Tracing Owner of Unregistered Land
Discussion
I would like to find out who owns some land near my home. I have OS maps going back years which all show the land as unused. I was thinking of trying there guys - http://www.peopletracingexperts.co.uk/unregistered...
Anybody here had any experience of them?
Anybody here had any experience of them?
There is no public register of ownership for unregistered land - anything a tracing company can do, you can probably do yourself for free. Plus if you have some personal knowledge of the site then you can be a bit more focussed and perhaps get a better result.
Is it definitely unregistered? If you e-mail me a plan or sufficient detail to identify it, I can do a free Land Registry map search to check.
Is it definitely unregistered? If you e-mail me a plan or sufficient detail to identify it, I can do a free Land Registry map search to check.
Jobbo said:
There is no public register of ownership for unregistered land - anything a tracing company can do, you can probably do yourself for free. Plus if you have some personal knowledge of the site then you can be a bit more focussed and perhaps get a better result.
Is it definitely unregistered? If you e-mail me a plan or sufficient detail to identify it, I can do a free Land Registry map search to check.
Thank you very much for your offer of help Simon. My own solicitor has already tried at the land registry and we have os and other maps going back over 200 years.Is it definitely unregistered? If you e-mail me a plan or sufficient detail to identify it, I can do a free Land Registry map search to check.
I was just wondering what else this firm could do and it sounds like nothing - they just want my £400.
£400 does sound like a lot; even if they're successful, all they'll give you for that is the details of the owner.
I was training some colleagues on the Land Reg map search yesterday and it's very obvious now quite how much of the country is registered. However, bits like the land you're talking about are going to be awkward for decades to come.
I was training some colleagues on the Land Reg map search yesterday and it's very obvious now quite how much of the country is registered. However, bits like the land you're talking about are going to be awkward for decades to come.
Some of the tricks of the trade in finding un-registered land.
Visit the planning department (usually you can do it online) and look at historic planning applications and see who made them
Knock on the doors of neighbours and ask
Ask the postman
Ask the local shop (especially effective in a village)
Look at the titles of all the surrounding properties to try an dfind references to rights, easements and conveyances
If the land is close t a major road or public infrastructure, locate any compulsory purchase records, Councils are terrible at registering their land
Visit the planning department (usually you can do it online) and look at historic planning applications and see who made them
Knock on the doors of neighbours and ask
Ask the postman
Ask the local shop (especially effective in a village)
Look at the titles of all the surrounding properties to try an dfind references to rights, easements and conveyances
If the land is close t a major road or public infrastructure, locate any compulsory purchase records, Councils are terrible at registering their land
And another is to stick a sign in the land advertising that you're planning to do something with it (buy it, get planning on it, build a fun fair etc) and see if anyone pops out of the woodwork. It would obviously need to be in a position to be easily seen.
We've seen this happen on parcels of land adjacent to junctions etc where applicants are looking to implement highway improvements.
We've seen this happen on parcels of land adjacent to junctions etc where applicants are looking to implement highway improvements.
Jobbo said:
£400 does sound like a lot; even if they're successful, all they'll give you for that is the details of the owner.
I was training some colleagues on the Land Reg map search yesterday and it's very obvious now quite how much of the country is registered. However, bits like the land you're talking about are going to be awkward for decades to come.
One of the reasons I work where I do is that we have (so I am told) the highest percentage of unregistered land in E&W round these here parts. Nothing like sending a 48 document Epitome to Manor Hall law or CCS I was training some colleagues on the Land Reg map search yesterday and it's very obvious now quite how much of the country is registered. However, bits like the land you're talking about are going to be awkward for decades to come.
Only this morning I was talking to the Registry about removing a protective entry which they have agreed to. They were taking the root as a 1992 DoG but I had deduced title back to 1900 which was the last OMV conveyance! As it is we are only granting a 10 years lease
Edited by Rude-boy on Friday 15th August 13:28
Jobbo said:
I take it you manage to charge more for dealing with unregistered titles then 
The only time I've made any money out of them is voluntarily registering them.
Nar, I love dealing with the old deeds and documents. I'm one of those weirdoes who loves the old deeds and documents. Done a fair few VFR's, mainly for high value probate properties to ease the sale in case the buyer has instructed Muppet and Co, and a few large farms and estates. It's great to be sat there with a big table, plans and conveyance spread all over the place and talking to some old boy about the history of when his grand uncle first bought Whiteacre Farm and then combined it with Grandad's Blackacre Farm land, etc. The only time I've made any money out of them is voluntarily registering them.Last year I sent a contract pack off to a conveyancing shop in London who wrote back to complain that I hadn't deduced title, only sent them copies of a load of old pre-registration documents. When I called to discuss this with them it was clear that they hadn't ever seen an unregistered title and thought that all land was registered...
