How To Stake Your Claim

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="044085a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>thebubblingpot</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="thebubblingpot"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="legal dragons"><U>legal dragons</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="legalise on claiming land"><U>legalise on claiming land</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The New Law"><U>The New Law</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Finding Plots "><U>Finding Plots </U></A>   |   <B> How To Stake Your Claim</B>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Successful Claims In The Press"><U>Successful Claims In The Press</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FLOW CHART"><U>FLOW CHART</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Title 60"><U>Title 60</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="045d2e83.jpg"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I> How To Stake Your Claim</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Chapter 3 - How To Stake Your Claim</div> <div> How Do I Lay My Claim:</div> <div> You will need to take possession of your land/property. Remember that what you are doing is entirely within the law and the fact that you did not purchase the land/property or inherit it makes no difference. The Land Registry accepts that if you have possessed the land/property for the statutory time period (i.e. 12 years for unregistered or 10 years for registered land/property), and if you have not received any objections from the current owner or another claimant you may become the registered owner with possessors freehold rights. Remember that unless you have actually done things on the land, such as having it fenced or occupied it without permission, which amount to adverse possession, you will have no rights at all.</div> <div> If you can prove open, adverse and exclusive occupation of land, coupled to an intention to occupy, for a continuous period of 10 or 12 years, and the relevant conditions are met then the documentary owner of the land will lose the right to sue you and effectively transfers the ownership of the land to you.</div> <div> You can apply to the Land Registry to be named as the owner of the land but, although the effect of establishing adverse possession is to defeat the title of the paper owner, you will take possession under the same terms as the true owner, this includes any rights and obligations set out in the title document. (If the property was subject to any restrictive covenants etc prior to you obtaining ownership of it, these will continue to apply).</div> <div> When you take possession of the land/property it must be exclusive and not in secret. You must exclude everyone from the property but you do not have to show an intention to own the land/property. You can do this several ways such as:-</div> <div> - Changing the locks</div> <div> - Putting up boundary fences (but be sure to check you have the planning permission to do this)</div> <div> - Show that the land/property is being maintained by keeping the land presentable and repairing/renewing any existing fencing.</div> <div> - Put up gates and use padlocks.</div> <div> * The law for the UK for erecting fences is as follows:-</div> <div> "You can build a fence or a wall around a specific area of land, but should the fences or wall exceed 2 metres in height, planning permission from the local authority will be needed. Where the frontage of the proposed fence or wall is directly adjacent to a road or a highway, the maximum permitted height of the fence or wall is 1 metre. The erection of any fence or wall cannot be allowed to affect visibility of road users and/or affect the visibility of any pre-determined access point".</div> <div> Try to get some documentary evidence before you do any of the above so that you have some documentary back-up with the start date of your claim. E.G. you could take some photographic evidence of the site with yourself in the picture and get this witnessed with the date. It is a good idea to document everything as much as possible.</div> <div> For your claim to be successful you must bear in mind the following points as stated by the Land Registry:-</div> <div> - "An owner of land can lose his or her ownership (whether it be of registered or unregistered land) after there has been uninterrupted Adverse Possession". An existing owner loses his or her ownership after there has been uninterrupted Adverse Possession for the "relevant period" laid down in the Limitations Act 1980".</div> <div> - "Not an intention to own or even an intention to acquire ownership, but an intention to possess. The intention, in one's own name and on one's behalf, to exclude the world at large, including the owner with the proper paper title if he be not himself the possessor, so far as is reasonably practicable and so far as the processes of the law will allow".</div> <div> - "No action shall be brought by any person to recover any land after the expiration of 12 years from the date on which the right of action accrued to him or, if it first accrued to some person through whom he claims, to that person". The right of action accrues, and so the limitation period starts to run, from the start of the Adverse Possession".</div> <div> You must try and obtain as much evidence as possible that you are occupying the land and have documentary back-up. Simply by fencing off the land, keeping it tidy etc. will not provide enough evidence. Try to do something useful and possibly profitable from the land e.g. growing vegetables, flowers etc. to sell on (keep receipts etc. as documentary evidence), grow fruit trees, rent some of the land out to a third party etc.