Great Rural MoneySaving Hunt

mardatha

My daughter landed on a hill-top farm in a stone cottage with 12" thick walls and only coal fires for heating. But on the other hand she has fantastic views, total silence, and lambs nibbling her washing ! The farmer & his wife are lovely and throw a big party on Jan 1st and everybody is invited. There are always pluses and minuses about rural life eh? A lot depends on what your priorities are.

harryhound

Unfortunately "stone" is usually a poor insulator probably only 2/3rds of the resistance of brick to heat transfer: a foot thick stone wall might not be as good as a 9 inch brick wall. Both are pitiful in comparison to modern materials and wide cavities stuffed with insulation.
Concrete is the nearest thing to stone in this table which is in ascending order of heat loss:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-value_%28insulation%29

Steel_2

Just out of interest (reading about rural boundaries a few posts ago) there's a 5 or 6ft strip of hedgerow at the bottom of our garden on the other side of our fence. Beyond that is a field. The council claim they don't own this strip of land and refuse to maintain it (they bought a block of land in the 1940s off the farmer's father to build houses on), the farmer insists he doesn't own it and refuses to maintain it and has put a fence up.

Meanwhile I'm getting a lovely crop of blackberries and plums every year and photographing the wildlife that use it.

Who actually owns it because if it's going begging, I'll have it

Anyone have any feedback on rural boundary issues?

I should add that we are one of at least 10 houses that back on to this strip of land and all our fences line up straight both in reality and looking on the land registry map. I've found a map dating to 1935 and obviously our houses are not on there, but there appears a field boundary marked in solid lines.

zarazara

You could try Land Registry and Citizens Advice re the land.

Steel_2

Thanks zarazara I might give the land registry a ring in the morning.

I have a theory that the strip was once a whole hedgerow, of which only my part remains (the other owners/tenants have ripped 'their' sections out) and that the farmer assumed his boundary ends in front of the hedge and the council likewise assumes the same for itself but approaching from the other side, leaving the hedge effectively no man's land.

Davesnave

Steel wrote: »

Who actually owns it because if it's going begging, I'll have it

Anyone have any feedback on rural boundary issues?

To claim ownership, you'd need to fence it off from others' land for 12 years and prove that you had. Possibly a clear photo of someone alongside the new fence with a copy of an easily recognisable daily newspaper would do.

I did this with a small area of land which had been a hedge, at the bottom of my old garden. I also installed a gate there, where there had been a chain link fence. After 20 years, I had a right of way, but not ownership of the land, because I let my long-standing neighbour use the rear entrance too. Sensibly, we decided neither of us would claim it to avoid any difficult legal issues. Nevertheless, we've both established rights over this 'Nomansland.'

harryhound

You can use the on line service of the Land Registry.
It gives you a little spyglass icon that can be reduced to a small diameter. put this over parts of the map projected on the screen and it will tell you if the ownership has been registered.
If it has, you can pledge you debit card and get copies of the legal title and the registered plan for a few quid each and down load them.
If you thus prove that there is a strip of unregistered unused land - then start using the land.
The technique is to take two pictures of you proudly cultivating your new kitchen garden and reading a clearly identifiable copy of a national newspaper.
You them mail yourself two registered letters, carefully sealed, containing your evidence.
You do not open these letters. They are just evidence if someone challenges your right to possession.
Provided you continue to use the land, preferably with a modest fence round it to exclude others, after 12 years you can swear a document to say you have used it for 12 years and you will be able to register a http://www.mortgage-terms.co.uk/mortgage-glossary/p/possessory-title.html to the land.

If the land is registered but abandoned, the same situation occurs BUT after 10 years you have to write to the registered owner saying in effect "I've been using your land for 10 years, what do you want to do about it?". (and stand by for expensive legal bills).

If you are a tenant you may find that you are squatting the adjacent land on behalf of your landlord.

If you discover that the registered land lines up with the hedge (more or less) then the law will not be much help as the lines on the plan are as thick as the hedge.
Traditionally the ditch's side furthest from the hedge marked the boundary (the original owner dug the ditch on his own land and planted the hedge on the pile of earth the threw further back on his land) BUT this is not a hard and fast rule and it can be a pain if two neighbours do not get on; as the one owning the hedge and ditch needs access to the others land to clean out his ditch and cut his hedge, especially if he wants to use machinery.

This site will answer most of your questions.
http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/index.php

izzwizz_2

It could have been originally "double-fenced" to prevent problems with livestock. The area in-between the fences is then left to grow wild. Not sure of the legalities, it's just the way things tradionally have been handled in rural areas.

Steel_2

Thanks Davesnave, harryhound and izzwizz

Great information - having fun on the Land registry website as we speak.

Regardless of ownership though, I have to take down part of my back fence and get into the hedge to get rid of five years of dead bramble canes and check the various trees are ok. It's extremely clogged up in there and a large piece of carpet blew off my compost bin has nestled itself firmly within.

But noticed this year we have wild dogroses for the first time:D

lostinrates

To those who were keen for me to meet the ne neighbours...I met someone who knows them and works with them a lot. They told us they are slightly insular and private, but fine. The neighbours are important because will be there a lot, but its a place of work, not where they live. I'm familiar with the nature of their work and the noise etc that produces, and we are both comfortable with that.

I asked the person if the neighbours would be good to approach about stuff like hay cutting and he said, no, because they're to private, but that HE would ask them for me...

more frustratingly I learned that while the property I'm buying has been empty its attracted a LOT of rural theft...even the man hoe covers. I'm a bit worried , not about theft, but about be prosecuted by thieves when my dogs bite them!