Land/registry issues

dkav9

I am interested in purchasing a house on the edge of a rural town, at the end of a sort of cul de sac. The inside of the house is perfect, outside needs a bit of work but happy to do it. Viewed it there recentlt and saw that there is an outbuilding built just outside which I didn't know about from the ad, but was pleasantly surprised.

When I spoke to the estate agent about it, she told me that the shed is not actually a part of the house, and that the land attached to the house ends just before where the shed begins. According to the agent the shed is on land that "nobody owns". I had a look at the land registry and I can see that the shed is in fact on unregistered land.

If I was to make an offer on the house, I would want to consider this legal issue in any bid. I would like to use the shed if I was to purchase the house. I imagine there are fees/solicitors/etc etc involved in getting the extra land to be attached to the house. Would someone be able to advise me what I would expect to pay for this?

If I was to ignore this land registry issue and just use the shed as my own, are there any problems that fellow boards users could see in the future ?

Thanks in advance

Dolbhad

dkav9 wrote: »

I am interested in purchasing a house on the edge of a rural town, at the end of a sort of cul de sac. The inside of the house is perfect, outside needs a bit of work but happy to do it. Viewed it there recentlt and saw that there is an outbuilding built just outside which I didn't know about from the ad, but was pleasantly surprised.

When I spoke to the estate agent about it, she told me that the shed is not actually a part of the house, and that the land attached to the house ends just before where the shed begins. According to the agent the shed is on land that "nobody owns". I had a look at the land registry and I can see that the shed is in fact on unregistered land.

If I was to make an offer on the house, I would want to consider this legal issue in any bid. I would like to use the shed if I was to purchase the house. I imagine there are fees/solicitors/etc etc involved in getting the extra land to be attached to the house. Would someone be able to advise me what I would expect to pay for this?

If I was to ignore this land registry issue and just use the shed as my own, are there any problems that fellow boards users could see in the future ?

Thanks in advance

Someone does owns the land - they just don’t know who. Unregistered means it’s not on landdirect who’s the registered owner. You need to check registry of deeds. The issue is even if use it, you don’t own it.

If you wanted to buy it - you need to find the owner and see if they would sell the land and for how much. You would be incurring a second set of legal fees to buy it plus legal fees and stamp duty. Probably incur the legals fees of solicitor to make them more likely to sell to you.

I wouldn't be doing anything valuable on the land as it’s a waste of money. Might be worth chatting to your solicitor to see if you proceeded aotj the purchase, could an adverse possession claim be made. But that will incur legal fees and take years to do and no guarantee you’ll get it. Chat to your solicitor as no one can say here on boards what’s the best way to do this.

dkav9

Dolbhad wrote: »

Someone does owns the land - they just don’t know who. Unregistered means it’s not on landdirect who’s the registered owner. You need to check registry of deeds. The issue is even if use it, you don’t own it.

If you wanted to buy it - you need to find the owner and see if they would sell the land and for how much. You would be incurring a second set of legal fees to buy it plus legal fees and stamp duty. Probably incur the legals fees of solicitor to make them more likely to sell to you.

I wouldn't be doing anything valuable on the land as it’s a waste of money. Might be worth chatting to your solicitor to see if you proceeded aotj the purchase, could an adverse possession claim be made. But that will incur legal fees and take years to do and no guarantee you’ll get it. Chat to your solicitor as no one can say here on boards what’s the best way to do this.

Thanks for your response, I will speak to a solicitor about it. I think the owner of the land may live local so will see if we can sort that way.