• Unregistered Land

    By Guest on 30th Apr 2020

    We are the owners of a strip of woodland, and there are six other properties which also own strips of this woodland. However there is one strip, adjacent to our property, which does not appear to be registered and no one is accepting ownership. We would like to therefore take over ownership of this land so that if any infection recurs after the treatment has completed, then it will be our responsibility. I am unhappy with the current situation where we are having pay for treatment of land which we do not own. I believe that we could claim "Adverse Possession of Unregistered Land", but I believe that this is only possible once we have squatted on this land for 12 years. This has not been the case, as we believed the land was owned by one of our N=neighbours, but this is not the case.
    Is there any way which we can take possession of this land without having to wait 12 years? Thanks

  • 2 Answers

    By NotaryExpress on 01/05/2020

    If you can show that the land has belonged to your property for 12 years, then likely yes. If you have not owned the property which adjoins the woodland for 12 years, you might be able to get hold of the person who sold it to you for a declaration covering their period of ownership, if they are still living and willing to help.

    www.notaryexpress.co.uk

  • By Guest on 01/05/2020

    Thank you for the reply. We are only considering trying to acquire the unregistered land because of a Japanese Knotweed infestation, which is undergoing treatment. As we are having to pay for this it seemed sensible to take ownership of the land. We have owned our property for more than 12 years, but had not previously considered acquiring the unregistered land. So I guess if we fenced in both our land and the unregistered land as one parcel immediately, then the 12 years period would commence from now, and we could then apply for Adverse Possession in 2032. One of the boundaries is a watercourse. Would we need to run a fence along that boundary as well?
    Thanks

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