Any conveyancers know how long it takes Land Registry to decide on adverse possession?

[LegodOut]

We're a couple of months into the conveyancing process for buying a house. DH noticed that the boundary on the ground does not match the title deed. To cut a long story of negotiations short, the owners (who hadn't noticed the discrepancy when they bought the house) are going to apply for adverse possession for the land (which the land registry have confirmed as unregisterd) and once granted, will provide us with a indemnity policy to cover us for the next 12 years before the possessory title becomes absolute. We therefore won't exchange until the possessory title is granted.

Does anyone have any idea how long this might take? Days/weeks/months/years? It seems a straightforward case (statutory declarations from the owners covering the past 14 years, arial photos showing the unchanged boundary since the title was drawn in 1998 (when the house/garden was carved out from the farm) and a dotted line on the title plan which apparently indicates the draughtsman wasn't sure of the boundary when he drew the plan) but could this take months and months??

[starlingsintheslipstream]

More likely weeks, depends on how busy their surveyors are because they will need to go out and inspect the property. If the owners solicitors request that the Land Registry expedite the case then they will generally fast track it.

[LandRegistryRep]

starlingsintheslipstream is quite right re the 'most likely weeks' as a survey is invariably required.
Such applications are also considered by our senior technicians as they are not the everyday house sale/purchase or remortgage and as such there may well be competing priorities.
Once the application has been lodged it may well be worth your solicitor contacting the office dealing with the application or our Customer Support Centre to explain the circumstances re the pending purchase and ask for an estimate as to how long it might take. Where possible we will try to help re processing times but this cannot be guaranteed I'm afraid.
Any estimate will though be just that as other factors may also come into play e.g. the survey may reveal information which in turn leads to us asking for more information/clarification from your solicitor or we may need to serve notice(s) on adjoining land owners.

[Gareth1991]

Hey, i appreciate it's been 10 years now and you may not ever see this but here we go... 😅

I'm in exactly the same position right now - how long did it take for you in the end? (I hope it was all successful etc)

[LegodOut]

Hello! Yes, it was all sorted out successfully, but not in the way outlined in my OP...

In the end (I think due to reluctance from the vendors on potential delay implications for their onwards purchase) we got them to make the statutory declarations and pay for indemnity insurance. We then purchased the house.

About 2 years later (when we could be bothered!) we asked the Land Registry to 'regularise' the title. This happened relatively quickly (weeks); they came out to look at the site, agreed it should be ours, and updated our title (we obviously provided all photos/old maps/statutory declarations etc). So we did not go through the Adverse Possession route. We don't believe the Land Registry even contacted the farmer who's land our house was carved out from (he's never mentioned it and we get on very well with him so I think he would have said).

Hope this update helps and best of luck with your purchase!

[LegodOut]

And I'm sorry for not thanking the two helpful posters who replied - how remiss! Thank you if you get to read this!

[ParkingPermitWoes]

I love that you came back after 10 years to update!

[LegodOut]

Slight correction: I've just checked with DH and when we contacted the Land Registry explaining the situation, they said we don't need to do the adverse possession route, we could just apply to register the unregistered land in our name (as it was such an open and shut case). So we applied for registration, got it, and that piece of land is on a separate title to our house (so when we come to sell, our house/land will comprise of two titles).

[Gareth1991]

ahh! I'm glad everything worked out well for you and thank you for replying!!

I'm unsure what means you purchased via but we are buying with mortgage and the mortgage company want the processionary title of the land to be in my name as we complete, and not after! 😣

The discrepancy on our (hopeful) purchase is approx 1/5 of the garden, however, the garden is enclosed by a 100+ year old stone wall which makes it all the more bizarre that it's not shown on the title! Hopefully just a formality of applying for adverse possession and then it gets expedited!

[LegodOut]

We did buy with a mortgage but our piece of unregistered was tiny - a triangular sliver about 1.5 metres at its widest, on a house on an acre of land, so the mortgage company were happy with the indemnity. Once Land Registry got involved, they came out very quickly for the site visit (within a couple of weeks).

Hope yours gets expedited and you live happily ever after and can update someone coming across this thread in 10 years' time!

[Rccm]

Hey! I’m having the same issue, 7 months into the buying process a small bit of land down the side of the house has shown up on local searches as not included in the title

im buying with a mortgage too and wondering if I’m able to buy it without the bit of land included is this likely to effect the current mortgage offer I have if the value was to change

[Julesm001]

Hi how long is this sort of thing taking in 2023?

[Julesm001]

Hi how did this go? How long dud it take please? I am currently buying a house where a piece of garden is not on title, the original developer has passed away and the current owner has not applied for adverse possession, any advice would be much appreciated, thanks