Claiming unregistered land: how it works

This is general information about the law of England and Wales, not legal advice. Every case turns on its facts. Speak to a property solicitor before you act.

The short version

If you treat a piece of unregistered land as your own, openly and without the owner’s permission, for 12 years, the owner’s right to recover it ends. You can then apply to HM Land Registry to be registered as its owner. This is called adverse possession.

Registered vs unregistered land

This matters more than anything else:

• Unregistered land: after 12 years of adverse possession the owner’s title is extinguished (Limitation Act 1980). This is what Unregistered Land Finder looks for.
• Registered land: you can apply after 10 years, but HM Land Registry tells the owner, who can simply object. Unless one of a few narrow exceptions applies, the application then fails (Land Registration Act 2002, Schedule 6).

What counts as possession

The courts look for two things:

1. Physical possession: you’ve dealt with the land as an owner would, to the exclusion of everyone else. Fencing it in and using it as part of your garden is the classic example. Occasional use, like walking a dog across it or cutting the grass now and then, is usually not enough.
2. Intention to possess: you meant to possess it for yourself, not just use it.

And it must be without permission. If the owner lets you use the land, even informally, that time doesn’t count. Offering to buy or rent it can also undermine a claim, so get advice before contacting an owner.

Land you usually can’t claim

• Residential buildings: squatting in one has been a criminal offence since 2012.
• Public highways, including most roadside verges.
• Registered common land and town or village greens.
• Crown land needs 30 years (60 for foreshore), and land owned by church bodies 30 years.

Step by step

1. Find candidates. Use the map or Check my address. Land next to your own home is by far the most realistic.
2. Look without trespassing. View from public land, Street View and satellite imagery. Is it overgrown? Fenced? Clearly used by someone?
3. Check it’s really unregistered. Use HM Land Registry’s map search. For certainty, apply for an official search of the index map.
4. Try to trace an owner. Neighbours, old deeds, the parish council and local records often know. An owner who turns up can end a claim at any time before the 12 years are up.
5. Take advice before taking possession. A solicitor can tell you whether your plan would count as possession and what the risks are.
6. Keep records for the whole period: dated photos, receipts for fencing, witness statements. Unregistered Land Finder’s Saved plots helps you track this.
7. Apply to register after 12 years, with evidence of your possession. HM Land Registry’s practice guide 5 explains the forms and evidence it expects.

Dissolved-company land

When a company is dissolved, anything it still owned usually passes to the Crown as bona vacantia (ownerless property). The Government Legal Department’s Bona Vacantia division deals with it in most of England and Wales; the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall deal with land in their areas. They sometimes sell it, and a company can be restored to the register within six years of dissolution. Unregistered Land Finder marks property still registered to companies that are no longer on the live register, so you can investigate.

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