Adverse Possession

[Support Monkey]

My father in law had a corner plot council house with a piece of land to one side, it belonged to the council but they only maintained it occassionally so he spoke to a solicitor and he advised if he maintained it for 12 years it would be his so he started cutting the grass so the council never bothered with it in this time he purchased his house and enventually he was able to extend the house onto the land no questions asked

[Sysman]

I think the sellers will have a problem if they try to sell a piece of land which is not registered to them. The purchasers' solicitor should spot this and would advise their client accordingly that they are not actually buying the piece of land, just the house.

Yes. I had a weird experience with this.

In the eighties I was in the process of buying a house with land at the back.. The solicitor flagged up that not all the land had been properly registered to the current owner. It turned out that the current owner had bought a strip from another neighbour which consisted of the top end of my back garden plus an access lane to it, This was something like 20 years previously but they hadn't used a solicitor because that would have cost more than the land itself. The receipt he had was apparently not good enough as proof of ownership, even though signed by witnesses etc. The original owner of the land had died some years previously.

My solicitor's explanation was that if possession of the land had been contested for 14 years the house vendor could have claimed the land as his own, receipt or not, but since it hadn't been contested, adverse possession didn't apply.
(I'm pretty sure I remember the 14 year figure correctly, even though it doesn't agree with the 12 years quoted up thread.)

The upshot for me was to either get the vendor to sort it out or to get the house revalued without that bit of land, for mortgage purposes. The vendor sorted it out, but I suspect he had to part with some cash to the current owner of the house which the land originally belonged to.

[Platypus]

I think the sellers will have a problem if they try to sell a piece of land which is not registered to them. The purchasers' solicitor should spot this and would advise their client accordingly that they are not actually buying the piece of land, just the house.

[quackhandle]

Zeitghost, care to expand?

Cheers for the posts, I don't think I can claim it as I've not done anything regards the land, the people selling it have chickens on there now, but be interesting to see if the new owners register it with LR. And when it floods twice a year!



qh

[BrilloPad]

12 years?

Without changing my deeds I've given up 4 feet of my front lawn to widen the drive to my neighbour's house so it is wide enough for two cars.

After 12 years will I have given up rights to it due to their usage or somesuch? Even though I sometimes park there myself? Doesn't sound fair.

I have a shared driveway - I rarely use it but make sure I drive down there once a year just in case.

[xoggoth]

Think dooddab know what he is talking about. Still I would suggest garden law / neighbours from hell as better fora. To adopt an unused area as a garden change of use may also apply, that's a council matter.

[doodab]

12 years?

Without changing my deeds I've given up 4 feet of my front lawn to widen the drive to my neighbour's house so it is wide enough for two cars.

After 12 years will I have given up rights to it due to their usage or somesuch? Even though I sometimes park there myself? Doesn't sound fair.

No I don't think so as there is no adverse possession if it's all been negotiated + you continue to use the land yourself. If they just widened their drive and you did nothing that would be different.

[Doggy Styles]

I think that the people claiming possession need to have occupied the land for 12 years. If they haven't lived there that long, they can't claim it. It might also require that they actually do something with it like fence it off, rather than simply mowing the grass.

I guess you would have some sort of a deed for it if it were actually yours.

12 years?

Without changing my deeds I've given up 4 feet of my front lawn to widen the drive to my neighbour's house so it is wide enough for two cars.

After 12 years will I have given up rights to it due to their usage or somesuch? Even though I sometimes park there myself? Doesn't sound fair.

[doodab]

Might be useful reading:

Practice Guide 5 - Adverse possession

[BrilloPad]

Go and fence it off - then attach it to your property.

If the neighbours complain send round Big Ron to sort them out....

[doodab]

There's a bit of land directly out the back of my house It is 50ft by 200ft and slopes down to a stream, so it can flood a bit from time to time. It has been looked after by neighbours who we don't get on with plus people three doors along. Been told that the land used to belong to the house I live in, but that is probably going back over 15 years as even former owners of my house who work close by never used it.

Now recently the people a few doors down are selling up and have advertised the land in a big way as their house is a complete tuliphole (didn't know they were the "owners" but I checked with Land Reg and on plan and title search comes up blank, for my property) Filled in a SIM form and this states that the land is unregistered. Have looked into adverse possession (have learned that squatters right's is a form of this) and even if my house used to own the land I would have lost it as I have done nothing with it for a number of years.

Anyone else been through a similar scenario? Can you just give land away? And yes, I know I can speak to a conveyancing solicitor, but that costs money!

Thanking you

qh

and yes, I've read the wikipedia entry for it!

I think that the people claiming possession need to have occupied the land for 12 years. If they haven't lived there that long, they can't claim it. It might also require that they actually do something with it like fence it off, rather than simply mowing the grass.

I guess you would have some sort of a deed for it if it were actually yours.

[quackhandle]

There's a bit of land directly out the back of my house It is 50ft by 200ft and slopes down to a stream, so it can flood a bit from time to time. It has been looked after by neighbours who we don't get on with plus people three doors along. Been told that the land used to belong to the house I live in, but that is probably going back over 15 years as even former owners of my house who work close by never used it.

Now recently the people a few doors down are selling up and have advertised the land in a big way as their house is a complete tuliphole (didn't know they were the "owners" but I checked with Land Reg and on plan and title search comes up blank, for my property) Filled in a SIM form and this states that the land is unregistered. Have looked into adverse possession (have learned that squatters right's is a form of this) and even if my house used to own the land I would have lost it as I have done nothing with it for a number of years.

Anyone else been through a similar scenario? Can you just give land away? And yes, I know I can speak to a conveyancing solicitor, but that costs money!

Thanking you

qh

and yes, I've read the wikipedia entry for it!