Buying land from council

[jmac80]

Hi all.

Me and the mrs just recently bought my mothers house and we were looking into buying the land at the side of the house.
I called local council and they were most unhelpful, the woman said make a picture, send it to us with £100 thats non returnable and well get back to you next year and tell you yes or no....
here is a picture i drew up in autocad.. http://friedhardware.net/images/land.jpg
Thing is there is a couple of service manholes at the end of the land, Should i just apply to buy it all or maybe just up to the yellow line?
Also do you think i have a right to buy this land as it isnt used and the only path on it is access to my own garden?

anyone with any other help and tips would be greatly appreciated as i don`t want to fire off £100 applications to the council more than once.

thanks guys

 

[billyo]

wot was there before your house ,as there migth be a rigth of way issue also make sure you are not adopting someones eles's problem, i.e.manholes wots in them be careful u have been warned

 

[jmac80]

that has just allways been unused land since the houses were built 40 years ago..
the only right of way on that land is to my garden.
the manholes are fireman water outlet and some council services (probably water)..
are you saying if i bought all the land and there was a problem with one of the service manholes id have to pay for it?...
you reccomend just buying up to the services and no more?

cheers

 

[billyo]

i know it sounds daft but get a land report survey, if they can get someone to take on there responsible's they will,but if all is well then u will have what u want plus peace of mind

 

[jmac80]

billyo what exactly will the land survey people do..
sorry i`m new at this game..

 

[Bon]

This is something me and the wife have been wondering about ever since we moved in.

We live at the end of a row of 4 houses and there is an area of land that runs down the side of our house and round the back. At the moment we use this land to park the cars on and it largely regarded as "ours", i.e. none of our neighbours would use the land to park their cars on.

The annoying thing is that a couple of people use the land as a short cut which is very annoying whilst we are eating etc as we suddnely come face to face with a random bloke walking past the house!!

What we would like to do is extend our back wall to cover the land and create a proper drive for the cars (especially as mine was once dented ), however we haven't a clue where to look to see if what we want to do is legal etc. We maintain the land, cutting the grass and trimming the hedges etc.

When we bought the house, our solicitor told us there was something in the deeds about having to get a horse-drawn fire cart along the lane, but as these don't exist anymore, we would be hard pushed to fall foul of the law in that respect.

The only advice we have been given is to ask our neighbours if they object to us doing this, but this may back-fire and end up with them using the land to park their cars!!

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this?

 

[NickStone]

Bon, does the council actually own this land? If so, then they have a duty to maintain it, cut the grass etc, which they are not doing right now. I would have thought you could apply to buy it from them. If they say no, then tell them you're going to get a court order to force them to maintain the land.

 

[Bon]

Sorry to play Devil's Advocate, but what if they don't own it, how do I go about doing what I want to do then?

 

[anobium]

If it's any help there is some ruling that if you have occupied the land for 7 years you can claim possession of it
When I bought my current house the previous owners told us that there was a patch of land at the bottom of the garden which originally formed part of an old railway line.
They had been using it as part of the garden for the last 10 years that they lived there.
We in turn continued using it as an extension of the garden until one day a builder asked if we were prepared to sell it to him.
Cut long story short we consulted solicitor who drew up necessary docs and we sold that part to builder who built a bungalow on the plot.

 

[joe-90]

Ask your solicitor about 'adverse possession'. There are many pockets of land that belong to no-one.

 

[billyo]

by having a survey u will know whats under the land and who does or did own it and if way back in time, some kind of works ever stood on it etc etc, and as someone said u may be able toget it for nowt spend a little get a lot

 

[Nige F]

Ask your solicitor about 'adverse possession'. There are many pockets of land that belong to no-one.

bit late now.......the law was recently changed so the onus is on the Adverse posessor to find and notify the owner and tell them that posession is intended Up till then .......it was easy particularly with pockets of railway land that`s bee thru` so many owners/ nationalisations that acres of it`s been claimed by those sensible enough to extend their gardens

 

[joe-90]

I didn't know of the change Nige. I do know someone that claimed a very large plot of old marshy waste land and made himself millions. Literally millions ££££. It became an industrial estate.

 

[NickStone]

Sorry to play Devil's Advocate, but what if they don't own it, how do I go about doing what I want to do then?

The Land Registry should be able to tell you if anyone owns the land. If no one owns it, then lucky you

 

[andrew299]

You can search the land registry online. I think you just need to type in the road name or post code and will bring up all likely areas. It is £3 to look at the title plan. be careful though it may not appear on the land registry site. This does not mean that it is not owned by anyone it just means that you may have to investigate further. Also I believe you need to have the area fenced for at least 12 years not 7 as in previous post. However if you do use the land to park your cars then it is up to the owner to stop you. It is not a criminal act but is classed as trespass and you should stop as soon as told to do so or the owner could press civil charges. Also do not put gravel or tarmac or any other surfacing down on the ground as the owner can have it taken up and send you the bill. I know all of this because we had a similar situation a few years ago. We couldnt find an owner from the land registry so we contacted our local councillor, who was very helpful and tracked down the real owner and negotiated on our behalf for access.