</div> <div> Once you have been granted ownership of the land/property after the statutory period has past and you have possessors freehold title (possessors title is one of the kinds of title that the chief land registrar can grant when land is registered. It is not as good as absolute title which is the title granted in the vast majority of cases. One important consequence of having a possessors title is that if the true owner applies for rectification of your title before the relevant period has ended, then the title will be closed and you will not receive any compensation from the Land Registry for losing your possessors title), you can take out an insurance policy to protect you from the owner of the land/property turning up and trying to reclaim it. This way, if the owner does turn up, it makes no difference to you whatsoever. There are many insurance companies who can advise on this and you can visit companies such as:-</div> <div> <U>www.countrywidelegal.co.uk/range.html</U></div> <div> <U>www.profin.uk.royalsun.com/ll/productlist.htm</U></div> <div> <U>www.marsh.co.uk</U></div> <div> If you are trying to gain adverse possession of a property you are not required to submit any forms to the Land Registry at the first stage. You must try and gain entry to the property, without force, by employing the use of a local locksmith and always have the locks changed. If the abandoned property is in a bad way you must try and refurbish it to such a standard where you can either move in or rent it out to someone. If you are looking to rent out the property it is a good idea to instruct a solicitor to write up a "Tenancy-at-Will" agreement which will allow you to ask the tenant to leave at very short notice on the basis that his/her rent is very low. Try to attract a tenant who is low-profile and who will not cause any trouble for the neighbours. As explained above, it is a good idea to obtain a good insurance policy to protect you from the actual owner trying to reclaim the property at a later date. The insurance company will either pay you the full market value of the land/property or buy the land/property from the actual owner and transfer absolute title to you.</div> <div> If The Land/Property Is Unregistered:-</div> <div> Possessors and Absolute Freehold Title:</div> <div> Assuming that you have held continuous possession of the land/property and with no challenges being made by the owner(s) during the statutory period, 12 years after the adverse possession ends, you must have submitted to the Land Registry an application to become the registered owner with possessors freehold title. The Land Registry then grants registered ownership and you are now the registered owner with possessors freehold title. After the 12 years of being granted possessors freehold title you can then apply to obtain absolute freehold title. This may seem like you have to wait 24 years before you have absolute freehold title but you can apply to have the titles converted at any time after the land/property has been registered for the statutory period.</div> <div> The Law States:</div> <div> "Where the title is a possessors one, whether freehold or leasehold, the proprietor is entitled to request conversion to either absolute freehold or good leasehold if the land has been registered for 12 years. Application can also be made, at any time after the land is first registered, to convert a possessor freehold to absolute freehold". (Section 1 & 3, LR Explanatory Leaflet - "Conversion of Title").</div> <div> This does not mean the conversion of title will be automatic but if you can substantiate your claim and adhere to the law there is a possibility the conversion can be made maybe a decade before elapse of the 24 year period.</div> <div> Obtaining Possessors Freehold Title:</div> <div> After 12 years from the Adverse Possession you can apply for registered ownership with possessors freehold title. You will need to do the following:-</div> <div> <B>1. </B>Obtain and submit form FR-1 to the Land Registry with a copy of the plan of the land area/property.</div> <div> <B>2. </B>Complete Form DL where you can supply supporting evidence to show you have been in continuous possession of the land.</div> <div> <B>3. </B>Statutory Declaration which should be completed and signed (with legal help). This should include information such as stating what purpose the land/property will be used for, name of the person thought to be the owner, title number of the land, when the adverse possession started, boundaries and fencing, any disputes arising on the land/property etc etc.</div> <div> If your plan of the land/property which is submitted with form FR-1 is unclear a Land Registry Surveyor will be instructed to visit the site in order to clarify the details by doing an inspection (approximately £40 fee)</div> <div> Obtaining Absolute Freehold Title:</div> <div> After 12 years of being granted possessors freehold title you can apply to have the title converted to absolute freehold. The Land Registry Act states:-</div> <div> "Where the title to a freehold estate in land has been entered in the register as possessors for 12 years, the registrar may enter it absolute if he is satisfied that the proprietor is in possession of the land."</div> <div> <B>1. </B>You will need to obtain form UT-1 from the Land Registry - "Application for upgrading of title". You will need to instruct your solicitor to help you complete this form and return it to the Land Registry with a fee of £40.</div> <div> If The Land/Property Is Registered:-</div> <div> Possessor And Absolute Freehold Title:</div> <div> After the continuous and uninterrupted possession of registered land/property (minimum 10 years) you will <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >need to do the following:-</FONT></div> <div> <B>1. </B>Complete Form ADV-1 and send it to the Land Registry (after your solicitor has helped you with its completion). A plan of the area should be attached.</div> <div> <B>2. </B>You can submit with documentary evidence your claim to prove you have held the possession for the statutory period.</div> <div> <B>3. </B>Submit a Statutory Declaration - again with the help of a solicitor.</div> <div> Once the above information has been submitted to the Land Registry they will then contact the registered owner to advise them that an application has been made to have the land/property changed to a new owner. The registered owner will then have a maximum of 65 working days to reply. Your application will be turned down if the owners do respond. Again, the site may have to be inspected by the Land Registry Surveyor (approximately £40). If the Land Registry has not heard from the owner you will then have confirmation of your registered ownership and the same title will be passed to you (if the title was absolute you will obtain absolute title). If the application is rejected for any reason you can reapply 2 years after the date of rejection.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>