Ownerless Property - Is There Such a Thing in the UK?

By Rob Fellowman

The Land Registry in the UK has recently campaigned to encourage more people to come forward to register their property or land but at present over 40% of land is still unregistered in England and Wales. As HM Land Registry points out all land is owned by someone. Even if a person with no relatives has died without leaving a will there will still be an owner, they might not even know they are the owner!

There does seem to be an abundance of websites offering the knowhow to claim unregistered land or property but the fact is this is extremely difficult to do as during the process the owner will usually surface or another person will come forward with a counter claim. These sites usually advise that you place a fence around the land or change the locks on a building as helps when claiming ownership, please bear in mind the cost of fencing off a large field only for the owner to come out of the woodwork to question what you are doing, if you are serious about owning the land then it would be easier to instruct a company to trace the owner of unregistered land on your behalf.

If you want to know who owns a piece of land or a property the first thing to do is find out who owns that property via a company who can provide this information for you, If this comes up blank, you then have to start the detective work.

The cheapest way to find out who owns a piece of land is to make local enquiries. But potential claimants should be wary of giving away too much about their motivation.

The local pub and the vicar may also come up with useful information, and the post office will know if mail is ever delivered to the address. Finding the owners of unregistered land can be a difficult task so it may be easier to use a specialist company to locate the land owners for you.

If your property is unregistered, even if it is empty, you should still have a bundle of deeds and records from previous sales and mortgages that can prove your ownership in case of a dispute.
But your best option is to register the property with HM Land Registry as soon as you can, this will stop any claims before they start.

Good luck finding the owners of unregistered land.