Property register wording query

[ScissorBow]

I'm interested in buying a piece of land to build my own house on. This land is nearby and location wise ideal but to be completely honest the wording isn't clear to me in terms of existing arrangements. It isn't for sale; I'd be contacting them speculatively but I've been to look and it's not used for any particular purpose I can fathom. Would it be possible for someone to tell me what the clauses mean in plain English please? I have found a current address for the owner but don't want to bother them if the clauses are watertight that someone else can use the land. The land above the red boundary line says 'allotment gardens' on it and is being used as such. Part of this says allotment gardens but a visual says it's not being used as such. Thank you.

Easements are rights that a land owner has over land belonging to someone else. This often covers things like rights of way over the land, rights to light and drainage rights but it can cover other matters too. A quasi-easement is an easement where both properties involved are owned by the same person.

The clause means that the owner of the property is subject to all easements and customary rights held over the property by the owner of the adjacent property. The owner of the property also benefits from any easements held over the adjacent property.

Without knowing exactly what easements and customary rights exist it is impossible to advise what this means in practice. However, it may be possible to extinguish any easements.

Thanks for your response.

The title deeds for the allotments above says exactly the same thing as the one I've posted. All names I've blanked out are the same.

The only difference is the proprietor on both is different.

Extinguishing easements - how difficult is that please?

If you need to extinguish any easements you will need to get the agreement of the owner of the other property involved and get a deed drawn up.

So before I would buy this land I would have to get the owner of the other piece of land to agree to extinguish the easements on this? Even though the other owner isn't named on the easements? Or would I need to get permission from the people named on the easement? So those named in the deed of partition it references?

Thank you for your response by the way.

You can't extinguish the easement until you own the land. You can talk to the other party to the easements before then and agree what will happen but that is all. The other party will be the person who currently owns the other property involved. Previous owners of that property are not relevant. But, depending on what the easements actually are, you may not need to extinguish them at all. If, for example, it simply gives the owner of the other property the right to light and your plans won't interfere with that, the easement is not a problem. So the first step is to find out the nature of the easements.

Brilliant thanks! Now please may I ask how I find out what the easements are? Also it's off a right of way road to a remote farmhouse. It's a relatively well kept road- width access albeit not tarmaced. May I ask how I would go about establishing right of access to a property I would build on the land? Is there a duty to maintain the access road and how might I find out? Really appreciate your help thank you.

By the way to clarify the 2 named people who are named in the deed of partition are not the previous nor current owners. Presumably they're allotment tenants?

The details of the easements should come up in appropriate land registry searches.

There may be a right of access already. If not you would need to negotiate that with the owner of the road.

This is all stuff that should be covered by the solicitor that handles conveyancing for you, should it get that far.

I'd look to see if the land is within the village boundary before I went any further. If it's not been included within the boundary for development purposes the chances of you getting planning permission are slim.

Am I able to do the Land Registry searches before I instruct a solicitor? I'm keen not to waste money on something that's impossible.

It's an interesting question feck There's lots of development going on outside the boundaries because the council hadn't got a workable plan so people are putting in ones speculatively and they're being passed (occasionally with interference from the Secretary of State) because there isn't a sustainable 25 year housing plan currently. I'm a 10 year+ local building 1 house which is very different to the 150+ application nearby which was refused. Another 100+ one was accepted.

By the way this is attached to the village separated only by the farm track. If you turn 180 degrees in the photo you see the hedge of a (long) back garden

The farm track is the road to the left of the plan drawing. The person's garden is on the far left of the plan.

Yes you can do Land Registry searches. Go to the Land Registry website and take a look.

Sorry for being dim. I used the LR website to get the title plan and register but am not sure which search would get me the easement information?

You need to request official copies of documents using form OC2. The search you have done should tell you what documents the Land Registry holds. It costs £7 per document. You can also request documents that are not listed in the register to see if the Land Registry holds anything.

If the owner of the property is willing to sell the lawyer that handles your conveyancing may still come up with information you have missed and which makes your plans unworkable. They should ensure you have all the information you need so that you can decide if you want to pull out before exchange of contracts, keeping your costs to a minimum.

Of course, the cheapest way of finding out may be simply to ask the current owner when you start discussions with them about buying the property. If I were you I would do that rather than spend more money with the Land Registry without knowing if the owner is willing to sell.

Thank you. Yes I think the next step is to contact the owner and see what they say. It's been really helpful to know easements can be removed which makes it worth contacting them I would say. Thanks again for your help.