I have spotted a really nice house with what looks like a good bit of garden, its in the middle of nowhere...
now the building is in a very bad state and obviously hasnt been lived in for many years....
Looking at the land registry website and paying silly amounts of money for the privilage it appears there is no registered owner for the house....
The fields either side are owned by local farmers, and on their land registry file these fields are "flagged" so that if anyone tries to buy
anything in the surrounding area they are suposed to be contacted...presumably because they are either interested in the house themselves, or
interested in selling more of their land with the house...
If I wanted to try and aquire this house, how on earth would I go about doing it?
If it doesnt belong to anyone, how can I buy it?
If it doesn't belong to anyone, then the owner is the local goverment.
dunno how its called. The man wich has a special chain around his neck.
Go to the city house of him and ask there from who it is. if you are unlucky then it means that the house/land isn't for sale for example its
historic or its protected because of flore/fauna..
Tks
I asked the local council when I've looked at it before, they well may know.
Also try googling the address. I found a wonderful property recently only to Google full planning consent to knock it all down and build flats
there...
Finally - Ask the local/nearest pub! Someone in there is BOUND to know!
Cheers and good luck!
Its one of those things where if you prod around too much, you may end up having a lot of competition for, what is, a very very hidden spot...
Amusingly, I only spotted it when I flew over a few months ago.
Here's a simple solution:
Go to the property and secure it. Fit new doors if needed and leave a sign screwed to an inside wall with your contact details on.
There will be a few possible outcomes.
1. The correct owner will contact you to ask WTF you are playing at. In which case you apologise and hand them the keys.
2. You'll hear nothing from anyone as no one will break in and then challenge your sign unless they have a right to.
3. One of the adjoining landowners contacts you. You can bluff your way around by saying you have found the deeds as part of a will or something and
get them to go away!
4. Something else......
As I see it, you won't have commited any serious crime by entering the property and securing it. If the correct owner contacts you, they
can't grumble as you have secured the building for them!!
And then you simply move the builders in a pretend you've lived there for ages! Simple!
If you've lived in a property for a number of years you can legally claim it as your own.
So, get a polaroid camera, some old 1980's clothes from the charity shop, find a copy of a newspaper from the same era.
Take photo of you at the house with said items (wearing the clothes) then claim you;ve lived there for 20 years.
its 11 years before you can properly claim it. However you can move in if you want. Squatters rights at first, later becoming adverse possession i believe.
thats how squaters in london own many million £ plus houses. as someone dies and noe one looks after it, they move in, 11 years or so later, its
theres. legally.
so do the doors etc thing, if nothin comes of it for a year, move in and claim squaters rights, but say you have been there for how ever long you
think you could realistically say you have lived there, prob get it for free then.....
bargain......
if the place is secure and you enter you could be arrested for house breaking with intent to steal (even if there is nothing inside to steal)
Davie
The land registry only shows up land that has has been purchased or mortgaged against in the last 20 or 30 years or so....
Hmmm...Interesting responses guys...chears..
Think it might be a tricky one to secure....there are some rather large holes in some of the walls
However tempting it is, to just "claim it"....I dont want to spend time and money on it, and then find in 8 years time that the legal owner
wants it back and kicks me out....Its all got to be legal...
Applying for planning permission to do something on the land might flush out the owner. You don't have to own somewhere to apply for permission, and the person who is likely to object to a planning application is the owner. Relatively cheap way to hopefully find out something.
The Local Authority should know the last occupiers for what would have then been Rates now Council tax, it would be a bit of a trawl through the
Valuation records (not the billing records) but you could find it.
Then if you cant find it from there I would go round and knock on all of the locals doors, tell them why you want to know, if they already know who
owns it and want to buy it they would already have beaten you to it.
The next step would be to got to the local Records Office and trawl through the Parish and manorial records, the local church records might be useful
as well.
My wife recently did a search in the Records office on the house that was demolished 20 odd years ago to build our house, she actually got more help
from the locals who had lived in the village all their lives and even provided us with photos.
[Edited on 15/1/08 by Schrodinger]
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Think it might be a tricky one to secure....there are some rather large holes in some of the walls
Be careful. Just cos land registry couldnt give an owners name does not mean it is not owned - it just means it has been registered under the latest
scheme (or whatever its called).
I owned a 35 year old house a couple of years back. On the house plans the builder left a strip of land at the back as a kind of green belt (but not
officially as such). 20' after the owner of big house planted beech, put up fence blah de blah. many moons ago the fence was rotten, cows from
field to side got in, trampled the rest blah de blah. Anyway the point of this is that the owner of said large house was extremely well connected
(high court judge no less) and being rather shrewd claimed it quietly and for many years he had periodic land surveys carried out (as required by law
when you claim grants etc) and therefor could easily claim ownership. Suffice to say when i tried to fence it of as mine i recieved a well worded
private warning through his firm.
Im wondering if you can find out who owns the land around the property and then be able to make suitable enquiries.
Could it be coal board or church commissioners property? Are there any plaques on the walls linking it with a country estate (where i live Raby
Estates have a distinctive mark on all their buildings).