Free land claiming as a practice has existed since the beginning of time. Man has always looked for better land to settle in and once suitable free land was available, communities has settled and thrived on it one the biggest examples of which is America itself.
Are you aware that almost 40% of land of England and Wales are not registered at all? Thus, you yourself can become an owner of a good plot of land through adverse possession if you happen to have the right motivation and patience for it.
Process of claiming free land follows a few steps starting from property identification to owner tracing and thereafter adverse possession. However, one must first be accustomed with the land registration concepts before embarking on this journey.
After 1990, the only plots of land to have found place in the land registry are the ones which have changed hands or have been mortgaged. Simply out, 40% of the land does not feature in this category.
If a land is unregistered, many think of it to be unowned but that’s far from the truth as because nay land plot has to be owned by someone or the other. However, that does not mean it is un-claimable.
Your endeavors to claim free property starts with the step of property identification where you choose the plot of land you want to stake claim on. Since you cannot claim anything and everything that comes before your eyes, you need to be selective in your approach and watch for the surest signs of the same.
You must have the eye of an observant while you walk around your neighborhood to be able to notice these signs.
Commonly an abandoned plot of land would be characterized by overgrown gardens and gates, derelicts, bordered up windows, some of which might also be broke, shrub lands, old commercial premises and unused industrial buildings, etc.
If you drive around, you are sure to miss these not-so-obvious signs. Rather you take regular walks around your neighborhood.
Next, you need to contact the local land registry in order to find out the registration status of the said plot of land. This step of Registration Check usually tells you whether your chosen land is registered, unregistered or pending first application.
Now, if you find the status of your chosen piece of land to be ‘Pending first application’ then the best way forward would be to leave it and go back to the ‘Land/property Identification’ step again since it simply means that someone else has claimed it before you.
In case of being a registered plot of property, you would still have a chance since the case may be that the owner has died without leaving the property to any of his relatives or perhaps has permanently settled abroad.
If your status is ‘unregistered’, then it is the best for you as it means that it is ready for you to claim. But I might also be the case that there exists and owner who hasn’t yet registered the plot of land.
The step that comes next whatever be the situation you are in from the previous step, is that of owner tracing. This is particularly important as you need to prove later on that you gave your best efforts to contact t the owner.
The neighbors are in the best position to know the whereabouts of the original owner so interviewing them is a good idea while you are at your owner tracing stage.
Moreover, people like landlords, milkman or places like the post office or electoral roles would also give you information about the original owner. You also need to visit the probate registry office in case the original owner is no more.
Now that you need to show that you have the ownership of the plot of land, put up a fence or a ‘No Trespassing’ Signboard in your adverse possession stage. Another good thing to do would be to have a record of your claim start date which one can easily keep by drawing up a document and getting two witnesses to sign it.
When you embark upon adverse possession activities, it will naturally help your owner tracing efforts since if there is any original owner of this plot of land, he will hurry down after you put up a ‘No Trespassing’ signboard! There also exist many agencies and sites that do this detective work for you for a fee.
One may also source the online sites where all necessary rules, regulations and even form templates are provided. One also gets to source information from the CDs and booklets available from the market.
You can visit http://www.freelandandproperty.co.uk. and find information regarding land registry. Discover how to do a free land search by going to this site.
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