Possessory titles - anyone know anything about these?

[Madora]

Just found out that half the garden of the house we are buying is a possessory title - does this diminish the value of the property? (it may affect our ability to get pp for a garage as the land may be classified as countryside). Help!

Um, ask your solicitor???

You could ask the local Planning Dept if they would give you pp ? Does this mean it is n't registered as part of the property ? Would imagine any "loss" of value is actually fairly subjective, particularly if legally you can continue to use it.

Madora, have a look here on the Land Registry site . Basically possessory title is not as good title as absolute. It could diminsh value I would imagine if you leave it, but it can be upgraded after 12 years' possession. I would defintely ask your solicitor about this, as it may mean you don't want to buy the house..

Just to clarify (taken from Land Registry website)
"Possessory title is one of the classes of title the Chief Land Registrar can grant when land is registered. It is not as good as absolute title, which is the title granted in the vast majority of cases. One important consequence of having a possessory
title is that if the true owner applies for rectification of your title before the relevant time period has ended,then the title may be closed and you will have no right to receive compensation from Land Registry for losing your possessory title."

I think the time period may be 12 years before you can claim full title to the land - but may be wrong. Even if no one claims the land in the mean time, a mortgage lender might be unwilling to lend on the value of that part of the property.

Thanks for this everyone - really useful. I will ask my solicitor to find out the terms under which the possessory title was granted and see if we can get an upgrade. I have also contacted the local council to see if the garden is defined as garden or countryside and if pp would be affected. I should hear tomorrow.

Promised to update you - outcome is this: statutory declaration was based on duration of plot as enclosed garden - therefore planning would not enforce rule that applies to adjacent land basis that we would have good grounds to contest ie we would not have to apply for extension of residential curtelege as we could provide evidence that resdential curtelege includes both plots - does this all make sense?

Anyway all well and we have exchanged - hussah!