Some thoughts for landowners

You may think that this site exists to help other people take your land away, and in part you would be right. However there are various points I would make.

You can stop this from happening!!

You can benefit from the information here as much as anyone else. There are numerous situations where there is a little bit of orphan land sitting adjacent to land in full use and ownership. The information here will help anyone take over that land, and in many cases, the logical person to do it would be an adjacent landowner.

The principles of adverse possession apply to you as much as to anyone else. To be able to defend your claim to a piece of land, you either need to have proof of ownership, or you must meet the clearly defined criteria for adverse possession. Bear in mind, that these principles have been tested in law for a long time and are pretty clear. If you don’t meet them, but someone else does…you lose.

I should caution you that if you’re reading this because somebody has already landed on a piece of land that you believe that you own…unless you have to proper deeds, and can show full title..you’ve already lost.

The person now in possession of the land now has established a right to defend their possession of it, and can only be dislodged by a greater legitimate, and more importantly, provable claim. In every case, this would need to be a nice set of deeds, newly brought out from the dusty solicitors office.

This is your trump card. But its the only one.

Nothing else you do think, say or believe is going to make an ounce of difference. So if you can’t provide deeds..for any reason, doesn’t matter why, you’ve now been trumped, and may as well walk away gracefully.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that you can use force, superior and heavy machinery etc, you would now be the one breaking the law, and whoever is sitting on the land will probably be fully aware of that fact, and will have protected themselves from you taking that very action.

If you are actively using your land, can show evidence of this, and have clear evidence of your possession, then nobody else will have a leg to stand on. So make sure you do this. There doesn’t need to be a great deal of activity on a site to be clear that something is going on. And anyone hoping to grab land will be discouraged by this.

Make sure you have full legal ownership, or at the very least, factual possession of the land in question. If you can’t prove this, then why not. If there are any deficits in your legal position, then do something to resolve this. Don’t wait till someone attempts to take your land to resolve any proof of ownership. You may find it’s too late by then.

Two examples of this
One piece of property I have acquired, the people next door claimed that the property had been left in her grandfathers will back in the 70’s. This was no other kind of proof, just clear evidence that they didn’t resolve any ownership issues at the time as they clearly should have.

Another property has a caution against first registration. A neighbouring farmer claimed the land had not been passed on as part of a bigger holding. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant, but the caution had been put on in the 90’s, the farmer had probably made use of the land since then, but had taken no further steps to formalise their position. By failing to do so, they have no greater claim on the land than anyone else, and it would be less than someone taking actual possession of the land. They could have had full legal ownership anytime in the last 20 years, but never bothered to do so.

An addition note. Many people appear to make claims to the land registry that deeds have been lost sometime in the nebulous past. In order to make such a claim, you do still have to have factual possession of the land in question. If you don’t, you will never have a legitimate claim. They will automatically turn you down.

There is no reason not to register land with the land registry, and this doesn’t need to be triggered by an ownership change etc. It can be done at any time. Your heirs will be the ones who end up sorting out any issues that may arise long after you’re gone. It would be easier all round to get all of this stuff sorted out now, any transfer later then just becomes a simple form filling exercise.

I believe there is also a reduction in fees for first registration to encourage people to do this.

So if you hold any land that is currently unregistered, get on and do it as soon as possible. A registered owner will always be in the strongest position.

Even if you don’t register you land, make sure you have the documentary evidence of full title to all of the property you own. This way, if there is any form of dispute, you already know you have the proof needed to defend your position. Of course, if you go to the trouble to do this, you may as well full in a few extra forms, and get the whole lot registered as well.

There is the long held principle in English law that you have to protect what you own. The land registry is literally jumping through hoops to help you protect your ownership of any land. But you do have to help them a little.

Make sure that any contact information held by that Land registry is current and up to date. If the land you inherited from granddad is registered to the address you lived at 20 years ago, and you never changed this, there is no way you can be informed if there is any attempt to take possession of your land(unless you still live there of course).

Do something with the land you own. I strongly believe that ownership of something, particularly land comes with certain responsibilities and duties. So if you have land sitting there doing nothing, becoming overgrown and abandoned, it should come as little surprise that other people may not consider you a responsible owner, and see that land you own as something they could potentially take.

If you are active on some land, then ensure you have clear evidence of the activity. There should always be some form of paper trail, and if not, then find other ways to demonstrate your use and possession. At the very least put up fences and gates. What is worth investing, particularly given the value of land these days.

Keep good records of what you own so that anyone sorting out your affairs after you have gone can actually do that.

I have seen land that should have been dealt with following a death becoming abandoned. The heirs clearly had no idea that the person even owned it, and therefore took no steps to deal with it. This is particularly relevant where people own property that is not near where they actually live. Who on earth would know that the time spent on holidays in the country is to a property they owned outright that has been in the family for 50 years.

It’s one thing to keep things close to your chest, and not share possibly sensitive information, but someone somewhere needs to know.

I would suggest that people ensure that at least one person holds information about all of their various holdings, and can release this information when there is a triggering event i.e. death.

There is also the danger that people will use different legal representation if they buy property in different locations. Again, having some degree of separation between any properties you own may make it much harder to locate them in the future.

And isn’t it worth doing something with what you own. If you don’t want to there are thousands of people who would love some land, even if they only get the use of it. Find ways to keep your land and property in use, even if this does not directly benefit yourself.