Site Background research
There is a lot of information you can often find online without ever leaving your computer, or spending any money.
Whenever I find a property of interest, I will get as much basic information as I can. I only normally start to pay for information after I have confirmed a site is actually abandoned, though there are exceptions to this.
Land registry should always be first. Find the property and see if it is listed, and what price is recorded and date. I usually use the map search facility to do this, but if you can find an address, you could do a postcode search. Be aware that both methods may actually throw up different listings, so it can be worth using both.
Sometimes the name or description of a property is different to what appears on maps. I have no explanation for this.
Download the property title. This will give an owner and their registered address and usually a price and date of last transfer.
Do not be discouraged to find a property is registered. There are numerous examples of places with full registration that have been abandoned, but at least in these cases, you have access to a name.
Look for information about the property the land is registered to(i.e. Where the owner actually lives). Has it been sold since the date of the title. It is sometimes worth getting the LR title for that property to confirm if it’s the same person listed. If it has been sold, there is a break in continuity and any owner may not be informed if anything changes about their land or property.
Planning maps can tell you whatever applications that have been made, but will often provide a name for the applicant. You can get a lot of this info online for more recent applications, but even historical applications have to be provided for a small fee.
I usually use the online will search facility (find-a-will) to see if there is a listing. I usually track back for a decade, but for common names this can be laborious. I look for the name and a listing in the location where the property lies.
The various genealogy sites also offer the ability to find out if someone is still alive. Unfortunately, to do this, you have to do the reverse, and see if there is evidence they have died. However, finding a birth record will tell you the age of the person you’re looking for.
I have also taken my investigations to the UK libraries that hold the whole records of births, marriages and deaths, but this really is a laborious process as everything is held on microfiche which you just have to trawl through. Very time consuming.
Use Google for the name, and any addresses you may know of including the one for the property. You might find anything from pony club records to bereavement notices. All can be useful.
Getting the full name of a person is often useful. Planning records often only have a first name and surname. It’s easier to search genealogy records with more specific information. The more information you can add, the greater chance of finding information about the person.
Facebook can also provide information, see if a person’s site is current, but also use it to see what relatives may exist.
The companies house site can have very specific information when there are any form of links to a company. This becomes a lot easier as you will get full names, addresses, DoB, previous addresses, other company links etc. A real gem if it’s there.
What you are looking for is clear evidence of any breaks in continuity which may be your opportunity to grab something that has fallen through cracks of ownership.
Unfortunately, this is where my searches have become stuck. Apart from finding out if someone has died, I am not adept at finding people who may still be alive. This is where the next stages of my research needs to go, but I haven’t quite developed that skill set just yet. I have followed a number of leads without any success. This is still a work in progress.
Land Registry
Some useful tips re what you can find out on the land registry.
I find it more useful to use the mapping search facility, but if you know an address and postcode the search can be easier.
If there is no record at all, the property has never had to be registered. In most of the UK it became a legal requirement to register any property if a transfer took place sometime after the year 1990, or transferred through inheritance after 1999. Prior to that it was optional to register the property, and unless a property has been subject to a transfer, there is no requirement to inform the land registry that you own a property, or register it in your name.
If there is no price listed, the last sale was probably pre 2000.
If there is a sale price this will be listed along with the date of sale.
Where it says “Value Stated to be” this means the property has been transferred directly, usually having been bequeathed in a will. The valuation is simply that, and usually bears little or no relationship to the real value of any property.
There is lots of land that is not registered. This does not mean that it does not have an owner, simply that they have never had to formally register the land in any way. And just because it is not registered does not mean you can just rock up and claim it. The owner will probably have extensive title documents, often tracking back for centuries demonstrating their ownership. A lot of estates, crown land, MOD land will never have been subject to any sale or transfer, and so there is no need for it to be registered.
I should point out that so called maps of unregistered land have very little real value. I’ve looked at them, and the scale seems quite high, so all the little plots and holdings don’t seem to be shown. You could get put off looking at them. The only way to look properly is to scan the land bit by bit till you find what you want. There are no shortcuts. If there were, I would be on it.
People rarely change the address for service on the land registry.
For instance, finding land is registered, but the address it is registered to has changed hands following the registration means that the chain of contact has been broken. This may be an opportunity.
Changing the address for service is extremely difficult as the Land registry assumes that people are sensible enough to keep them updated whenever they change an address. They don’t.
It also means that unless you have access to any post being sent to a previously registered address, the owner will have quite a complex task proving that they are the actual owner of the property.
Properties are often registered to the actual property itself. The obvious thing here is that if the property has been abandoned, then any post sent there simply won’t get to the person intended. The majority of properties I find no longer have any way of receiving post anyway.
Knowing what information the LR will give you can be a massive help. It took me a long time to realise this is one of the most important facets of the LR, and this is one that is enshrined in law.
They have a statutory duty to provide you with all the information they hold on any property.
Just think about this for a moment.
