An overview and some initial thoughts.

A guide for anyone hoping to find a piece of land they hope to purchase, squat, or bring back into use in some way.

I’ve been exploring abandoned properties since I was a teenager. As time has gone on, and technology has changed, I’ve got very good at finding abandoned property. Just look at this page to see some examples. I genuinely find these, and in a lot of cases will visit, explore and take photo’s of whetever remains there.

This site will tell you how to do all of this for yourself. I’ve found thousands of locations and visited lots of these. I’m not telling you where the places actually are. Why should I. But I am sharing the distilled, and I believe quite comprehensive knowledge based on years of developing these skills. Make use of it if you can…

The only element of this that remains theoretical is the process of taking adverse possession, and taking this the whole hog and claiming a property successfully. I have taken adverse possession of a number of properties, I just haven’t been doing it long enough to be able to make a claim. Others have of course and I have drawn on their experience where possible. If you have any experience of this, please get in touch, and share your knowledge.

For more information about me the relevant page.

And before I start…a warning….

BEWARE OF SNAKE OIL SALESMEN.

These are people who want to sell you poor quality information about acquiring abandoned land. Don’t fall for it.

And how do you know that this isn’t exactly that;-

I’m not charging anything for this
Just look at the breadth of information on offer as well as the sheer quantity.

I have physically written all the information you will see here. You won’t find a series of links to pages that vaguely cover the issue. This is my knowledge and experience in written form.
Is the information vague or specific?
Anything you want to clarify, just search for it. It’s all available somewhere.

I’ve broken this down into sections so you can navigate to whatever bit is useful to you. Each link takes you to its own page.

There is an interesting dichotomy here. I believe the information I’m providing will mainly be of use to people who fall into two groups who fall at two opposing poles…

1. Those who have the resources available to buy what they want. They just need to find the right kind of place, or one that meets their specific requirements.
2. People with lots of dreams, idea’s, lofty principles and a hope for a simpler life. One that they have absolutely no resources available to make happen. The potential Squatters.

Here goes..

For those of you who have the resources and just want to find the right place, you may as well skip to section that explains the techniques for searching. I suggest you browse through other sections first, but I would imagine you can gloss over those bits, and just get on with searching

And for everyone else…

First of all, there is no free land. What there is is land that for some reason or other has become disconnected from anyone who owns it. This can be for any number of reasons.

This doesn’t only apply to unregistered land. If the land has been registered, but is abandoned, there is as good a chance you can lay claim to it. In some ways, registered land becomes easier, as there is specific information you can carry out research on. Finding out land is registered, but the owner has died, and the estate already distributed is almost the best situation you could have.

And in a kind of way, if you find it, lay claim to it, and eventually get a full title on it, then technically you get it for nothing….apart from

1.The effort it took to find it in the first place.
2.The effort and time invested in securing it, maintaining it, protecting it etc. All of this will require some degree of commitment and effort, and in many cases, cost.

None of this comes without some form of cost in some way.

But then you can end up with an actual property you wouldn’t otherwise have.

So where do you start this process

Well what you don’t do is write a freedom of information request to the land registry saying “can you tell me where I can claim a piece of land in X”. And believe it or not, people do actually write such requests. They are quietly ignored. 

Oh, and when you find your little plot, you don’t plant a little sign, saying, keep out, private property, and then pop back in 12 years to make the full claim (yes, it is ALWAYS 12 years)

The process in brief is

You have to actually find a piece of land that you believe has been abandoned.

You have to take possession of this piece of land, and subsequently maintain possession for a total of 12 years before you can actually make a full claim for the land. 

Oh and there is a very clear set of rules outlining exactly what you have to do in order to successfully achieve this. And you have to prove that you have complied with all of them, or your claim will be thrown out.

You have to ensure that no one else can move you off the land, either physically, or legally.

So, do you still want to try to get something for nothing……..

Finding an actual piece of land, or a property

Maps are your friend
Online maps, and satellite imagery are the biggest sources of finding out of use land
The land registry holds publicly available information, but there will be a small cost to access this.

How to start
The simplest approach is to just physically explore an area, keeping an eye out for anything that appears to have gone out of use, and then attempting to find ownership information.

Local knowledge can be extensive. People have told me about various places they know to be seemingly abandoned as soon as they know of my interest in the subject.

The down side of this is that you may alert an owner, or perceived owner into taking action before you do.

And where do I start to look.These days I just pick a point on the map where I don’t have many pins. Every time I look at a new area, I will always find land or property that is worth looking into. You may want to be more specific, and focus on a certain area. 

You may well have to be very flexible. If there is nothing available where you want it, then look further afield. For most people, it’s the type of property that’s more important than its location.

The key to acquiring land is that the first past the post is usually the winner. Once you are on a piece of land, and have established a presence, you have put yourself in the most powerful position. Unfortunately if someone has got there before you have, unless you have an actual title to a piece of land, there is little or nothing you will be able to do to change the situation.

So the key here is to find the land as quietly as possible without alerting any possible competition, and staking your presence and claim on it before anyone else gets a chance to. 

This means that you are probably better off finding the land quietly, and without anyone else even being aware of your interest in it.

There is no easy way to do this.

I have developed a technique over time where I literally scan the entire countryside using the online satellite mapping systems. I explain this in detail in “How to do an actual search for land and property”.

But this will take time, and you will have to develop the skill of what to look out for. In other words, you need to put some effort into this process. If you happen to know a site just around the corner from your granny, then lucky you, crack on. Most sites will need to be searched for and found.

Effort will always be needed.