Bottom End Of Garden Is Registered To Persimmon Homes - ?!

[buffymad]

Sorry to ask more questions about my garden but if it's not one thing, it's another!

My garden hasn't been registered with the LR and my solicitor is in the course of doing that. After an ordnance survey man coming out to look at the garden, measure it etc, a new plan has been drawn which is fine. However, when the LR looked at the new plan, they've realised that the back end of it is registered to Persimmon Homes!

I live in a row of terraced houses and we all have gardens. To the back of these gardens there used to be a field which was subsequently bought by Persimmon and built on. My garden and another 3 or 4 to the bottom of the street have an "extra" bit at the back of the garden, ie it juts out more than the other gardens. My garden was like this when I moved in nearly 20 years ago and nothing has changed.

I understand that (hopefully) Persimmon will agree to transfer that bit of land to me (it's tiny by the way) as they've never really had use of it (in other words, it's always been on my side of the fence) - but do you think they would charge?

Not sure what the legal standing is here as they've somehow registered part of my garden - even though they were the ones putting up the fences for the new houses where they did. I know my garden wasn't registered at the time - but how can they register part of my garden which was fenced off to that field before that in any case?

Just trying to get my argument together in case they come back and "be funny" with me.

[dzug2]

Well - only a guess.

The whole field will have originally been registered to the developer. When they subsequently registered part of it as your garden what was left was still theirs. Could be they just got the measurements wrong then - could be they wanted to retain ownership to provide access in the event of further development in the area

What their attitude will be now - pass. If that further development is still a possibility they won't give it up easily. If it's just a nuisance to them they may be reasonable about it.

[buffymad]

The field was just a field for a long time - not fenced off or anything, kids playing on it, people having bonfires etc. As I say, the gardens now are exactly as they were back then. It was only when everyone received notice that Persimmon wanted to build houses on the field that anything changed. I'm assuming they bought a big block of land (ie the field) and no one came out to see if anything was "just so".

Just doesn't seem fair that we haven't touched the garden (well the length of it), but some of it has been registered to Persimmon through no fault of our own - hence the worrying about being told to pay for any transfer - seeing as it wasn't our fault in the first place!

[The Builder]

To be realistic, Buff, I think you would inevitably have to pay not only yours, but their legal costs. That's even if they agree to a sale/transfer.
Otherwise, it's nothing to them. They'll just leave it as it is.

If they don't agree, I would just leave things as they are. It doesn't sound as though it affects your enjoyment of the property.

[whiskeryron]

If you know exactly how much of the garden is registered with Persimmon, just fence it off or grow a row of shrubs across & forget it, it seems that it hasn't been important up to now.

WR.

[FredPuli43]

Is it fenced in and has it been for twenty years? Then you can apply to the Land Registry to register a claim to it, but I'd be strogly inclined to leave things as they are because, once you register the claim, Persimmon will be on notice and may do all in their power to resist it. The longer things stay as they are, the better your claim, or that of any subsequent buyer. And don't write to Persimmon, or they'll definitely start arguing and start claiming a price to convey it.

This happens surprisingly often. I developed a site of 40 houses. Many years on, I discovered that the solicitors hadn't conveyed a fairly substantial piece outside one plot, by the roadside, to anyone, and I was still the owner. But nobody had fenced it off. I assume that it was meant to go the plot owner. Anyway, the current owners of the plot have now offered to buy it. And my current solicitors are not in the least surprised by the original mistake; they've had it before.

[FredPuli43]

If not fenced in, you have more of an evidential difficulty, but , if you can show that it has been treated as yours, without acknowledging any other owner or Persimmon,for the requisite time, you could still make a claim, but, as I say, I think you'd be ill-advised to do so