Question

The General · 20-12-2004 12:19am #1

I doubt many of you have ever taught of this before... anyway here's my question.....If you own a house or a piece of land, how far into the ground and how far into the sky do you own?

Bela Fleck · 20-12-2004 12:24am

26 metres each way.

The General · 20-12-2004 12:30am

u messing or is that true

Lump · 20-12-2004 12:38am

It's like supertroopers... If you own a beachhouse, do you own the sea?

John

Farls · 20-12-2004 12:44am

Lump wrote:

It's like supertroopers... If you own a beachhouse, do you own the sea?

John

Or owning land beside a lake/river. You don't own the water as such but you own the rights of access to it. With the sea you own the right of access to it. This includes not allowing people to use your area.

If you own the whole land surrounding a lake then you own the lake also.

this is all AFAIK

Farlz

Adam · 20-12-2004 2:02am

Moderater wrote:

I doubt many of you have ever taught of this before...

well if you find someone who taught it you'd have your answer lickety-split i imagine...

billy the squid · 20-12-2004 2:25am

dont know how much of the sky you own but from what I can remember you dont own the land to a certain debth. anything below that you cannot buy.

Adam · 20-12-2004 2:27am

can you actually own the sky/air/whatever-ya-call-the-space-above-your-house? i know certain areas are restricted air space or no-fly zones, but thats govt. based and generally for security reasons...

billy the squid · 20-12-2004 4:07am

well we cant have people leaving their crap in the sky when their attic is full now can we.

abccormac · 20-12-2004 10:51am

I don't know about the actual ground but anything you dig up (ie, big lumps of treasure etc) thats of archaeological interest belongs to the state

uberwolf · 20-12-2004 11:00am

equally though if you struck oil or such like... surely that'd be yours?

this has been one of the problems with metro development - ur man from madrid came over and told them one of teh things they needed to change was the law surronding this issue

Lump · 20-12-2004 11:25am

uberwolf wrote:

equally though if you struck oil or such like... surely that'd be yours?

this has been one of the problems with metro development - ur man from madrid came over and told them one of teh things they needed to change was the law surronding this issue

I dont think so, but as it's on your land some one would have to pay you to gain access to drill for it...

John

ixoy · 20-12-2004 11:28am

I thought you owned all the land beneath you to the centre of the earth. Which is why we've not gone underground yet. I don't think this has been repealed yet.

EKRIUQ · 20-12-2004 11:36am

I don't think its possible in law to actually own land, what you get is the right of the use of the land.

If you own an appartment what you really own is the air space around your appartment because there's no physical land. So possibly if you have land its the land and its airspace.

seamus · 20-12-2004 11:39am

uberwolf wrote:

equally though if you struck oil or such like... surely that'd be yours?

Only because it's finders keepers.

Burns Slant-oil drilling etc

FX Meister · 20-12-2004 11:50am

So what if the port tunnel goes under your house? Do you own a small section of that? It wouldn't be much but surely you could set up your own seperate toll booth and start charging?
But in reality you don't own the land your house is built on, you only lease it for a long period of time.

Lump · 20-12-2004 1:21pm

FX Meister wrote:

So what if the port tunnel goes under your house? Do you own a small section of that? It wouldn't be much but surely you could set up your own seperate toll booth and start charging?
But in reality you don't own the land your house is built on, you only lease it for a long period of time.

No... Because they have invested the money in building it. That's be like everyone in london getting a payout from the Tube profits each year... Madness.

Oil Companies don't actually own the oil... they pay money for drilling rights, and they invest the money in drilling. Anyone can find oil, get it up and sell it.

John

Kêrmêttê · 20-12-2004 1:28pm

When you own a house in a regular housing estate you own the bricks and mortar... You still have to make payments of Ground Rent to the Land Registry (or some other government dept.).
So, afaik, you never own the land that your house sits on unless you are a land owner and have documents detailing ownership of the land.

Gurgle · 20-12-2004 5:10pm

Kêrmêtt&#234 wrote:

When you own a house in a regular housing estate you own the bricks and mortar... You still have to make payments of Ground Rent to the Land Registry (or some other government dept.).
So, afaik, you never own the land that your house sits on unless you are a land owner and have documents detailing ownership of the land.

Thats been done away with.
All new developments have to be freehold, which means you own the land(you don't just have the right to use it). It can be seized by the CAB or you can be forced to sell by compulsory purchase order (eg. if its in the way of a planned motorway). Otherwise its yours forever. Living forever is your problem.

I don't know about the underground / overground bit though. I know there's a 4 foot concrete pipe under my back garden where the rainwater from the whole estate is drained off. The pipe is only about 4 to 6 feet underground but I'm pretty sure I can't claim it as mine and start charging people for the drainage service.

liamo · 20-12-2004 5:53pm

TIPPTOP wrote:

If you own an appartment what you really own is the air space around your appartment because there's no physical land. So possibly if you have land its the land and its airspace.

In an apartment block, no individual owns the land. A management company owns the land and each apartment owner is a member of that management company.

dermot_sheehan · 20-12-2004 6:38pm

Traditionally under the common law, when you owned land, you owned it from the centre of the earth to the edge of the universe. This has been modified over time, the flying and subteranian freeholds were created after appartment buildings appeared. Also, various Air Navigation Acts have stated that when an aircraft flies over your house, they can not be sued for tresspass.

Re: The port tunnel, to build a tunnel under your house, they have to compuslory purchase the land under it. To do this they need to go through the planning process, with appeals to Bord Pleanala and the courts which are expensive and take quite a long time. The government has considered limiting land ownership to only 10 meters from the surface so they don't have to do this for tunnels, however it's questionable whether this can be done without a constitutional amendment as the constitution (In articles 40.3 and 43), prohibit expropriation of land without compensation

axer · 21-12-2004 2:59am

but is it not through that ultimately the government own all the land of its country and thats why they can seize it via CAB and force you to sell it under comulsory purchases etc. Also considering they control the land registration etc. Or am I just paranoid.

SantaHoe · 21-12-2004 4:32am

gabhain7 wrote:

Also, various Air Navigation Acts have stated that when an aircraft flies over your house, they can not be sued for tresspass.

Interesting that they made a point of nailing that one down isn't it... d'you think someone has tried it?

*Out with the binoculars and notepad*... yep, ok... aer lingus... looks like a boeing....

Moderater wrote:

I doubt many of you have ever taught of this before...

I'd thought about it before alright... I think about many strange things when I can't sleep.
Like you could dig a huge flat pit in your backgarden and have that as your main lawn area, while at ground level, you could have nice walkways and a patio... you could effectively double the size of your property... but I suppose planning permission would be a bit tricky, not to mention underground water/gas lines. :eek:

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