Free land is something that exists in many places around us. You just have to do a little bit of searching for finding the right one. The various aspects of claiming free land are discussed in this article.
Claiming free land or property has been going on for years and it is one practice that can never be said to be new. For hundreds of years people have been claiming free property as their own and our history books provide ample proofs of this.
One instance from history can be quoted in this respect when the new settlers in America started claiming the free land as their own and built houses and farmland on it.
Coming back to the modern era, it must be stated at this point that there exists countless unused and abandoned plots of land that are lying there unclaimed and unregistered waiting for someone to stake claim on it and put it to use somehow.
The primary activity for you would be identifying a piece of free land to put your claim on. You need to be selective in this property identification process and undergo a little bit of detective work.
Identification of signs of unclaimed and unwanted property is your best way forward in such cases. Such plots of property always possess some sure signs about being abandoned. Some of these signs include overgrown gates, overgrown gardens, bordered up windows, unused garages, derelicts, shrub lands, and abandoned commercial premises and industrial buildings.
Since such signs are never much obvious, you will surely miss them if you drive about instead of walking around your own neighborhood.
After property identification, the next step for you would be Registration Check where you have to contact the Land registry in order to find out whether your selected plot is registered or not. It can be either Registered, unregistered or pending first application.
Taking the first instance, that is, if the plot of land is registered it might mean several things. Firstly, the owner might have died without leaving it to any relatives or secondly it might be that the relative are uninterested in it. Thirdly, the owner might have abandoned the property in order to move abroad.
If the Land registry tells you that it is not registered, they are basically telling you that it has not been registered before and thus does not have an owner. This is the best that can get for you to stake a claim on though you will have a harder time in tracing out the original owner in such a case.
If the plot is already ‘Pending first Application’ it means that someone else has already staked a claim on the same and the best you could do at this point would be to leave it and look for another free plot.
Once your registration check is done, owner tracing is the next step that you need to do since claiming any piece of land would require you to refurbish ample proof of you having being made numerous attempts to contact the original owner.
A suggestion would be to ask the neighbors regarding if they know anything about the original owner. If they don’t, then you might ask other local people like the landlords, milkman, electoral rolls, post office and even the probate registry office (if he is not living anymore)
Remember, it is not compulsory to submit any form to the land registry but it’s a good practice to keep an evidence of your claim start date. For this, you can simply draw up a document and get two of your friends or colleagues to sign as witnesses.
You might do things like putting up a fence or a ‘No Trespassing’ sign which would effectively work towards quickly bringing back any owner the land might have had at all.
One can make money during the long claiming period by various means. Claiming period can go up to 10 or 12 long years and you can rent out the land or even organize boot sales for making some money during this time.
Always remember, that people who live near to the property are the ones most affected by the overgrown and garbage filled derelict and hence would be the most helpful for you.
If you are looking for more information on adverse possession, you can get various CDs and booklets that would enlighten you on the different laws and legislations pertaining to the same and even websites who would undertake the outsourced owner tracing detective work from you.
There are various CDs and booklets available which talk about adverse possession and the legislations, forms and rules corresponding to the same. There are also private websites that carry out the detective work in tracing the owner and doing research about a said plot of land in exchange of a fee.
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