Unregistered land in English law is land that has not been registered with the Land Registry. Within this area of law, the term “land” refers to land, buildings or both.
Unregistered land, despite being legally owned has not been bought, sold or had any other transactions pertaining to it since the compulsory registration date for your area. From this date any such transaction will have triggered a compulsory first registration of the unregistered land with the Land Registry. The legal owner should have documents, often referred to as Title Deeds and to register the land an application can be made to the Land Registry with these Title Deeds.
What about unclaimed or abandoned land?
Unclaimed or abandoned land is not as easy to ascertain as there is no set process and it comes down to researching with the Land Registry or neighbouring properties and other sources.
If a piece of land is unregistered and you do not have access to the Title Deeds, we can still help as you may be able to make a claim to own unclaimed land through adverse possession depending on your circumstances.
Contact commercialpropertyenquiries@afglaw.co.uk for further information or call us on 0161 515 2577