Land owned by the property owner but not registered

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Has anyone experience of this:

have enquired about a property that was advertised a while back and reappeared. Estate Agency advised that the sale has fallen through. This is because the property - let's say a 3 bedroom with front/back garden - has a piece of land next to it. That land was public land, alongside a lane but the owner fenced off the land making t part of her own property a while back, and this led later to an agreement with the Council. Owner officially owns the land, I have been assured no doubt about that.

The sale fell through because though the owner owns the land, it's not registered as part of the property. Those who were going to buy it found this out at the 11th hour by the sound of it, after doing surveys and all the rest. So here's where I need advice.

Estate Agency have advised that the owner can 'gift' the extra land to me as part of the sale, she would be selling the house and gifting the extra land. they said I could then contact the Land Registry and it's very easy to have that land registered as part of the property. It would happen immediately and the documents would arrive in the post.

Does that sound legit, are there any questions I should be asking?

I'm a first-time buyer, so have never done this before and buying as a single woman so not really anyone to discuss it with either. The property itself looks solid, is extended and could be extended further onto this piece of land later on, big garden, etc etc - ticks a lot of my boxes.

Hello, I'm a solicitor and have done a fair bit of conveyancing. It's certainly possible that the local authority came to an agreement, I've seen that before, usually in exchange for money. If you're not in a hurry I would get current owner to register it herself with land registry. More straightforward and no risk to you. Should take about 6-8 weeks if it's just registered to someone else and needs transferring and possibly a little longer if it's unregistered

Thank you. I asked whether owner can register, Estate Agency says no, she doesn't intend to but would gift it and that would be for me to do. I pointed out why not do it as this is why sale fell through. They repeated the same thing.

Sounds dodgy, you want to ignore any suggestions from the estate agent who is working for the seller, unless your solicitor agrees it's a good idea.
The starting points should be the seller sorts everything before exchange, and depending how much you want the property and whether you're happy to still buy even if the land doesn't come through, you can take on some of the risk of doing parts yourself.

In that case it depends how much you want it. I would instruct a conveyancing specialist solicitor first, you can make an offer and ask for the copies of proof etc. Instruct your solicitor not to do any other work until they have seen the 'proof' and advised you on it. That way you incur minimum expense and can make an informed judgement. They will be able to advise in more detail once they've seen the specific paperwork, it might be really straightforward or it might not.

It's not that uncommon where I am (west Yorkshire) I've come across similar before. But it does definitely require a little more thought and caution

Estate agents can't give legal advice Or they shouldn't.

It should be fine if it's only garden land. Definitely get it sorted before exchange though.

in these circumstances I would only pay a value for the main property on the assumption thay the gifting of extra land will fall through, because it probably will. if you would still want the place without the land, that is.

I’d certainly want it all in writing and legally making sure your solicitor makes sure it’s included in the price/time of sale so she can’t pull It out afterwards.

I might be wrong but could it be a case of it’s fairly easy to register the land to someone’s name but more expensive or hassle to get it registered as part of the parcel of land that the house is in? Hence her reluctance to sort it.

I wouldn't buy it without clear evidence that the land is part of the deeds. EAs are not legal experts, they're sales people. If they have put a description of the land in the advertising details, make sure you get the price reduced accordingly unless they have clear evidence that it belongs with the house.
When we viewed our current house, the EA was trying to sell it as a 3 bedroom with detached garage. The 3rd 'bedroom' was actually a converted loft accessed via a spiral staircase in the main bedroom, and the garage was on a council owned plot, which the vendor rented.
However, we knew this before hand and when viewing it we pointed out that it was in fact a 2 bedroomed house with possible access to a garage. We only wanted 2 bedrooms plus a loft as an office space and we were able to get assurances off the council thatbthe rental for the garage was transferred to us. We also got the price reduced by 10%!

Please remember that the law is different in different UK jurisdictions.

Why are you asking here? This is what solicitors are for. Make sure you’re using a good one not an online conveyancing company and get proper legal advice.

If the owner really owns the land, then yes they can give it to you (a simple deed), then you can ask the land registry to amalgamate this unregistered land into the registered property.

There will be an application fee, plus extra legal costs for your solicitor to check ownership etc. A lot of solicitors now will never have dealt with unregistered land as there’s so little of it, so make sure you appoint a solicitor with suitable experience.

Are we talking about the extra land being unregistered, but title is vested in the sellers? Or is it the case that the sellers merely have an interest in the land that would have to be proved in court? If the former, that isn't a problem. If the latter, it's a huge problem and you should walk away.

I suspect the latter, because all transactions of unregistered land have to be registered with the land registry.

You should really get a solicitor to deal with this. I just came on to say don't assume you will be able to build on/over this extra piece of land without finding out if there are any caveats attached to it.
Your vendor is being very short sighted. It is an easy matter for her to register title to this land. She is going to come up against this problem every time someone makes an offer on her house. Does make you wonder if it's as legit as she says.

You can make enquiries with the council. Where I live issues where a person has acquired pieces of council land in those sorts of circumstances is formally reported and title transferred.
If she’s telling the truth then the council will be able to confirm it.
You can also look up the owners details on the land registry.
It’s possible she’s lying though and trying to get an inflated price for her house.
Assuming she’s not lying about the land being hers to sell it may be she doesn’t know how to amalgamate both parcels of land into one - but I would have thought any competent lawyer could do this.
Don’t take the estate agents word for anything they don’t work for you and their only aim is to get as high a price for the house as possible and if this involves passing on false misleading or incorrect information from the seller they won’t think twice

Or there could be conditions attached to the land by the council such as it can only be used as garden and can never be built on. Which obv would affect the resale value.

Is the house advertised entirely separate to the piece of land, but the seller is apparently willing to gift you the piece of land as part of the transaction? That sounds bizarre to me (also a solicitor). Land invariably has a value - not always but generally - so if the seller does genuinely own it, it seems very unlikely that they'd "gift" it to you (i.e. without any cost to you). You need a solicitor to look at this very carefully.

Hi so to answer some of the Qs, I'm only interested in the house with the land, there is no visible boundary you wouldn't tell workout being told, it's half the driveway and flower beds on one side of the property so to look at, fully part of the property.

I went back to the Estate Agency, sounds like the owner has begun to conclude they need to sort it out or noone will buy. Thanks to posters above they've said they'll come back to me on where it's got to in the process with Council and Land Registry, what can be proven. I've said I won't be paying a thing without this. Have also asked for clarity on any restrictions about building on the property. If they told me all that was OK I'd then be prepared to go further.

Hi OP,

Please start speaking to your solicitor about this and stop discussing it with the EA! EAs are not trained in land law or conveyancing and will have no idea whether the owner officially owns it, how long it will take to register etc. Your solicitor on the other hand will be able to have a look at exactly what the deeds actually say and can advise you from there.