Buying a small strip of land

mc2705

I recently moved to a new house and have noticed that behind the fence in my back garden there is a footpath/lane. I assumed that behind the fence was a neighbours garden!

What's strange is that the footpath is completely blocked off at either end where the end houses of the block have (I assume) extended their gardens. Which has left a sort of no-man's land between the gardens of my street and the next street over. The footpath is extremely overgrown and wild trees are growing in it. 

I have checked the land registry plans my solicitor gave me when I bought the house and I can see that this footpath is shown, and I can see that the two end houses have the right to their extended gardens as the land registry show their gardens going all the way back.

I checked with the council who confirmed they don't own the footpath. I then checked with the land registry who have the footpath as being owned by the housing developer who built these houses 15 years ago.

I am unsure what options I have. I am not too fussed about extending my garden (it's really not a very wide footpath!) if it would be expensive to buy/register the land. But it'd be nice to have a little extra bit of space and (more importantly!) the right to clear out the brambles, ivy and holly bush that are invading my fence!

I doubt the housing developer has any idea that they still own this useless bit of land, but I can also imagine they will want a decent amount of cash to part with it if I contact them!

Should I just grab the land and in the future apply for adverse possession? Or should I do things properly and contact the housing developer to enquire about buying it? Are there any responsibilities they would have (clearing the overgrowth/bushes/trees?) to the land that I could use to persuade them to let it go cheaply?

Apologies for the long and rambling post and thanks for any help/advice you can give. 😊

user1977

Ask the neighbours how they went about acquiring their bits?

mc2705

user1977 said:

Ask the neighbours how they went about acquiring their bits?

I don't think they'd know, according to Rightmove's sale history one of them bought in 2019, the other at the end of last year. I think their gardens were extended into the footpath long before the current owners bought their homes.

Section62

mc2705 said:

What's strange is that the footpath is completely blocked off at either end where the end houses of the block have (I assume) extended their gardens. Which has left a sort of no-man's land between the gardens of my street and the next street over. The footpath is extremely overgrown and wild trees are growing in it. 

I have checked the land registry plans my solicitor gave me when I bought the house and I can see that this footpath is shown, and I can see that the two end houses have the right to their extended gardens as the land registry show their gardens going all the way back.

I checked with the council who confirmed they don't own the footpath. I then checked with the land registry who have the footpath as being owned by the housing developer who built these houses 15 years ago.

It is unlikely the developer would have retained an island of land with no access to it - and if they went to the trouble of building a footpath then my expectation would be that this was included in the original planning consent as a means for the residents to get access to their rear gardens, and furthermore I'd expect the property deeds to have something in them about use of the land as a right of way.

If the LR plan(s) you are looking at are based on OS plans then don't attach too much weight to what they show.  The OS plans are created on the basis of what the cartographer sees on an aerial image, not on the basis of legal ownership. Have you checked the LR plans for the two properties that have 'grabbed' the footpath, or are you just looking at them on your own plan?  It is possible the red line for those properties will be drawn where the boundary should be, not following the line the OS plan now shows.

If there is a RoW over this land then there's not much point in you attempting to incorporate it into your own garden, unless you can agree with all the others who have use of the RoW to have the right extinguished. Otherwise at any point in the future one of the owners could decide they value having the right of way more than having a small addition to the end of their garden.

Norman_Castle

Do your deeds show a row over where the lane would cross the neighboring properties, if so its likely others have a row over this area. How old are the properties?

If its unlikely anyone will care if you clear it, clear it on the understanding that at a later date someone might question you using it. At worst you'll be told to stay off this land.

robatwork

Annex it and see what happens. Come back here in 12 years but the law may change in the meantime

mc2705

There's no right of way shown and nobody could use it as both ends are blocked off. My next door neighbour was as surprised as me to see it there, it's only possible to see it if you actually look over the fence.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll drop an email to the housing developer and see what they say. I'll keep it as a vague enquiry regarding them needing to prune the trees and see if they say anything about wanting to get rid of it.

Thanks all.

theoretica

Also worth checking old maps for a potential old path/right of way.  If it was an old footpath and the developer messed up when the end properties acquired bits my understanding is that it will still be a public right of way and may need to be reopened when the council/walkers become aware.

eddddy

mc2705 said:

...Which has left a sort of no-man's land between the gardens of my street and the next street over. 

... I then checked with the land registry who have the footpath as being owned by the housing developer who built these houses 15 years ago.

When you say "between the gardens of my street and the next street over" - do you mean the strip of land is:

1. Between the end of your garden and a street?
2. Or between your garden and gardens of houses in the next street?

If it's option 1 - it may be a ransom strip. i.e. To stop you building a house, a garage, a parking space, etc at the bottom of your garden - unless you pay the developer a chunk of money.

If it's option 2 - it's less likely, but it could still be a ransom strip, in case of some kind of possible future development.


(FWIW, I once sold part of a garden to a developer, and they kept a 'land-locked' ransom strip between my garden and their new houses - to stop me selling more garden for development in the future [without having to pay them].)

GDB2222

If you just want to do a bit of gardening on that strip, just nip over the fence and do it. I’d check with the affected neighbours first, ie the people either side of you and at the bottom of the garden.

Woolsery

theoretica said:

Also worth checking old maps for a potential old path/right of way.  If it was an old footpath and the developer messed up when the end properties acquired bits my understanding is that it will still be a public right of way and may need to be reopened when the council/walkers become aware.

True, but the usual 'walkers' used to be bin men (yeah I know, but how many bin ladies have you ever seen?) and when they stopped visiting, many households had no great use for the rear entrance. The next step was for it to get overgrown, especially if it didn't go anywhere except people's rear gardens.

In time, the overgrowth leads to virtual impassibility and the idea that ne'r-do-wells might lurk there unseen. The final step is a land grab, thus ruling out burglars and drug-addicts in one fell swoop. I've seen it happen.