Land Law

niamh6426

Hi,

Myself and my partner are purchasing a house and he scenario is as follows:

Part of a property extension on 'Folio 1' was built more than 30 years ago and the gable end of the extension was built on an adjacent 'Folio 2'. The owners of Folio 1 are have also been using and maintaining a small section of Folio 2 since they purchased the property themselves and built the extension 30 years ago. All services for the property are located on Folio 1.

Within the last 3 years Folio 2 has been sold to new owners.

The owners of Folio 1 are now intending on selling the property however potential purchasers (ie. me and others!) are put off by the boundary / mapping issue. Can squatters rights be claimed by the owners of Folio 1 from the new owners of Folio 2 as given they have been using it as their own land for the last 30 years? How long does it take to claim squatters rights?

If Folio 1 is bought without the boundary / mapping issue being resolved, how long do the new owners of Folio 1 have to wait until they can claim squatters rights if the owner of Folio 2 is not willing to sign over?

How unadvised would it be for me to purchase the property with a view of securing the piece of Folio 2 at a later point?

Look forward to your comments and if you would like additional information ask or PM me and i'll send on maps. I work in the property sector myself but this is a touch 'out there' even for me!

Thanks a million,
Niamh

Rudiger

If the property in Folio two has been built on and claimed for the time period you have said (30 plus years) the existing owners can apply for possessory title to the Registry. If you require a mortgage your lending institution may have a problem with the fact that they are lending money on a folio that you are not the owner and that the charge cannot be registered on.

Bepolite

Adverse possession, the technical term for what people refer to as squatters rights, is an absolute minefield. A minefield that's been abandoned, closed off and others excluded from for at least 12 years.

Legal advice can't be sought here owing to the forum charter but you'd need to give much more information before anyone could even attempt to give you an intelligent answer. If the other party claim AP you'll need to exclude them for 12 years and that's simply no going to happen. Some cases point to them simply needing to look over the fence.

All that said AP turns on there not being permission in the first place. Speak to a solicitor in relation to this and make sure they have a good background in Land Law. Even if they do, it's likely only to be an opinion and expect the unexpected.

Pat Mustard

niamh6426 wrote: »

How unadvised would it be for me to purchase the property with a view of securing the piece of Folio 2 at a later point?

I don't know why people buy these properties until the seller fixes the fixable problems with the title.

Google s.49 application in the Land Registry and Land Registry practise notes on s.49 applications.

If the seller claims to have title by adverse possession, why doesn't he make a s.49 application, and if successful, sell with absolute title.

If the seller isn't capable of succeeding in a s.49 application, what chance does a subsequent buyer have, who is not aware of the history of possession of the property?

TL; DR why buy a property with bad title if the seller can fix it and sell with a good title, and if he can't fix the title, why buy it at all.

niamh6426

Agree with selling with good title, i'm dealing with selling a number of properties at the moment which don't have good title and people are buying them for a song.
Have spoken to the sols and the vendor is starting to make contact with the land owner of folio 2 in order to agree transfer of folio. Hopefully all will work out.
N