Rude-boy said:
Nar, I love dealing with the old deeds and documents. I'm one of those weirdoes who loves the old deeds and documents. Done a fair few VFR's, mainly for high value probate properties to ease the sale in case the buyer has instructed Muppet and Co, and a few large farms and estates. It's great to be sat there with a big table, plans and conveyance spread all over the place and talking to some old boy about the history of when his grand uncle first bought Whiteacre Farm and then combined it with Grandad's Blackacre Farm land, etc.
Last year I sent a contract pack off to a conveyancing shop in London who wrote back to complain that I hadn't deduced title, only sent them copies of a load of old pre-registration documents. When I called to discuss this with them it was clear that they hadn't ever seen an unregistered title and thought that all land was registered...
Rather you than me. I loathe hand written deeds and the stupid way some of them think you fcan fix a point by using just 1 or 2 dimensionsLast year I sent a contract pack off to a conveyancing shop in London who wrote back to complain that I hadn't deduced title, only sent them copies of a load of old pre-registration documents. When I called to discuss this with them it was clear that they hadn't ever seen an unregistered title and thought that all land was registered...
blueg33 said:
Rather you than me. I loathe hand written deeds and the stupid way some of them think you fcan fix a point by using just 1 or 2 dimensions
That's the fun of it though. No plan and a piss poor description. I was doing a VFR for a very old charity and one parcel had a description along the lines of "The old cow pasture, late in the occupation of E. Jones Esq as the same is bounded to the east by the land in the ownership of F. Smith, to the south by the footway to Bromsgrove to the west by the land in the ownership of Mrs T. B. Consumption and to the North by the old Ash Tree Row." the Deed was drawn up in the 1700's. Now that was a hell of a lot of fun working out and getting the title to it registered!Rude-boy said:
blueg33 said:
Rather you than me. I loathe hand written deeds and the stupid way some of them think you fcan fix a point by using just 1 or 2 dimensions
That's the fun of it though. No plan and a piss poor description. I was doing a VFR for a very old charity and one parcel had a description along the lines of "The old cow pasture, late in the occupation of E. Jones Esq as the same is bounded to the east by the land in the ownership of F. Smith, to the south by the footway to Bromsgrove to the west by the land in the ownership of Mrs T. B. Consumption and to the North by the old Ash Tree Row." the Deed was drawn up in the 1700's. Now that was a hell of a lot of fun working out and getting the title to it registered!
I pay guys like you to sort that crap out for me, that way I can concentrate in getting the commercial element sorted
blueg33 said:
Not worth the effort for Bromsgrove
Hateful place. Dormitory town for Birmingham.Lived near for years, went for a job interview there once and before I had even got to the offices had decided it was going to cost them a lot of money to get me to work there.
Didn't get the gig.
Was not unhappy.
Rude-boy said:
blueg33 said:
Not worth the effort for Bromsgrove
Hateful place. Dormitory town for Birmingham.Lived near for years, went for a job interview there once and before I had even got to the offices had decided it was going to cost them a lot of money to get me to work there.
Didn't get the gig.
Was not unhappy.
Rude-boy said:
One of the reasons I work where I do is that we have (so I am told) the highest percentage of unregistered land in E&W round these here parts. Nothing like sending a 48 document Epitome to Manor Hall law or CCS
Only this morning I was talking to the Registry about removing a protective entry which they have agreed to. They were taking the root as a 1992 DoG but I had deduced title back to 1900 which was the last OMV conveyance! As it is we are only granting a 10 years lease
Cornwall?Only this morning I was talking to the Registry about removing a protective entry which they have agreed to. They were taking the root as a 1992 DoG but I had deduced title back to 1900 which was the last OMV conveyance! As it is we are only granting a 10 years lease
Edited by Rude-boy on Friday 15th August 13:28
Rude-boy said:
Last year I sent a contract pack off to a conveyancing shop in London who wrote back to complain that I hadn't deduced title, only sent them copies of a load of old pre-registration documents. When I called to discuss this with them it was clear that they hadn't ever seen an unregistered title and thought that all land was registered...
That's excellent. Conversely I once dealt with a wonderful registered title (back in the days of land certificates) which was the thickness of a telephone directory; the Land Registry had basically bound all the epitome of title docs together and stuck a title number on the front. It was for a power station, I forget where.Property lawyers need to enjoy sneezing, though. I don't suffer from hay fever but whenever I open an old deeds packet I get dust up my nose.
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