There's a semi derelct house in the village where we're looking to buy/build a house. It's been empty for at least ten years according to the neighbours and when the last occupier died, they left it to a charity, alledgedly. The property has no services.
The Land Regisrty recognises the address but has no title details.
The local council have no details on the property and can offer no suggestions on how to trace the owners.
Any suggestions? Apart from moving in and saying I bought it in a charity shop......

[Edited on 18/2/10 by owelly]

Squatters rights after so many years?. Not sure on the time frame tho!

Landsearch

Landsearch just looks through the Land Registry and charges £22 for a £4 document and the Land Registry has no title info for the property.

There are paid investigators that find the rightful owners of empty properties (I believe the idea is that empty properties lead to squatters/crime/social degradation), speak to tyour local council to see if there are any working near you.

Every council should have an employee who researches these types of property to find the owner and either get it sold or refurbed. Speak to the council again, find out who it is whose responsible and sweet talk them ! They will have hundreds if not thousands of such properties so in order to priotise the one your interested in then you have to be nice !!

Pumpers

Put a sign up on it with..

"LAND ACQUIRED FOR DEVELOPMENT
BY OWELLY BUILDING SERVICES "

Stick your mobile number on it and see what happens, sure then if its owner is still around/interested they'll be straight on to you.

Hopefully no-one has any claim to the property - then it's a free house ith the only proviso that you can't sell it within a certain time period (5 years IIRC).

And we all have to share the profits you get from it

it takes 11 years to get adverse possession; gain entry and secure the place, maintain it, and if the owner does show up, i believe you can charge them for the maintainance.

Someone has either been paying municipal taxes or not. The city/county/municipality must know who either has been paying or owes them money. They KNOW, but maybe aren't saying.

In Canada, school taxes are connected with our municipal taxes as well, so the area state run school board (I never know what you lot mean by private/public schools...) might know. If there are back taxes due, you may be able to get it cheap off the city/municipality.

Good point RK. I have a chum who looks after the local council tax gubbins.

Adverse possession looks to be a bit of a minefield. It would be OK if the property was in a quiet rural middle-of-nowhere area but it's in the sort of place where everyone knows or wants to know what you're doing......especially if they think you're doing something that they could have done....
http://www.propertylawuk.net/adversepossessionsquatters.html

If the house was left to a charity then there would have been a will? Is there anyway to check on wills ?. Is it worth checking with local lawyers etc?

I think I'll 'phone the council again and ask for the details of whoever pays the council tax. If they quote the Data Protection Act, I'll quote the Freedom of Information Act..........
Zoopla seem to have the basic details of the property such as the number of bedrooms, reception rooms, bathroom, floor area etc. so it must be on some system somewhere!

If I was you I'd just go round with the address of the place written down. Go to the council and various estate agents saying you want to buy this property.

Tell you what when they see comission they'll find out who owns it!

If the House has been empty for 10 years then noone should be paying council tax, the rules on exemption are quite complicated but from what they say and unnocupied building owned by a charity or as part of a deceased estate before being moved over doesn't require council tax.