Unregistered part of garden

K_2

Hi. Very grateful for any advice - we were due to move before Christmas and we've just been told out of the blue that the people buying our house have part of their garden as unregistered land, so this has to be registered before they can sell, hence buy ours. Buyers solicitor, who we expect was fully aware, has been avoiding ours for weeks and letting us think we are ready for exchange and we've only just been told this by the estate agent. Does anyone know if this situation counts as a "register create" or a "register update" in Land Registry terms? We've found on the HM Land Registry website expected timeframes which sound like it could be anything from 29 working days to 109 if it's "register create" as I fear! Alternatively does anyone have any actual experience of this situation and guidance as to how long it might take?

AdrianC

Their buyer could buy it unregistered then register it themselves.

K_2

Thanks Adrian. Is that possible? I suspect their buyers reluctance might be from what I can gather there is no documentation, it just sounds like a row of terrace houses that extra land was shared out between by putting fences up many years ago and no proof exists it belongs to that property, even though the property itself I think is registered from what we've been told.

AdrianC

K_2 wrote: »

Thanks Adrian. Is that possible?

Absolutely.
It needs to be registered on transfer - but nothing says who has to register it.

I suspect their buyers reluctance might be from what I can gather there is no documentation, it just sounds like a row of terrace houses that extra land was shared out between by putting fences up many years ago and no proof exists it belongs to that property, even though the property itself I think is registered from what we've been told.

So it's an adverse possession claim.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-land-and-2-registered-land/practice-guide-5-adverse-possession-of-1-unregistered-and-2-registered-land-where-a-right-to-be-registered-was-acquired-before-13-october-2003

K_2

Thanks Adrian. That link is really helpful. Sounds like it a change to the existing title, in which case it might have a 10 working day lead time and there is some hope yet. (There's a hard deadline of January completion on the one we want to buy).


I'll try my luck at suggesting the buyer could register afterwards, nothing to lose I suppose.