Small, inaccessible land between our gardens for sale

[hoodiemum]

When we bough our house about 20 years ago it was impossible to find out who owned the land beyond our fence at the bottom of our garden, where a storm drain runs. The council and water board denied ownership. The drain runs between several properties and then goes under a part of our garden and a neighbour's. The strip of land is about 3m width.
We've just discovered this strip of land is going to be auctioned in a few weeks, along with a nearby street (just the road and pavement). People living on this street had no idea it wasn't a 'normal' street - whatever that means from a legal point of view, but are we right it's unusual for your street to be sold? Is there anything they need to be worried about?
And what about us? The strip for sale is inaccessible unless you access from private property, or walk through a storm drain tunnel under a wide road. Although according to the map of the land for sale, they're selling a tiny part of our garden and more of the neighbour's, and the neighbour's part would give access to the street. So our questions are:

1. Why would anyone want to spend money on this, as it would seem to be completely useless (and a potential liability, if the drain floods and causes damage, or if trees growing on the strip fall and break someone's fence)?
2. Could they take some of our garden from us?
3. Should we be looking at clubbing together to buy this land? Any way of guessing how much it might sell for if auction house haven't listed a guide price? It would presumably then cost a lot more in sorting out legal documents for splitting it between neighbours, so not something we're excited about doing, but is it worth considering to protect us from something worse?

Where we live , there was a farmer's field behind the houses. The only access to the field is via a public footpath / Bridleway.
When the field went up for auction , the houses that back onto the field all bought that portion of field to extend their own gardens. A few older residents did not buy, so their neighbours also purchased that as well.
This was done to stop any future developments. Tbh , it doesn't sound like your strip of land could be built on , but I guess you will have to weigh up the pros & cons of taking it on.

Could it be used as a ransom strip? www.timms-law.com/commercial-property-what-is-a-ransom-strip/

Who gets the proceeds of the auction?

How does something without an owner get sold, who has authority to do that, who gets the money?

I would be contacting the selling agents immediately and pointing out that they appear to be selling part of your garden. You need to order your office copy entries and title plan from the land registry (this will only cost you £6) so that you can check what you actually own.

Can you check your deeds/Land Registry entry for confirmation of your garden boundaries just in case they are cheekily trying to sell a bit of your garden.

We had something similar... the builders who built our estate were closing and disposing of verges/road/pavement etc that didn’t belong to any house so remained under their ownership. Big concerns re ransom strips, access etc... no one brought it at auction, and they’ve tried twice.
If it really is your neighbours garden (check land reg) then of course they can’t sell that part so the field would be of very limited use... if you’re interested in buying the field only can you contact the seller directly? The auction house will have details.
Good luck!

They obviously cant include parts of other peoples land in the sale, so you and neighbour need to double check your boundaries pronto, and contact the sellers.

If it turns out that you dont own all your gardens as you thought, and there would be road access, you need to consider possible uses for the land and whether it would be better for you to buy it.

It doesn't sound very useful, but someone will only buy it as an investment, so pretend to be interested in buying and ask the agent what potential uses they see.

Heres the land registry op eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/QuickEnquiryInit.do - might be worth searching first just on postcode (and postcodes of the other street too), as it might be referred to e.g. 'Land behind no 1-10 ABC street'

There is a ransom strip to the side of my mum's. It is narrow but long, between two properties but the first thing you see driving round the bend into the hamlet. The auction buyer is a particularly unscrupulous person who paid less than £10k for it and is now asking for £400k for the hamlet to buy it back or they will put various hideous tall structures on it.

Gosh Jobshare that’s a nightmare!

How long has the property been fenced this way op?

I would talk to your neighbour and get a copy of the land registry documents for both properties. Easily downloaded for a few pounds. Once you have these, it will tell you if the pieces of land belong to you and your neighbours. If it doesn’t, then adverse possession may come into play.

I wouldn’t approach the auction house at this stage though. You’d be showing your hand if the land doesn’t belong to you.

It’s not normal for a street to be sold. Streets are normally adopted by the council and maintained by them. It’ll be difficult to get maintenance done if it’s privately owned and residents would need to establish access over it. I don’t see why anyone would buy a street, it’s no use to anyone. Ditto the 3m strip - why would anyone buy it, it’s just a liability. You need to contact the auctioneer immediately with yours and neighbours deeds before they try to sell part of your property! Try to find out who the seller is. Maybe they’re trying to get rid of it to avoid liability for repairs? Probably hoping you or your neighbour would buy it.

Are you in England? You can do an index map search to find out the title number (if there is one) and then get office copies to find out who owns it.

Wow! Thanks, everyone. I hadn't expected so many replies. Sounds as though we have some homework to do. Will do some more digging then talk to neighbours.

Also who ever buys the land may be liable for up keep maintenance on the storm drain. Have you tried to find the owner of the drain? Local water company or environment agency? Might shine some light on the land.

We've been here (and yes, in England) 18.5 years and fences/walls haven't changed in that time. Neighbour's house built probably late 80s, at the same time whole area was developed from farmland. Our house is older - Edwardian. We've built an extension on land that might possibly be in dispute - map on the auction house isn't very detailed. Extension built in 2008, and the building is marginally to the side of, not on top of, the storm drain that's underground at that point. Yes, @Ukholidaysaregreat, have tried to find owner of drain twice, first when we bought and again when we extended, but no luck.
What's weird to me is that we found out because a friend of people who live on the street that's up for sale saw it listed on Rightmove. If the seller had hoped we'd buy it ourselves, wouldn't they have told us about the sale?

Sounds like the developers who built the nearby street never had it adopted by the council, still own it and are seeing if they can raise some cash by flogging it off. As the strip of land is being auctioned at the same time I would guess that this was left over from the development and so they are seeing if they can sell that as well.

Perhaps if you can find and contact them they would be willing to sell it it to you cheaply.

OP - I'd steer well clear of it. Do you know what responsibility you will have to maintain the drainage pipe in the land at the back? What about maintaining the road at the front? Check your deeds to see if you have a right of way over the road and pavement.

You all need to check your boundaries on land registry- and if that doesn't match up with what you thought you owned, I'd be going back to my solicitors from purchase.

@lljkk

Who gets the proceeds of the auction? How does something without an owner get sold, who has authority to do that, who gets the money?

These are the most important questions

How does anyone get the authority to sell it?

If it is unclaimed and automatically belongs to government or council, you and neighbours should get first option to buy.

You obviously need legal advice but I bet CAB have come across this before.

Have you gone online to get a copy of the deeds yet? If you have and the land is clearly yours you need to contact the auction house now.

If not, have a look at this on adverse possession www.justia.com/real-estate/docs/adverse-possession/

Good plan OP.

Ignorance isn't bliss in my experience. Far better to get ahead of the problem.

I mentioned this to DH and said why would anyone want to buy a street? He said so they can charge people a fortune to park on it. This could wind up being a nightmare for residents!

Well yes, and an annual 'service charge".

@PucePanther

I mentioned this to DH and said why would anyone want to buy a street? He said so they can charge people a fortune to park on it. This could wind up being a nightmare for residents!

Yes agree. If the residents don't have any rights to park in their deeds, the new owner will most likely employ a parking management company and hold the residents hostage. House worth will be zero overnight and they will most likely make a "generous" offer to then sell the street at a hugely inflated price.

The whole leasehold and development of keeping some estate roads private is an utter nightmare, especially when developers then sell on private parts

Have you got a diagram to show the land relative to your home