Help with buying house with unadopted land

davedma

Hi kind of new here and after some advise regarding a property we are buying.
We are looking to purchase an end terraced house and have discovered that the land at the side is not on the deeds and in fact the current owner has moved the fence to include this unadopted land at the side of the house around 15 years ago, nobody has objected or claimed the land and the agent says the house is worth more than the others on the street because "it has this land included"? On discovering the sale is affected the vendor has now applied to legally claim under adverse possession rules.

My question is firstly is the house actually worth more as it stands with this land being fenced off but not included on the deeds? I've argued it not and is worth the same as all the other houses in the row but the estate agent (A Well know nation chain) insists it is worth more than the others (around £20k more!!!)

also more importantly as the vendor had applied to claim this land as his own under adverse possession if we buy the house while waiting for this to complete and application is approved will this land become our's as the new owners of the property or would the vendor own it as the person who made the adverse possession claim?

Obviously I don't want to buy a house to find in a few years that the vendor now owns my garden and wants to build a house or some flats there.

Thanks for any advice

VintageHistorian

Do not, under any circumstances, exchange or complete on the purchase until the adverse possession application has gone through.

ThePants999

It's worth, to you, what you're willing to pay for it. What the estate agent thinks is irrelevant. But if you don't care about the land, and offer accordingly, there's a chance you might get outbid by someone who does, or the vendor might decide to wait for a higher offer from someone who values it.

ProDave

An end of terrace is always worth more than a mid terrace even with no extra land.

If you have the extra land, that may increase the value, as it may offer the potential for example to extend the property, or even build a completely new one, depending how much land is involved.

Wait until the adverse possession claim is determined, anf if successful, the extra land conveyed to you. Don't exchange or complete until you know what you are buying.

PasturesNew

Tell them your solicitor will hold the difference until some future point when you've successfully claimed the land.

Or walk away.

Unless it's your "dream home" and you'll buy it and take the risk of losing the land, even at the inflated price.

davedma

Thankyou if we did comeplete what would happen? Would the adverse possession claim end and we have to wait another 12 years or would it carry on and end up as the vendors land

G_M

If your vendors gave up their 'possession' of the land before their claim was finalised (ie by selling to you and ceasing to occupy) then their claim would fail.

Provided they gave you a sworn statement of their period of possession, you could then make your own caim based on their and your combined periods of possession (which may or may not succeed).

Cakeguts

Have you looked at this piece of land in question? Is it possible that there is some sort of easement for a service over it? Something like the access for the drains for the row of the terrace or a an electricity cable? The fact that they have fenced it off doesn't really mean much if the gas company come and dig it up to get to a gas pipe.