Buying a house - unregistered land, any advice please?

oystercatcher

mandyypops said:

Thank you everyone... the parcel of land in question is about half the garden so we'd be really keen to do everything we can to try and register it. The current owners have been there since 1995, so as you say, unlikely there would be any claims against us registering it.
@oystercatcher Out of curiosity, were there any queries as to your property being revalued if some of the land was legally outside the boundaries?
Our solicitors mentioned if we couldn't register the plot of land, then the house would need to be revalued by our lender (and we'd have to reapply for mortgage) because in theory the property would be worth less without the whole of the land included?
Thank you

There was no question of a change in value as the house still had a large garden without the extra bit .

Trudes

Hi, i was wondering is this thread is still active and what the outcome was?
I am having the same issue, i started the house buying process back in June 2020!!!!!!!! I am still waiting, it is dragging on and on to the point where i want to just throw the towel in but there is no other properties in my price range thats as nice as this. The plot of land in question is the bottom 10 /12ft of garden. The garden is about 60ft in total, so to be honest i dont care. Apart from the neighbours knocking down their fence and claiming it, no1 else will as there is no access from behind. My solicitor said that its unlikely for my mortgage lender to lend on it, but i am stumping up 50% of the cost anyway so i dont believe it will be an issue. The sellers solicitors only submitted the application in September and i have been advised by LR that the applications are delayed and taking around 9 -11 months to process. I keep pushing my solicitor, estate agent and anyone to get this moving. I could do with some helpful advice. My sticking point could be the garage which sits at the bottom, which would then be on the unregistered land.

greatcrested

Trudes said:

Hi, i was wondering is this thread is still active ......?

It is now!

babyblade41

If the present owners apply for adverse possession then ask LR to expedite the request.

A surveyor will come out and have a look at some point .


It's never a quick process at the best of times so even if the request is expedited then it could still take a while as some points are not time relevant . 

Neighbours will be contacted if an AP is going ahead 

maisie_cat

Doozergirl said:

I had the same issue when we bought our house.   The land in question is quite a big area, but so is the garden, it was probably 1/3 of the back.  I didn't notice until after we had moved in when I realised that our space extended into an area normally taken by houses on the next street.  

We contacted the Land Registry, they sent someone out and we were granted possessory title straight away because it was obvious that the land had been fenced in as part of our property a long time ago. 

Your vendors can sign a statutory declaration for you to show to the Land Registry stating how long they have had it fenced in for.  They could also provide an indemnity policy against loss in value and you can ask the mortgage company to re-value although ours was never any wiser!! 

The Google Earth app can be helpful in showing when it was merged into the garden as well.  It has a history of satellite images.  

Thank you for that, we moved last year and have a similar "issue", our plot is an acre and there is an unregistered strip that goes nowhere. It was originally a lane to a now disused well on the tithe maps, but has not been used for decades other than by owners of our house. We have no near neighbours and it is not on the title of the surrounding farmland.
I assumed we'd have to live here for 12/15 years to make a claim but perhaps not based on your experience.

MonicaEer

Does anyone know how long do you have to wait for the Index Map Search SIM?