Finding out who owns land in front of house?

[B19GRR]

Hi all,

Is there an easy way to find out who owns land, and by easy I mean free There's a (in effect) layby in front of our house and next door neighbours, it's not on our deeds and when the road had a crappy refinish (chips on tar jobby) the space wasn't refinished either so I'm guessing council don't care about it. There is a phone box at the end so maybe BT own it.

This is mainly idle curiousity but it would be nice if we owned it and could extend the front garden a bit, here's a pic roughly showing things.



Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Rob

[cqueen]

It will be council highway boundary. If you're not happy with the finish then call them.

[Jasandjules]

Free is difficult but I think £3.50 or so from the Land Registry will tell you.

[Sam_68]

cqueen said:

It will be council highway boundary. If you're not happy with the finish then call them.

Yep, I'd say there's a very strong possibility that it's either owned or adopted by Highways, from the aerial photograph. If not, you need to sue the solicitor who dealt with your house purchase because it seems to 'ransom' your plot (ie. you can't legally gain access to your property because you would be trespassing on someone else's land).

You can check whether Highways owns (or has adopted) the land, free of charge, quite easily - give them a ring and ask to go in and look at their records. It's standard practice and we do it all the time.

[rlw]

Sam_68 said:

cqueen said:

It will be council highway boundary. If you're not happy with the finish then call them.

If not, you need to sue the solicitor who dealt with your house purchase because it seems to 'ransom' your plot (ie. you can't legally gain access to your property because you would be trespassing on someone else's land).

Seems a bit harsh when ,just maybe, there is some right of way/easement thingy in the title. Best to check first before suing I think.

[Grumpy old git]

You need to request an Index Map Search (SIM) at your local Land Registry.

http://www1.landregistry.gov.uk/assets/library/doc...

Link to the form you need above above, you'll need to attach a plan (preferably an extract of an Ordnance Survey Map) with the land shown edged in red (or whatever colour makes it stand out). There is no fee for this service. Sometimes the results can be confusing as they don't always supply a plan showing what they are referring to, but if you handwrite "Please supply a plan" on the front of the form, they will often oblige.

[B19GRR]

Thanks guys, sounds pretty straightforward. Don't suppose anyone would care to guess if 1) it's possible to buy and 2) a rough price? It's about 50'x7'.


Cheers,
Rob

[Sam_68]

rlw said:

Seems a bit harsh when ,just maybe, there is some right of way/easement thingy in the title. Best to check first before suing I think.

Well, obviously, but if there is a 'right of way/easement thingy', then the Solicitor should have drawn it to the purchaser's attention when they bought the house, as there are other rights, resaponsibilities and implications attached to this arrangement.

If they didn't, I'd still be inclined to sue.

[Sam_68]

B19GRR said:

Don't suppose anyone would care to guess if 1) it's possible to buy and 2) a rough price? It's about 50'x7'.

You really need to find out whether it's highway first.

If it is, then first and foremost you'd need to arrange a 'Stopping Up Order' to extinguish rights of public access across it. This is quite a complicated legal process and will take upwards of 6 months.

Be aware that if Highways view the land as being of some value to the function of the highway (eg. as a visibility splay or as incedental parking to prevent the need for people to restrict the main carriageway by parking on it, then they won't agree to a stopping-up order, anyway, so you can forget the whole idea.

If they do agree to a stopping-up order, it then depends who actually owns the land under the road. The land under historic roads is often actually owned by the Highways authority, but many more modern roads are merely 'adopted'. In other words, Highways takes responsibility for maintenance and upkeep until such time as the road ceases to be required, at which time a 'Stopping Up Order' is undertaken as described above and the land falls back to the original owner.

Housing developers usually convey roads in one of two ways when they build them as part of new housing estates. Either:

• They convey each plot to the centreline of the road, in which case if you can persuade highways to stop the strip of land up, the bit in front of your property would fall back to your ownership, anyway, or;
• They convey each individual plot up to the back edge of the adopted highway, and retain ownership of the land under the adopted highway themselves (this is the most common approach, these days, for legal/technical reasons that I won't bore you with). If this is the case, then you'd need to get Highways to agree to a stopping-up order, then persuade the original developer (or their legal successors) to sell you the bit of land that has fallen back to their control.

Yuur title deed to the house will show whether you own up to the cetreline of the road (if the red line around the plot extends into the middle of the road, then you do; if not then it's most likely owned either by Highways or the original developer).

[B19GRR]

Thanks Sam, that's really helpful, much appreciated!

Cheers,
Rob