For hundreds of years man has claimed free land or property and called it its own. So, it is not a practice which is new and if you go through the pages of a history book, you will find ample examples supporting this fact.
One of the best historical examples would be that of the new settlers of America who came in, claimed all the free land and started building houses and farmlands on the same.
Similarly, in recent times millions of such vacant plots lie here and there unclaimed and unused waiting for someone to come over stake claim and put it to good use.
For you, the first step would be that of property identification. For you to claim a piece of free land, first you need to selectively identify the particular plot of property. Remember, you need to do a bit of detective work.
Unclaimed property can be of various forms but they always have some sure signs about them. You need to be able to identify these signs, some of them being unused old buildings, overgrown gates and gardens, derelicts, shrub lands, fields, broken or bordered up windows, even old commercial premises and industrial buildings.
Remember that these signs might not always be so obvious and if you drive around your neighborhood instead of walking, chances are that you would miss these signs of unclaimed property.
In adverse possession, registration check is the second step after property identification. Thus, once you have identified your plot of property, you need to check its registration status next. Contact the local Land registry in order to find our whether it is registered, unregistered or pending first application.
If your selected piece of land is already registered, it might mean different things. For once, the owner might be dead without any relatives or may be that the relatives are there but have no interest in the said property. Infact it might also be the case that he has abandoned it for good and left the country altogether.
If the status is ‘Unregistered’ it means that there is no owner and the land has never been registered. Thus, it is the best claim bet for your endeavors. But it must be said at this point that owner tracing will becomes difficult in such instances.
Coming to the third instance of the land being in the ‘Pending first Application’ mode, its better to let go of this and search another free plot of land instead since someone else has already beaten you to it and claimed it first.
Thirdly, if it shows pending first registration it might mean that someone has beaten you to claiming it and the good idea would be not to pursue the said plot of land and look for another one instead.
A good idea would be to ask the neighbors first. They would be in the best position to know about the original owner. If it doesn’t work then you might check up with the local parties such as the landlords, post office, newsagents, milkman, or even the probate registry office (incase he has expired)
Though it is not mandatory to provide any documents to the land registry, it is always better if you maintain an evidence of your claim commencement date. You can do this by drawing up a document and asking two of your friends or colleagues to sign as witnesses.
Doing things like putting up a fence or infact a ‘No Trespassing’ signboard are good ways to find out quickly whether there are at all any owners to the plot of land.
You can make money while the long claiming period gets over. This period can even go upto 10 or 12 years and what you can do in between is either rent out the land or hold events like boot sales and the like.
The process for claiming land is long (10 or 12 years) but is fruitful and while waiting to claim your land or property you can make money from using the land or property from things like renting out and holding boot sales.
More information on adverse possession can be got from the countless CDs and booklets available openly in the market which talks about the various legislation rules and laws corresponding to the same. You can also contact the various private websites who are involved in undertaking the detective work required for digging out information about the original owner and his land.
So you can use all of these facilities while going ahead in searching and claiming a new plot of land for your new life!
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