To just use the decade long abandoned house on my street?

[CheekyBeggar]

I moved into my house ten years ago, and noticed an empty house with a badly grown garden opposite us.

The house has never had anyone come into or out if it. The garden was overgrown to the point that you couldn’t see the front door but apart from that the house appears sound. I was originally concerned that it was an elderly neighbour so went around to check.

I say the garden ‘was’ overgrown because about five years ago I’d had enough and I started clearing the front out. I’ve been doing it regularly to keep it ok ish looking.

I’ve reported it to the council three times, they say they haven’t got the ‘funds’ available to do anything about it.

I’ve contacted the land registry and tried to chase down the prior owner, but from what I can gather they had the house repossessed, by a mortgage/debt company that has since folded and that I can’t contact either.

My neighbour must have gotten confused and today when I was tidying up the fly tipping that happens regularly outside there, he demanded to know when I was going to do something with the place. He thought that I owned it.

When I told dh this he said he’d been looking it up and that we should just change the locks on the house (the back foot has been open for some time, some youths broke into it a few years ago. I boarded it up and left it.) and claim squatters rights in ten years.

I’ve googled it myself and it all looks very complicated and I don’t really understand how it can be legal? But it’s always been such an eyesore that I must admit the idea of going in and tidying it up does appeal to me.

Or are there other avenues I could go down instead? I’ve tried a few companies who say they will deal with abandoned hoses but they all seem to be based in London, we are much further north.

I looked up the change in the law on the Squatter's advice service website.

It says:

CHANGES IN LAW

Until recently squatting in England and Wales was generally a civil matter, not a criminal matter, but this has now changed to some extent. In September 2012 section 144 of the LASPO made it a criminal offence to trespass in residential properties with the intention of living there. Trespassing means being on someone else’s property without their permission.

If people are squatting in a clearly residential property, they risk arrest and so losing their home, but it does not cover all situations. The law DOES NOT cover situations where:

• the property is not residential,
• people are or were tenants (including sub-tenants) of the property,
• people have (or had) an agreement with someone with a right to the property,
• people in the property are not intending to live there (merely visiting maybe).

So, squatting a residential property has become criminal.

I would suggest that if you merely want to secure the house to protect it from vandals, you might fit into the last category.

How all this fits with adverse possession I don't know.

type of leased property, containing either a single family or multifamily structure, that is available for occupation for non-business purposes

The meaning of residential property,
You could possibly argue that it isn’t available for occupation owing to the current disrepair of the property.

You could argue it isn't available as not being advertised as available and not being prepped for habitation either.

Bring all the information you have found out so far to a solicitor and see what advice you get.

. speechless at all those who are encouraging OP to do this.

Agree with above poster. I can't see this ending in OP's favour.

I think the OP may have left the thread now, as so many people were giving the same advice.
If she's in an area where there are a lot of empty or unsold properties, a poor jobs market, and the Local Authority is facing bankruptcy in the next five year, I don't suppose anyone will really care.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-possession-of-registered-land/practice-guide-4-adverse-possession-of-registered-land

Almost a check list on how to do precisely what the OP wants to do!

I don't see it as a bad idea. My cousin is living next to an empty property and the problems it is causing is massive. Rats the size of badgers, dossers, damp, fire risk and trees undermining the property at the back going unchecked. The council 'cleared' it once but now are not interested. She has snuck round and weed killed the tree. The back bedroom window fell out in the middle of the night once and the weather is getting in it now. Cousin knows who the owner is. She moved out when the state of repair got bad and is renting using housing benefit just around the corner.

Academically, for those asking about it being a criminal offence, this point went to Court a few years ago. The Court said that yes it is a criminal offence to squat in residential property, but that doesn’t stop you from applying to be registered as the new owner (admittedly with a weaker form of title, as a PP has said).

Now in that case it had only become a criminal offence a few months before the guy applied to become the owner. The Court said that it was an exception to the usual rule that you cannot profit from a criminal offence. Whether the Court would take a different view after 10 years of criminal offence is undecided (but seems unlikely that would happen, or at least not any time soon!).

So, it wouldn’t stop you acquiring the right, but you’d be at risk of being found to be committing an offence for ten years.

