Land registry mistake

JJM2022

Hello
I'm totally stuck ! Just come to sell my house and found out we have unregistered land within our walled garden at the back completely land locked by myself ! We have been using the land for 7.5 yrs and the last owner is untraceable so we can't get a sat Dec . I bought the house with no deeds and took out appropriate indemnity insurance guaranteeing no one could come on my land . I presume land registry has made a mistake but they don't want to know. They drew round the inside of a shed that has gone and not the outside! Any suggestions would be be most welcome

Thankyou

Doozergirl

You can claim possessory title on the piece of land.

I didn't realise that our garden is considerably longer than marked. We made an application to the LR, they came out and were granted possessory title straight away. We'd only been there a couple of months and the previous owner had emigrated to heaven.

LandyAndy

I think possessory title is the way to go. When we came to register my mother's house a couple of years ago (it was bought before compulsory registration) we found that an area at the bottom of her garden, about the size of a large double garage, was not included in the deeds from when my parents bought the house in 1983. It had always been part of their walled garden. We applied for possessory title and, the LR having spoken to a neighbour who had lived there even longer, she was granted possessory title.


My only concern is that when she ( or I as her executor) come to sell, potential buyers will be put off by the split title. On the other hand it's probably less off putting than no title at all to that area.

davidmcn

JJM2022 wrote: »

I presume land registry has made a mistake but they don't want to know. They drew round the inside of a shed that has gone and not the outside! Any suggestions would be be most welcome

Since you don't even know whether or not it is a mistake by the Land Registry, ask your solicitor? If they have, then it's easier to fix than if they haven't. Unless you're doing your own conveyancing, of course. In which case now is perhaps the time to stop.

Land_Registry

JJM2022 wrote: »

Hello
I'm totally stuck ! Just come to sell my house and found out we have unregistered land within our walled garden at the back completely land locked by myself ! We have been using the land for 7.5 yrs and the last owner is untraceable so we can't get a sat Dec . I bought the house with no deeds and took out appropriate indemnity insurance guaranteeing no one could come on my land . I presume land registry has made a mistake but they don't want to know. They drew round the inside of a shed that has gone and not the outside! Any suggestions would be be most welcome Thankyou

Firstly, we do make mistakes. But if we do we can't just ignore it when pointed out and not want to know

Conveyancers also make mistakes when drawing up legal deeds. Unfortunately once done and registered unravelling that mistake after many years is difficult without another legal deed or action such as a claim. We don't know though if it was a conveyancing mistake here

Buyers make mistakes when asked to check if the property they are buying matches what is shown in the title plan. But don't spot it but the next buyer does. No idea if you were asked to check/confirm it when you bought so no idea if a mistake was made but there are lots of online forums that refer to such examples.

If we 'don't want to know' I would assume that the deeds submitted when the property was registered did not back up the suggested mistake. So you are left with the claim option or if it's registered to someone else (unlikely I suspect from details posted) asking them to transfer it.

If you can't cover the claim period then offering the buyer a Stat Dec and indemnity insurance is an option, again something often covered by forum threads. But your solicitor will also advise.

Others have posted how they have resolved things, but in your case it seems to be more of a case of where and how the mistake was made, assuming we are right to say it wasn't ours, and how now you can resolve it.

JJM2022

Thankyou all for your replies the possessory title sounds good !

Hello Land Registry
the land in question has been unregistered land since 1997 when it was left to a family member ,the person I bought the house from .they had no clue ! . It was in the same family For over 100 yrs . so there was never any need to check boundaries as it is a walled garden so nothing has moved

I purchased the property off this person in 2010 with no deeds and took out a indemnity insurance to stop anyone or thing coming into my garden . Thinking the whole garden was mine . I signed the land registry map of the plot outlined in red as again it's a walled garden . Unfortunately this has been lost by my last solicitor who has folded ! It may have been a conveyencing mistake but can't be sure

I presume the mistake is from 1997 but without the last owner signing a sat Dec covering 4.5yrs before me I can't claim the land as mine as it has to be 12 yrs

I am unable to get indemnity insurance to cover it also as its unregistered land in my garden

Is a possessory title possible?

If you have any suggestions of what to ask my solicitor to ask you at land registry that would be fantastic

Can I claim a possessory title ?

LandyAndy

JJM2022 wrote: »

Can I claim a possessory title ?

Of course you can. The question is 'will it be granted?'

My gut feeling is that it will.

Land_Registry

The aim is to grant title where we can. Possessory title is the minimum but in exceptional circumstances we can grant absolute title. If it's within a walled garden and the walls are 'old' then there's a good chance if you fulfill the legal requirements to back up the application - your solicitor should advice

The one concern, a big one, I have is that if you bought with no deeds so presumably applied for registration to exclude the parcel of walled garden. Why? It must have been excluded for a reason?

The plan you say you signed and which was lost may explain but it just seems very odd.
Have you got the title number for the registered part?

JJM2022

Good morning,

Thank you for your reply.

I have the title number for the registered part but not the other part , it's with you @ land registry as unregistered land . ( I can't share the title number ,hope you understand .) If there's a code/ number you could give me for land registry for my case ?

It sounds promising as the walls are 300yrs +

I've been told to sue my last solicitor for professional negligence .
As my original land registry plan that I signed has disappeared ( I presumed there was no problem,plot/land was all mine ) the land they searched for my self was always with you as 1 plot , and the unregistered land within the garden was another plot. I always thought I was buying /signed for the whole plot including the unregistered piece as it is no bigger than a double garage but longer and thinner, I can only presume it was over looked by my last solicitor . It was never updated with you when I bought the house hence the 1997 map not a 2010 map .

My solicitor applied for the right registration but for some reason never updated the map and left off the unregistered bit as I was never informed until now

In my time here and looking at old land registry maps and ordinance survey maps and every other map I've ever seen the boundaries are the same old wall , I just presumed There used to be a shed in my garden i.e. The Unregistered land

I have not got 12 yrs proof (I've been here 7.5 yrs) is a possessory title still possible ?

steampowered

I do not understand why you think think your former solicitor was negligent? Who had advised you to sue your former solicitor?

You signed off on the land registry map!!! It sounds like your mistake. Solicitors do not physically inspect properties.

You should go and see a solicitor and get proper advice on rectifying this. A bit of money spent now will save you a lot of headache and cost when you come to sell the property.

AdrianC

I'm surprised it wasn't compulsorily registered on transfer in 1997, tbh.

There must have been some historical documentary basis for the 2010 registration to exclude that small part - nobody is going to draw it up and just exclude a small area for fun. Likewise, I find it very hard to see that a solicitor would have had you sign off on a plan that didn't exclude that area, then switched it for one that did before registering.