Garage Owned by Former Freeholder

bt7019

I bought a converted flat a few years ago with a share of the freehold (around 12 years ago the freehold was bought by all the then flat owners). The person who had the freehold, kept hold of a garage next to my flat, presumably so that if ever there was an idea to knock the place down & build a number of flats, he’d be able to hold out for a much higher amount than the real value as it couldn’t be done otherwise. No one has seen or heard from him in over 10 years now, he may well not be alive anymore & any family not know about it & the garage is falling into disrepair. Ideally I would like to see whether I could buy it & extend it into my flat (subject to agreement from the other flat owners, planning permission etc) as it would be much better than leaving it to collapse, cause damp problems & be an eyesore at the property.

I’ve had a little look around the web & so far it looks like I’d have to try the last known address, & then apply to a court if I don’t hear anything back & possibly have to pay the court for it if no family come forward? Does anyone have any experience of anything similar to this? It sounds quite unusual but I suspect it's more common than I think.


Thank you

eddddy

bt7019 wrote: »

I’ve had a little look around the web & so far it looks like I’d have to try the last known address, & then apply to a court if I don’t hear anything back & possibly have to pay the court for it if no family come forward?

What legal process are you referring to? (Are you in England/Wales?)

You can make a claim for adverse possession, if you can show that you've occupied the land for at least 10 or 12 years. But it doesn't sound like that's what you mean.

davidmcn

Is the former freeholder still the currently registered proprietor?

rtho782

Is the land registered or unregistered with the Land Registry? It makes a massive difference to claiming adverse possession.

And you need to be able to show that you've been occupying the land and using it as yours for 12 years assuming unregistered land, which I assume you won't be able to do.

If you can't contact the owner and agree a sale, then you can't have it. It's not a case where if you can't find the owner you get to claim the garage.

stator

Check if the land is registered and get the owner details for £3

The adverse possession rule is 10 years for registered land.

bt7019

Thank you for the replies. The rule I was wondering about was if the owner can't be traced, would it effectively belong to the crown & I'd have to try & buy it from them via a court?


On a land registry search the garage does show separately as freehold & title absolute from 2005. I've only been living there a couple of years so I can't claim to have been using it for that long, along at least one of the other flat owners has been there that long & has been using it.


I'll try writing a letter (recorded delivery) to the address initially to get the ball rolling. I suppose the other side of the coin is if the garage becomes dangerous (given it's within the property, not down a side drive), & no one can be contacted to fix it, we may have some rights there. Would be a lot easier if I can at least find the family!

Cheeky_Monkey

Did you fall asleep on your Enter key?

eddddy

bt7019 wrote: »

Thank you for the replies. The rule I was wondering about was if the owner can't be traced, would it effectively belong to the crown & I'd have to try & buy it from them via a court?

Nobody here seems to know the rule you are talking about. Do you know the name of the rule or have a link to a website that mentions it?

(If you read about it on a website, could it have been a US, Canadian, Australian etc website?)

Gorecki

... whether I could buy it & extend it into my flat as it would be much better than leaving it to collapse, cause damp problems & be an eyesore at the property

... and because my flat would be bigger and worth a buttload more? 😉

bt7019

Gorecki - obviously no one would look to extend their property to lose money, but I suspect in this case it won't make such a big difference as if it was say a garage that I already owned.. If the owner is still around, they may well want to hold out for top dollar in case the whole building is ever converted, which would be out of my budget to do what I'm thinking.


eddddy When I started looking around, a few sites linked to this (I know it refers more to company owned land) gov.uk/guidance/refer-bona-vacantia-land-or-buildings-bvc2


I did a 192 check & seems that the person is still around, so this might end up as just being a discussion on trying to get them to maintain the garage (not much chance with that I suspect!).