Adverse Possession

[Crazymadchickenlady]

Has anyone ever done an adverse possession claim and got any tips or idea how much it will cost to do through a solicitor? The garden behind our house has been fenced off and used solely by the owners of our house for the last 20 years at least. I have signed declarations (statement of truth) from the last two owners stating this covering up to 2005. The land is unregistered and we haven’t been able to find out who owns it. We have owned the house and used the garden for the last year. Thanks for any help and tips.

used solely by the owners of our house for the last 20 years at least.

and no one has done anything about it? So… doesn’t seem like there’s a problem

are you now also using this unclaimed “garden”?

Yes we are using the unclaimed garden and would like to do an adverse possession claim on it. It’s really strange as it’s a terrace house and some of the houses are using the gardens and some not and some own the gardens on the land registry and some like ours don’t.

and the neighbours that have been using exclusively for 20 years… have they said anything to you now that you’re doing the same?

No they haven’t said anything. The two direct neighbours who we have talked to both don’t use the strip of land behind their house (and don’t seem to want to)

Are you absolutely sure that the land is unregistered?

Apologies if you've already done this.

For others reading this, unregistered land is not very common at all today but does still exist.

Perhaps the easiest way of finding out if a piece of land is registered or not is to have a look on the Land Registry map here:

https://www.landregistry-uk.com/map-search

This shows all registered land in England (there's a slightly different process for Wales).

If the bit of land you're looking for has a box and a number covering it then it has been registered. If it's just blank and there's no line surrounding it then it hasn't been registered.

Attached is a portion of the map looking at Woodley near Romsey. You will see that there are quite a few houses that are still unregistered.

If a piece of land is registered then you can take the number shown on that map and go to:

https://search-property-information.service.gov.uk/search/search-by-inspire-id

It will then cost you £3 to order the title deeds and that will give you details of who owns that particular bit of land (the land registry charge £12.95 if you do it directly from their site).

If a piece of land is shown as unregistered on the map and you have possession of it then it is a straightforward matter to apply for adverse possession if you have the necessary documentary evidence.

As to cost, that will vary. The easiest thing would be to just phone up a local solicitor who does conveyancing and speak to them. Depending on how much they charge you can then decide to go ahead and use them or do it yourself

Sorry, here is the image I meant to attach

Have any of the previous owners tried to claim the land before?

Presumably their house would be have been worth more if they had, so it’s curious that they decided against it…

why rock the boat when it’s all been ticking along nicely for the last at least 2 decades?

I had to use Adverse Possession to register a piece of what was, unquestionably, my own land. It was just the simplest and quickest way to do it at the time. My property hadn’t been re registered since the early 1980s and the land around had been gradually built in since then. One neighbour noticed their land registration had been incorrectly registered by the developer and included a large triangle of my garden. The process was easy but then the neighbours weren’t disputing it was mine. However I think the rules on AP have changed since then anyway and it might not be as straightforward now?

Land not on the land registry isn't just "free". As quite a few people discover when they lock horns with real old school landed gentry.

There is a lot of land out there that is mentioned in deeds held by the owner that a court will recognise. Because it never gets sold, but passed on, it never sees the land registry. So remains anonymous. It can pop up anywhere too.

This really is a situation where proper legal advice is worth it.

It is definitely unregistered. I’ve taken a photo and it’s the bit of green behind the row of houses on number 276 up to the street behind. You can see that the other houses go all the way to the road behind but those few houses don’t.

Another problem is that the land is very steep and at the moment has three level areas/terraces on it with retaining walls. The retaining walls need work doing to them which we are happy to do but not if it belongs to someone else. The garden has been fenced in since at least 2017 (looking on Google maps). The conveyancer brought it up when we bought which is why we got the statements of truth from the previous owners saying they had had exclusive use since 2005. I’ve added a Google maps photo of the back fence.

It sounds like it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to claim it from what you’re all saying. I’ll contact the solicitor we used to buy it and ask her to start the claim.

It sounds like it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to claim it from what you’re all saying.

Won't do any harm. However if someone turns up with deeds, it could get interesting.

How would someone know to turn up with the deeds? Can the solicitor do a different search to find the owner? Some neighbours said they thought Welsh water might own it so we asked them and they did a search but said they didn't own it.

You're starting to see why property law is (a) complicated and (b) lucrative.

No amount of searches can reveal a document in a lawyers safe somewhere belonging to the owner. As people who were hit with Chancel repairs discovered - literally - to their cost.

A really good place to start is insurance. Get indemnity should an owner turn up.

In this case it really doesn't matter who owns it. The important thing is that it is unregistered.

These days it is very difficult indeed to make a claim to registered land but, where the land is unregistered that is a different story.

After 12 years of adverse possession of unregistered land the person who has the deeds loses the title to the land and they lose their right to recover possession of the land.

So, even if someone did turn up tomorrow with the deeds that wouldn't matter as you have been in possession for more than 12 years.

@Another2Cats thanks for that. It is in Wales does that make a difference?

@ProfessorSlocombe Good advice to get Indemnity Insurance. I'll look into that. Should we do that after we become owners or before?

As far as I'm aware there is no difference between England and Wales.

Also, I'm not too sure how much indemnity insurance would help you. Once you have possessory title on the Land Registry then the land is your's and can't be taken away.

"As people who were hit with Chancel Repairs discovered - literally - to their cost."

If you're talking about the recent thread here, then it was clear that situation only came about because the solicitor didn't do their job properly.

The conveyancer brought it up when we bought which is why we got the statements of truth from the previous owners saying they had had exclusive use since 2005

what is a statement of truth?

what happened in 2005?

who confirmed to you categorically that this land is unregistered?

Surely someone owns the road. And that’s also unclaimed in this, are you sure you’re understanding it right.

wales

Around 15% of the land in England and Wales is unregistered: although it has an owner, their details have never been registered at Land Registry, but are held in private paper records. Usually, this land has been owned by the same family or institution for many decades.

"what is a statement of truth?"

In this instance, it's a form that you complete when making an application to register land based on adverse possession

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statements-of-truth/practice-guide-73-statements-of-truth

But generally speaking it's any document where you write on the bottom of it something like:

"I believe that the facts and matters contained in this statement are true"

I would guess that in this case the OP got the previous owners of her home to write a statement saying that they had used this extra land for however many years along with the sentence above and then they signed it.

"who confirmed to you categorically that this land is unregistered?"

If you have a look on the map supplied by the OP which appears to be a Land Registry map showing Inspire IDs then there is no box covering that bit of land which means that it is not registered.