Unregistered land

Darrenjones78

Hi,
I’d appreciate any advice anyone has on this please? I have 3 strips of land next to my house, 2 end pieces which are owned by a neighbour and a middle piece which is unregistered. The middle piece is directly adjacent to my property. My neighbour has now fenced off the two outer pieces including the middle piece for which I believe he is going to try and claim under adverse possession. I can no longer access the middle piece. Any advice on how I can prevent this potential adverse possession from happening?
Thanks

lincroft1710

Have you any "right" to this land. If not you have no right of access. You could try to claim adverse possession yourself, but highly likely you will fail. Or you could try and find the actual owner and warn them about the neighbour's adverse possession claim. Or if the neighbour's claim is untruthful you could try to object to it.

Darrenjones78

Thanks for the response. Would I be notified if someone tried to adverse possession the land? Also, does my neighbour have any right to fence it off and use it as he also has no rights to it?

lincroft1710

It is doubtful you would be notified because you are a neighbouring occupier.

No-one has any "rights" to any land or building they do not own or lease or hold a tenancy for, other than "squatter's rights" whatever they may be.

da_rule

Also, do you know for sure that he doesn!!!8217;t actually own the land? It may be unregistered but that doesn!!!8217;t necessarily mean that he doesn!!!8217;t own it, or been in contact with the owner and got permission to use it.

Also, can you access the middle strip without passing over his land?

Darrenjones78

So theres basically no way for me to access this land or do anything tomprevent a potential adverse possession as he has already fenced it off?

Darrenjones78

No he definitly doesnt own it or had permission to use it and ni i cant access it now without going across his land

da_rule

If you!!!8217;re sure that he doesn!!!8217;t own it or have any rights over it then you could still access it, as long as you don!!!8217;t damage the fencing.

The only other thing you can do it attempt to register adverse possession yourself. However, you would have to demonstrate that you had control of the land, and as, at the very least you!!!8217;ve been sharing this with your neighbour you may struggle to show this.

da_rule

Darrenjones78 wrote: »

No he definitly doesnt own it or had permission to use it and ni i cant access it now without going across his land

That gives you a bigger problem, in that to exercise any rights over the middle strip you would have to trespass on his land.

Why is this so important to you?

Darrenjones78

I imagine the purpose of obtaining the middle bit is to develop the land.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

If it is adjacent to your property, how come you can't access it without going across his land?