Access to land concerns

[Redhound]

Random one, I'm negotiating buying an area of land local to me but am concerned because the access looks dubious. Instead of the land simply adjoining the road, there is apparently an area, marked on the land registry maps, between the land and the road which our solicitor doesn't seem to know anything about; I had to point this area out and the solicitor said its not registered. If the vendors don't know about it and the area is unregisted, is there any other way to find out what it is/who owns it? We would still have foot access to the land as there is a public footpath, but I would need vehicular access too so am worried this could be a ransom strip or similar. I am hoping it is just waterboard or similar, or the highways but marked oddly..has anyone had a similar issue? Thanks

You can do a specific highways search. Otherwise it might be impossible to find out who owns it and therefore if there’s a valid right of way over it.

Is the piece of land you want to buy registered? If so you can buy the registration deed for £3 from the Land Registry web site. www.gov.uk/get-information-about-property-and-land/copies-of-deeds If it says "copy filed" or similar wording you will have to apply for the full filed deeds which cost a bit more and take a little longer to obtain.

Or you could try ringing Land Registry direct?

Unregistered land doesn’t mean it has no owner. It just means it hasn’t changed hands for a number of years therefore there’s been no requirement to register it.

If the unregistered land sits between the land you want to buy and road access be very wary indeed. In effect you are buying land with no legal road access.

Chances are it is a ransom strip and belongs to a former owner of the land you are buying So ask the sellers of the land what they know about it. Is it their land and are they retaining it? If so why? If they don’t know the owner ask them who they bought the land from originally. Ask the owner one back if it’s their land and if so you want to buy it too.
If you don’t find an owner be very wary about proceeding.

Thank you for the helpful replies. Minnie I have done a highways search and this seems to show the lmost of the land adjoining the road but this differs to other maps in the searches. Waspie, I have the Land Registry maps which show the prospective land is registered as are the neighbouring properties but the small mystery area is not registered. Cvxnjj I realise that it may have a third party owner and am concerned that it might be a ransom strip, a prior owner of the land was into ransom strips and there is one not far away in the village, but that owner is now deceased so I dont know who would own it now. I am friends with the sellers but I don't think they know about it, its not theirs as they bought it quite recently so it would be on the LR; they bought the land purely so no one else could do anything bad to it & they are not so risk averse as me (eg didnt have insurance) so I bet they didn't do searches. I am very wary currently- it would just be nice to solve the mystery as it would be a shame not to buy it at this stage but it would not be worth the risk if access is not guaranteed. I feel let down that the solicitor did not spot this potential issue at an earlier stage..

If you don’t want to lose the chance to buy the land is it possible to ask a neighbouring landowner to grant you road and vehicle access across their land for a small fee? This could be your fall back.

As you realise if you buy the field as is, you may have no trouble at all particularly if you leave it as ab undeveloped field.

In my experience the strip owner will probably only make things difficult when you do something different on the land that adds value eg erect a shed, start a nursery, keep cattle etc as obviously they see this as their opportunity to cash in.

Sorry to be so pessimistic - seen this happen too many times.

Good idea however unfortunately, due to the lie of the land, access is only possible in one corner - just where the dubious area lies.. The land needs clearing and will be rented out for grass keep. so this could be an issue. I really need our solicitor to interpret the maps properly, but this is difficult with covid and everything being remote, so cant just take maps round to discuss it. Thanks for the thoughts. appreciated.