All of the history they hold,including any documents they have including correspondence.
Of course this may include previous attempts to possess or register that land and information about any difficulties people have experienced during their applications for land.
One of the most important points is that they don’t tell you that they do this.
You are however in a bit of a catch 22. You have to ask them for the specific document you want, and then pay the £7 to get it.
What they will do is provide you with a list of documents and records they hold regarding any location, and not just one that has been previously registered. To do this, just e-mail them with the property reference and they normally send you a list within a couple of weeks
And this does apply to unregistered land as much as it does to registered land. Just because it isn’t on the system doesn’t mean that no attempt has been made to claim it. You need to know this.
So you have to find out if there is a title to the property, and get a copy of this. If you download the title you will only get the basic document which only shows the ownership information, last date of sale, price or valuation at that time.
If you apply directly for the full title document, and pay a little more, you get the full title, and this can include copies of the original title deeds which have been scanned and saved on their system. The downside is, you will always have to get the basic title first to have the Land Registry reference to be able to do this.
If there is no evidence of a title, you can apply to LR with a grid reference, or coordinates just to confirm this.
Be cautious how you use the system. Using a postcode search will reveal one set of records, and a land search will bring up others. I have queried this with them as there should be no discrepancy, and you should get the same information whichever way you choose to get it, but you don’t. They don’t seem to see this as an issue. Be aware of this.
This is important as you may find
The continuity of ownership over time
Whether the property is still intact in the historical sense, and if not, what other pieces of land may have been attached in the past. That could be the very piece you’re trying to get information on, and this is a way to get it.
In other words, if you find what appears to be an isolated piece of land, get the full Title documents for all the neighbouring farms. There is a very strong chance the land will have been held back by a previous owner who may now be long gone. This is quite common practice, particularly if a small piece of land didn’t add a lot of value to the whole.
This is particularly important where land has become separated from a holding over time. There is a good possibility that the main holding may have been sold subsequently, and certainly had its title registered, where the separated land hasn’t. By trawling through what information you can get access to, you can find out the information that isn’t obvious, but is available through a process of deduction.
You need to become adept at finding information that isn’t immediately obvious. In other words, you have to become a bit of a private detective. And you need to find ways to get the information that is missing, hopefully without alerting anyone to your interest.
The best case scenario
Abandoned land that has no registration
Abandoned land where you can clearly find that the owner has died, and that no attempt has been made to transfer the land into new ownership.
There will be cases where there is an owner alive and well, who simply has no interest whatsoever in the property they own.
Where there is a registered owner, but the address for service is wrong, or well out of date.
However as I keep trying to point out, in all of these cases, there may well be an owner somewhere who will take steps to recover the land. In so many cases, the only way to test this is to take possession and see what actually happens.
One piece of land I am in possession of has an almost perfect back story, but I of course, I only discovered this after I landed upon it.
The land had been gardens to cottages that had been demolished in the 60-70’s . Owners ended up with gardens not attached to anything. When you add the whole together there is quite a sizeable block, on a main road, close to the local town. One was listed as part of the neighbouring property on LR so not for grabs.
When I landed, the neighbouring landowner came and claimed ownership and told me to leave. I insisted on proof of this.
They returned a few days later with a copy of a will where one of these cottages had been listed, and left to the woman by her grandfather. However this was back in the 70’s. They had actually used some of the land, and kept pigs there, fencing off the portion they believed they owned. For some unknown reason though, there were never any formal transfer of the property, and they could not show any deeds.
So why is this perfect
Simple really,
An apparent owner showed up immediately, but cannot prove their title to the property.
All the neighbours believe their claim to the property, and some are a bit hostile, but this is irrelevant. This does however mean that no one else is likely to make a challenge.
The claimed owners cannot now make a claim for lost deeds as I’m now in full possession.
They cannot legally move me off the property as they would have to be able to prove ownership in order to do this.
They know that the property is well covered by camera’s which record everything that goes on there. Any attempt to interfere with my property would therefore make them vulnerable to prosecution.
They initially had their friends driving past, very obviously taking photo’s and video’s of me. Various people also walked around the site doing the same thing(ignoring me, whilst pointing their phones directly at me). I pointed out that all of this was in fact building up evidence in my favour!!
I have a video of the same farmer who initially strutted around the property telling me I would soon be gone, standing beside his tractor that is twice the size of my caravan, shaking his head, his whole body language now that of defeat.
This was about 6 weeks after I took over the property, and now about seven months ago. He has never returned.
Oh, and one of their friends came on the site and knocked over one of my camera’s, which was caught by another. I reported this a criminal damage. It never came to anything but was more a statement of intent.
I have a caravan on site, the site is visibly secure, and I stay there a couple of nights a month, and am always very visible when I do.
The irony is that they could have claimed, and had full title to the property based on their own use of it, any time in the last 30 years. Instead they just abandoned it.
Strangely enough, they seemed to want it after I took possession.