Title deed plans are wrong

noom84

We’ve recently been made aware that the garden we considered to fully own actually contains a 3ft wide piece of land at the bottom by the boundary fence that is unregistered. The unregistered land in question used to be an old footpath that ran the length of our garden and the neighbouring 3 properties, it belonging to the former occupier - an old school that was demolished and the land sold to Lovell Homes in the late 1980’s. The footpath was removed by Lovell builders 2 weeks after we moved into the new build house in Feb 1990, however the transfer documents and plans Lovells provided the land registry showed the footpath still existed As they preceded the removal of the footpath by weeks. Therefore, the plans held with the land registry today do not reflect that the footpath was ever removed. The adjoining properties plans do not reflect the footpath ever existed and their boundary is correct compared to the physicality of where the garden fences are positioned. it would seem that our house is the only one where the plans/boundaries on the title deed plans are incorrect. We are now being told the land is still unregistered and facing a lengthy and expensive application for adverse possession to move forward with an equity release on the property. Could anyone provide any advice as to any other way we can try and fix this? From looking at the adjoining house plans and speaking the Land registry it looks like a mistake has been made and overlooked for the last 30 years. 

theartfullodger

Title deed plans are wrong:

Nope: They are correct until and unless you get land registry to change them.  In your court, your shout, good luck!

(I've similar but can't be *rs*d to chase a few sq feet...)

Alter_ego

Fence off the 3 ft strip. Then it's not your land and your deeds are correct.

noom84

This is plan B!

Tiglet2

Either do as Alter_ego suggests or apply to the Land Registry for possessory title over the unregistered land.  If you apply for possessory title, the Land Registry will send a surveyor to have a look at the land.  Then the Land Registry will write to adjoining neighbours/interested parties giving them 20 days to object.  If there have been no objections within the 20 days, they will grant you possessory title over the land.  This will add about 2 months onto the transaction.  Quite honestly, if you are looking for equity release, the simplest and quickest solution will be to move the fence to where your boundary should be, according to the title plan.  Land Registry are very unlikely to agree that they have made a mistake.  

Jono111

Make a temporary boundary, get your equity release done, remove temporary boundary.

davidmcn

noom84 said:

This is plan B!

Or don't even bother fencing it off. If there's nothing important on the land in question, does it matter that somebody else owns it?

thearchitect

I'm with David on this.  It would only be a problem if someone came to claim it later and/or you told a future purchaser that it was yours.

noom84

Nobody owns it that’s the problem, it was left off the plans in error by the developer and only after the plans were submitted to land registry did they physically alter the boundary to include what was the footpath. We’ve been told by the solicitors that the issue is the land now appears to make up the garden therefore would’ve been included in the lenders valuation. Due to this, the lender wants all of the land that makes up the garden to be registered in our names. This is so they can successfully put their charge on the title and ensure it covers all of the land. 

To be honest I can’t imagine 3ft is going to do much for the value, so moving the boundary forward is sounding like the quickest fix!

davidmcn

However, if you do want to "sort" it in other ways, the obvious alternatives are (a) buy it from whoever does have title (assuming there is someone with a registered title and that you can find them - have you checked?), or (b) get title indemnity insurance against the risk of somebody else turning up and claiming they have a better title than you.

noom84

The solicitors are saying it’s un-registered. If it belonged to anyone I would think it would be the developers that bought the school. I’ve reached out to them today but the person I spoke to didn’t have a clue where to start, all the files have been archived. The 3 neighbouring properties also had this footpath running through their gardens and all 3 sets of plans show no unregistered property, the whole garden belongs to them as set out in the original title deeds transferred by the developers. It seems ours is the only one they messed up! So if the developers included that land in the 3 neighbouring properties, I’m sure the same would apply to us! 

Indemnity insurance is a good shout...I’ll do some research. Thanks!