there has never been a boundary separating this small bit of land from my property - when I purchased the property around 10 years ago this piece of land was a big mess, covered in nettles etc - but not fenced off.

I've since tidied the land up, flattened it off and used it as part of my garden - the existing wall has basically formed a boundary wall and the land is question cannot be accessed without going through my house/driveway/rear garden - unless you jump over the 7+ft wall

So:

The wall has been there for 30+ years (I lived in the adjacent property for approx 20 years until I bought this house 10 years ago - so I've had full visibility of the wall for 30 years.

As far as i can remember there has never been a fence separating this land from the garden (again, for 30 years)

The council have never maintained the land

I have maintained the land for the last 9 years

I have advised the council of the above, but basically been told 'we have title of the land, vacate it asap and we'll put a fence up'

I've been advised that a few years ago you could claim land if it had been maintained etc, but apparently this has now changed - can anyone advise where I stand in this?

thanks

Chris:beer:

antrobus

ChrisH87 wrote: »

...I've been advised that a few years ago you could claim land if it had been maintained etc, but apparently this has now changed - can anyone advise where I stand in this?
...

Adverse possession.

The technicalities differ on whether it is registered or unregistered land, but nine years possession is not enough.

Nobbie1967

You used to be able to claim adverse possession if you used the land as your own for something like 14 years without the owner complaining. However, now it is much more difficult if the owner is known as they will be asked if they still want the land and in this case they will say yes. You would be better off asking to buy the land off the council, as you have no chance of an adverse possession claim.

ChrisH87

Hmm ok, that's a bit annoying - it's not the end of the world and its not a huge issue to me having to give it up, but land is land and if I could keep it I would !

Thanks very much for the responses.

theartfullodger

ChrisH87 wrote: »

..... but land is land and if I could keep it I would ! .....

That's probably what the council (i.e. us taxpayers..) are also thinking. It's a public asset!

ChrisH87

You could look at it like that, and to add - I'm also a tax payer and I've worked full time permanently since I was 17, but my perspective on this is slightly different... Maybe because - when the club was burnt down and my house nearly went up in flames with it, I didn't see the council offering to fix the damage to my house - they also had no intentions of replacing the fence which is their responsibility (it's their boundary line) - I had to trump up several hundred pounds to install a 70 metre fence. I've also had to continually maintain the land to stop all the overgrown nettles taking over my garden.

At the end of the day, it's swings and roundabouts - it's waste land as I said, at the moment its been abandoned for 7 years and counting - and nobody is missing out (it's walled off to the public!)

theartfullodger

When you sued them for your costs, what happened?

teneighty

I would not give up quite so easily. I have worked for a number of local authorities and it is not unusual for them not to know what land and property they actually own. Sometimes they have land on their land terrier system without the necessary paperwork to prove ownership.

I would hold on to possession until they come up with some proof that they do actually hold the title.

moneyistooshorttomention

We might wish to do something with OUR land in the future though - ie the local Council taxpayers with this Council land. So - yep...people might well "miss out" if we couldnt use our land because someone else had laid claim to it.

NB; I have an idea that a would-be claimant for Council land would have to get in rather a lot more years of "adverse possession" to nick the land from a Council than they would from a private individual. I think it might be 30 years...???

zaax

What does the land registry / your plans / deeds say?

glasgowdan

Why did you bring it to their attention?