Have inherited land. Someone else already has Possessory Title .. what do we do?

camelopardis

My father in law was gifted a piece of land from some-ones garden back in 1970. He was going to build on it, but never got planning permission so never did anything with it.

When he died a couple of years ago, my wife and I became executors of his will, with my wife being sole beneficiary.

We vaguely knew about this piece of land, and sure enough, his solicitor handed over the deeds which had been in storage. Sure enough, these deeds contain all the relevant documents showing my father -in -law as the owner (ie: will, conveyance, deed of assent ).

However, the property that this piece of land is attached to has obviously changed hands several times since 1970, and the current owners (and the property next door) have incorporated my father-in-laws land into their own gardens.

I have searched on the Land Registry site and can see two parcels of land (that together match up to the plan of my FIL's land). These two parcels are called "Land at the rear of property x" and 'Land at the rear of property y"

The current owners of property x and property y have both obtained Possessory Title to these parcels of land in 2005 (they probably managed to get this because they had been using the land for over 12 years under 'adverse possession' law)

I have read up on this, and you have to hold Possessory Title another 12 years before you can apply for Absolute Title.

Does anyone know what I have to do to challenge the posessory title? Do I have any chance of making a claim?

BobProperty

I really think you may need a solicitor who specialises in property law but who does the land registry say owns these pieces of land? If they were registered to your father then AFAIK they can't be claimed. Possessory title is only obtainable on unregistered land, again IIRC. You can write to the Land Registry and obtain the details for £3 (?) or do it on-line. There's a thread about at the moment about doing that.

silvercar

Chances are that your father's land wasn't registered with land registry and so you hold the only evidence ie in the written deeds. The owners of adjacent land probably acted quite reasonably; empty land, no sign of owner, no way of finding owner...

Your claim will probably mean that they now need to either relinquish the land or try to purchase it from you.

I would phone land registry and discuss it with them, they are meant to be knowledgable and helpful.

As the 12 years has not expired it all should be relatively straight forward; I do wonder what would have happened if the 12 years had expired.