Who owns the barn?

luwitters

I wondered if anyone had any ideas- we bought our house 6 months ago. I have just been trying to organise all my papers and I was looking through all the paperwork the previous owners gave me. The previous owners are in their 80's and her family have owned the house for the last 100 years plus. She split the house and sold part of it to her nephew in the 80's.

Whilst looking through the old deeds I came across the documents relating to the nephews property. The old couple owned the whole farm house and the barn. He bought his part of the house but did not buy the barn. He has lived in Oz for the past 10 years and is trying to sell his house and the barn. I checked on the land registry plans and he only has his house. So who owns the barn? Is it ours? Is it the previous owners? Or is it his?

I have looked on our land reg plans and his and both do not cover the barn. How do I find out?

agrinnall

If they didn't sell it to you then it's not yours. It's most likely still owned by the previous owners, but they may have come to an agreement with the nephew to sell both his house and the barn in one lot and split the proceeds. You may need to ask the previous owners to be sure.

Ozzuk

When you bought the house did you confirm what you were buying? I.e. did you expect to own the barn? Normally when I'm serious about a house I obtain the title from lang reg beforehand and make sure I know exactly what I'm buying (boundaries etc).

You say your plans don't include the barn, then it would appear you do not own it. It may be the old couple still actually own in, intentional or not so the question would be are they more likely to transfer it to you or the nephew.

booksurr

you do not own it that much is certain

presumably the old couple made a mistake when they did the conveyancing and failed to address the question of who got the barn. Therefore as you have found at the land registry they still own it. Of course if they are dead then it is owned by whoever inherited (which may or may not be the nephew).

luwitters

Thanks for your replies. When were buying our house the land reg plans show just our house and garden. But as I was looking through all the deeds it showed that the nephew just seemed to own his house. I've checked on the land reg and the plans and the barn does not appear on anything.

The previous owners assume that the nephew owns the barn. As they don't seem to like him they may be willing to sell it to us!

dc197

luwitters wrote: »

The previous owners assume that the nephew owns the barn. As they don't seem to like him they may be willing to sell it to us!

If their assumption is correct, how will they sell to you something that they do not own?

agrinnall

dc197 wrote: »

If their assumption is correct, how will they sell to you something that they do not own?

Or perhaps more pertinently, would the OP be willing to buy something that isn't the vendor's to sell?

jackomdj

Ignoring the barn as a building, does either land registry plot cover the land the barn is situated on?

If not can you ask LR who owns that bit if land?

SmlSave

It may be that the barn is unregistered.

If you are on good terms with your solicitors, ask them to do a Map Search on Land Registry - it's free way to see if the barn is registered. Then you can decide whether to get Office Copies or to do a Index Map Search to possibly find the owners

G_M

Sounds like the barn is unregistered.

OP could check with a 'map enquiry'.

If so, and since it does not appear on nephew's Title, the most likely explanation is that the original owner still owns it - perhaps without realising it.

Is that's so, OP could persuade him to

* check his ownership, and then
* sell

PasturesNew

Maybe another sibling inherited the barn and didn't actually need to do anything with it, but the his brother in the the house keep using it.... and now he's selling the house his sibling's said "let's chuck in my barn as a package if you're not going to live in the house I might as well ditch the barn as it's of no use to me and I've never done anything with it".