| Trying to find out who owns a piece of land may | | | | Ordinance Survey plan must be in the correct |
| seem an impossible task; if you ask local residents | | | | scale which is 1:1250 and on the correct mapping |
| nobody knows the owner, they haven’t been | | | | system this can be purchased from the UK |
| seen for years or they live in another part of the | | | | Ordinance Survey website. |
| country, so now what?. The other alternative is | | | | Once you have a clear outline of the land you will |
| to go directly to the land registry but there is a | | | | need to find which HM Land Registry office deals |
| vast amount of information they need from you, | | | | with the area in question (this is not always as |
| before they will be able to search for you. We | | | | obvious as it may first seem, for example the |
| have outlined here what you need to do and the | | | | office that deals with the Leeds, West Yorkshire |
| best ways for getting the information you need. | | | | area is an office in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire). |
| Remember that over 35% of land in the UK is | | | | You can now visit the correct office with your |
| unregistered so there are no guarantees that you | | | | map and hope they can find the information you |
| will be successful. | | | | require. |
| There are many reasons why people search for | | | | Unfortunately there is no guarantee that you will |
| the owners of land, | | | | get the land ownership information required. HM |
| - They may be looking to buy a piece of land that | | | | Land Registry states that around 35% of all land |
| is not for sale. | | | | in England and Wales is unregistered land. |
| - Or require the consent of a property owner to | | | | |
| carryout changes to the land. | | | | What is Unregistered Land? |
| - Possibly they need to issue court papers on the | | | | Unregistered land is land which is not registered |
| owners. | | | | with HM Land Registry. This means that the |
| - Have a boundary issue or want to extend land | | | | property will not have a Title Register or Title Plan |
| or garden area. | | | | filed at HMLR. In this case proof of ownership is |
| - Considering using the land for pasture. | | | | by production of the historical Title Deeds. |
| Here are several ways in which you can try and | | | | It is in the interests of the land owner to register |
| find who owns a particular piece of land. | | | | their land, largely due to provisions within the land |
| The most obvious way is to carry out a Land | | | | registration act 2002 affording the land owner |
| Registry Title Register Search, this will reveal who | | | | greater protection against adverse possession. |
| owns that piece of land and other information you | | | | Alternatively you can use a private investigations |
| may find useful such as when it was purchased | | | | company that specialises in finding the owners of |
| and how much it was purchased for. | | | | unregistered land. They will do the work so you |
| To obtain the Title Register you will need to get | | | | don’t have to, you can place an order with |
| the official Ordinance Survey plan of the area and | | | | them and they will carry out specific investigations |
| highlight the piece of land you are querying. The | | | | to locate the owners on your behalf. |