How do I find out who owns this random bit of land?

[Belleende]

So, thinking about doing some work to the house and took a look at the register.

We have what I thought were back to back gardens with houses on a parallel street.
There are trees just beyond our back garden fence that are causing an issue with our shed. Was planning on talking to the relevant house owner, but it looks like there is a random bit of land between the two sets of gardens.

My house is in red. Our shed is marked, and you can see there is a random bit of land behind. We can't see into due to the trees. Google satellite the same. The register says there is a structure in there, but if there is we can't see it. How do I find out who owns this land?

if your house is in red, where is the random bit of land?

Order up the title deeds from the Land Registry - It costs £3 and can be done on line.

It could be a 'wildlife corridor'. No idea who owns them though

Are you on an estate owned by a developer? In which case might be a wildlife corridor.

Or it could be council owned or utility company owned if there's a structure on it. Can you walk around and see if you can access it? There might be a sign on the structure.

Maybe the council, we had a bit of land at the back of our garden in our old house, it was a bit that all the houses backed on which we payed a nominal rent to the council to use as part of our garden

You can ask a friendly local solicitor to do a quick search on the Land Registry portal using their free MapSearch service. I would try that first if you know anyone.

Or you could ask the LR to do a search for you. Bit of a faff though.

If the land is on or near the highway it might be owned by the local authority, but equally it might not be registered to anyone.

You will have to be more specific as to where the land is. Can you upload a new plan with the piece of land clearly marked/coloured?

I think the OP means the big plot with a building on it behind her shed at the back of her garden @PigletJohn. Look at the middle of the left hand side, it stretches halfway across the plan. It's so big, it almost looks like another house and garden.

Is there a plot number on the relevant bit of land that you could look up on the land registry? Does any part of that plot have access to a road/path where you could go and have a look? The building could be an electricity substation or something. If it is a wildlife corridor the owner could be the original developer or the council.

I would probably ring up the council as a start to find out what they know about it

If you go to the Land Registry website you can do a "Map Enquiry". When you zoom in close enough it allows you to turn on "Find Properties". You can then click on the patch of land in question and it should give you the option to buy the title register.

Thanks all, have added some labels to help. There is no access to this land from the lane on the left. There is a solid wall along the length of this lane. Not a wildlife corridor, these are old terraced houses.

I will look on the registry myself, very curious.

Curious! If there is no access, I would guess whatever it is is disused, possibly an old electricity substation or telephone exchange. Could it be a old ventilation shaft for a railway tunnel?

I had some friends who had a strange pocket of land like that behind their Victorian terraced house because there had originally been a barn there that belonged to an even earlier but now long gone farm. They were able to buy the land for very little money to create a massive L-shaped garden.

Will you come back and update us on the mystery OP?

If it's a current railway tunnel ventilation shaft, you can see the underground tracks on google maps as a very faint line. Even if you think you are a long way from any railway, tunnels can run for miles, you might have no idea. They look like this:

Just to clarify, that shows overground rails going underground. The underground part is very feint.

Any photos you can take would be informative. Can I ask what town you are in?

A pic of the brickwork and roof will enable age to be guessed, and if it is, for example, an old utilities cabin, there will usually be large doors facing the road for equipment to be installed. in my district there are a few deep pumping cabins for the sewers, but gas and electricity cabins are more common. A cabin that is still in use will (should) be visited a couple of times a year to keep weeds and undergrowth down as it is a fire hazard.

interestingly, one of my ancestors donated some land to set up a local bowling club many years ago. I have visited the area and the club green still exists, fenced off, and I suspect it is not on the Land Registry because it has not changed hands and nobody has the old deeds.

We have something very similar between ours and our neighbouring street. It has overgrown stables in it and I was very curious so I downloaded the land registry deeds which told me one of our neighbours owned it, and I contacted her to ask. She said 100 years ago it belonged to a funeral parlour and so that is why there are stables - for the hearse horses! I guess when the Edwardian developers were developing the street, the funeral parlour didn't want to sell, so they had to build the back gardens around them, leaving this little segment of land. And now the parlour is long gone, leaving this little triangle of undeveloped land. The neighbour just uses it to park her car.

So yes the land registry website is your best bet - it has a map where you can click on the bit of land, and then you can download the deeds for a small fee.

(I'm not sure 'deeds' is the right word - the title, with details of who currently owns it, if it is registered)

@DistinguishedCarrot

I tried that, and it worked for a piece of land that is not on a street. I had to try the OS map and the aerial survey to locate it, because it was not on the list of addresses and there is no "price paid" or other data.

Thanks!

I find threads like this really interesting. I hope you find out who owns the land and I hope you update the thread 😊

You can pay £3 and order the title register online at the Land Registry (presuming the land is registered!)

Cunningplan101 I love that stables story, thanks for sharing. Am hoping we find out about this bit of land, fascinating!

So, following your advice I thought I had cracked it. I used the map finder and it threw up a piece of land which I thought was it, but no (see picture).

The land purchased in 2009 shown as the red box in the picture, originally belonged to the big local quaker family (Ransoms) who owned lots of land. Perhaps the mystery land does too? They are still a going concern locally. Maybe their estate will have some answers...

Look on the local authority planning portal to see if there is any planning history.
If the land is accessible from a public road it will have some value as it could be developed. If landlocked it will be more difficult to develop.

Was the square of land purchased by the house in front of it? You could knock on their door and ask who they bought it from as they may have bought it from the same landowners.

But, if trees on the land are causing a problem, the council may be able to help. We had a patch of land near us which local property developers had bought and done nothing with. It was overgrown and a nuisance and the council did something about it. It was a fair few years ago so I can't remember if they were given a notice or if the council cleared it and billed them. Eventually it got sold to one of the neighbouring houses who extended their garden.

Can you ask your neighbours who also back onto it? They may have looked into it before. It could save you time and effort with solicitors etc