Morning, still here.

To be completely honest, when my husband first mentioned it to me, I had a fantasy version of what could happen.

In my head I thought I could get a couple of bills redirected, carry on maintaining the place (but inside as well) and if the worst happened and nothing was done about it in ten years, I'd be able to fill in a form, go to court and give the house to someone who needed it. I even imagined that maybe the owner would be galvanised into action if they received a letter saying that someone was applying to take their property.

In the cold light of day (and thank you for the informative posts) I can see this is very unlikely to be the reality.

I feel sad about it but I will continue to maintain as much as I can and keep reporting it. Fingers crossed it doesn't rot for a further ten years!

A house on my street was acquired by neighbours in a similar way. The wife had been cleaning for the elderly occupant. He died. Nothing happened. The house stayed empty.
She moved in from her house down the street. Eventually she established her claim on the house.
She sold her original house.
This is in London.

My parents did the same. DM cleaned for an elderly neighbour for several years. He passed. She carried on with the upkeep of his house thinking a relative would be taking over it so she wanted to keep it nice. She started paying the bills so she could have things like water and electricity for cleaning.

Eventually 13 years went by without anyone visiting so we convinced her to make a claim for it. There were no objections and she got the house.

OP unless I missed something

you tracked the owner as a company that has now folded.

so potentially the house is owned by that company's creditors.

but suppose there were no creditors? I wonder what the law is then?

The law has changed and now it's not so easy.

LeftRightCentre

sorry, I don't know if you are replying to me?

not so easy to what? I'm saying I don't know what the law is.

Lighthouse - a few people have already answered your question in previous posts. It falls to the Crown as bona vacantia.

apologies...I was scrolling through the phone late at night and was confused about crown, council and squatting law!

I can’t believe people are encouraging the op to do this. It sounds great in a fantasy when you say “do it and give the house to charity”. The reality is a presumption that believes you can take a house belonging to someone. You may think no one owns the house but you can be sure if you try and make a claim then someone will turn up! My father in law owns a piece of ground in the local village. (About the size of someone’s front room). The next door neighbors saw it was overgrown and thought it was abandoned and decided to extend their garden into it. Someone else living on the road knew it was belonging to my FIL and alerted him. He wasn’t long in telling them to put back the wall the way it was.

I also really disliked the story of a pp who said they squatted and then passed on the squat to someone else. The owner of the house had to pay them £10,000 to leave. I am very sorry for anyone’s circumstances that they have been forced to squat but the responsibility for housing lies at the hands of our government. A private owner should not have to pay £10,000 to be able to get a squatter out who isn’t paying anything towards the house. That is just wrong.

I'd like to think it would go to someone struggling for accommodation but then how would they afford to do anything with it? It should go to charity and not someone who already has a house...sorry just my opinion!

Donating a derelict property to a charity may seem like a noble deed, but the reality is that most old houses are money pits which would be a drain on their resources.

Illegal wiring, lead pipes, damaged gas supply pipes, woodworm, asbestos, mould, vermin etc etc may all need to be dealt with before it could be put to any use.

We live in a house that was derelict for years, and subsequently brought back into use by a previous owner at their own expense (and evidently, on the cheap). We are still finding the legacies of that renovation!

You claim possesory title ( you’ll need to register it with Land registry) at first whereby you own it by possession you can upgrade the title to absolute title if no one comes forward to claim it the land registry can give you more info you don’t need to claim it under squatters rights.

claim squatters rights in ten years

No such thing. Heard a (real, not tv actor,) property lawyer on tv say that only last night. Its disgraceful the faff owners have to go to to evict squatters but they do not have legal rights to stay in someone elses property.

(not saying this applies to op if there is genuinely no owner to the property it would be much better to be cared for than left to rot but its not that simple)

It's quite possible that the Council hasn't got the "funds" as you sarcastically put it. Councils have a fixed budget and really are loathe to undertake compulsory acquisitions if there's the remotest chance it would be contested. You'd be first in the line to complain if the council took the owner to court and spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on a fruitless endeavour.

I’d do it. Then give it at a peppercorn re to a worthy young couple so you don’t get the guilts