Who owns this house?

[B17NNS]

Have seen an old house which is not occupied.

I want to write to the owner with a view to putting an offer forward to them for it.

Trouble is I don't know who they are or where they live.

Is there a way I can find out who owns it?

Thanks in advance.

[k50 del]

The ease of doing this depends on which local authority the house is in - if you're lucky, there will be an empty homes officer / department whosejob it is to keep tabs on these things. They'll be able to contact the owner of the house and put forward an offer.

If there's no homes officer then the process is a lot tougher and involves libraries and dusty archives!!

[B17NNS]

Have registered with the Land Registry.

Paid my £12 plus VAT and am waiting.

[FourWheelDrift]

Have a look here - www.land-property-grab.com/

[iaint]

There's a huge property on the A20 near new cross that could be awesome but is ivergrown and almost derelict. Would make a great place if converted and fortified*. We suspect elderly occupancy.

Iain

* Not the world's nices area

[B17NNS]

FourWheelDrift said:

Have a look here - www.land-property-grab.com/

Call costs £1.50 / min from BT landline & lasts approximately 5 min

[james p]

B17NNS said:

Have seen an old house which is not occupied. I want to write to the owner with a view to putting an offer forward to them for it. Trouble is I don't know who they are or where they live. Is there a way I can find out who owns it? Thanks in advance.

try landregisteronline.gov.uk or landreg.gov.uk. I think you can do an online search for a couple of £ and get the answer [and other info like charges, cautions and bankruptcy restrictions] straight away. NB you probably need a fairly accurate idea of the address/ postcode tho.

[FourWheelDrift]

B17NNS said:

FourWheelDrift said: Have a look here - www.land-property-grab.com/ Call costs £1.50 / min from BT landline & lasts approximately 5 min

I meant look not dial I should have added that I have read about it and ways of claiming unclaimed derelict buildings somewhere else but this was the only site I could find on a quick Google search.

[benyeats]

FourWheelDrift said:

Have a look here - www.land-property-grab.com/

Has anyone actually used this service ? If so what do they tell you for £5, I would be prepared to meet half way and pay £2.50 for the info upon sucessfully taking ownership of some free land.

Ben

[cazzer]

Claiming unregistered land or buildings takes a total of 24 years before it's yours absolutely.
12 years for a possesory title and another 12 years to be absolute.
Not exactly a "get rich quick" scheme is it?

[Piglet]

Try looking it up on Land Registry direct. You will only get a response from them if it is registered land. Different areas became areas of compulsary registration at different times so it may or may not be registered.

If it is registered, pay your two quid and download the copy of the register. This will show you the postal address declared to the registry. It may of course just show the house address but at least you'll have a name.

If you don't get a response from the LR site - you should do an index map search (free for up to 12 results) with the Land Registry, search the land around it and if you're lucky you'll get a hit with a title number that might in some way be related to the property. I don't know if you can do it from the LR site. I can do one for you but I'll be away from today until Thursday and there are probably others on here who can do the same for you.

Otherwise, try the electoral roll? and as suggested try the local authority to see if they can throw any light on it.

Do try the obvious writing to the property by post - there might be a royal mail redirection in place, the owner might also be picking mail up.

[B17NNS]

Piglet said:

lots of things

Have posted a letter to the address (hoping they have their mail re-directed), have also posted by hand a copy of the letter through the letter box.

Address is

76 Old Road
Stone
Staffordshire
Think the postcode is ST15 8HS

If anyone can help would really appreciate it

[B17NNS]

Got a name from the electoral roll (how current this is I have no idea)

Helna Bowers
William Bowers

[marcp68]

Try ringing your parish council clerk as if they don't know themselves someone on the Parish Council probrably will know who does or at least set you on the right track to tracking down the owners.

In my area we've got several such houses and recieve requests about them not infrequently!!

[chassis 33]

From www.landregisteronline.gov.uk
www.landregisteronline.gov.uk/lro/servlet/MultipleResultsServlet?postcode=ST15+8HS&x=0&y=0&titleNumber=&houseNumber=&flatNumber=&streetName=&town=&external=true

"Title number unavailable" which in my understanding means it's either in the process of being transferred to a new owner, has been unregistered since the Land Registry Act sometime during the 60's (i think) or has not changed ownership since the aforementioned LRA.

Regards
Iain