Finding who owns the land/house

[jonny6001]

Hi, I am 23 and will be at a stage in a couple of years to buy my own place. I really want to build a new house, this will mean I get a house closer to what I want plus I am hoping to do some of the work myself thus saving some money plus a lot of my friends are tradesmen.
I have seen an area that I would like to build, it very rural plus has a number of derrelict houses.
I have a couple of houses in mind but I can not find out who owns the houses or who owns the land. I have searched the land registry without any luck, the houses are in middle of fields which don't have roads going to them. I don't think it has changed hands recently.
Do you guys have any idea how I could find out who owns the land?
I don't want to go asking a lot of local farmers because once they hear someone is interested, god knows how much they would want for it.

I can provide the location through google map if that is any help in giving me some advice.
Thanks a lot for your time.

[googler]

If they're in the field, with no access road, then it's a 99 per cent certainty that the farmer owns them, wouldn't you say?

Consider planning permission first of all. The area may have a local plan that prohibits residential development in rural areas unless such development can be justified as required for the working of the farmland thereabouts. If there's a prohibition such as this, you're wasting your time with land registry etc. since you won't be able to get permission to redevelop the derelicts unless you prove that more farmhands will be living there, and they're required for working the farm.

Consult your local council's planning dept, or look on their website. Look for similar applications and see any decision notices for same.

Even if you do get permission, if there's no access road, there's not likely to be any right of access over the farmer's land. So you'll need to buy a strip of land off the farmer to form an access road.

Utilities - getting gas, electricity, water, drainage, phone lines to the property - considered all these?

[googler]

Originally Posted by jamiejamie

not always

Wow, that's really profound. What's "Not always"?

[gdwebs]

Speak to the Land Registry - They know!

[Richard Webster]

Speak to the Land Registry - They know!

Not if the land isn't registered they won't, and not all land in England Wales is registered yet.

[robhardcastle]

If is is unrgistered land then you may have a tough time finding teh owners at he Land Registry - in this case you can use a company like Finder Monkey to help you find the owners of the land.

[simonbriody]

Hi Jonny

Send me the location in google maps and i'll do my best to find it for you. I have done this with quite a few properties so I can give it a go if you want?

Regards
Simon

[a_cambridge]

Hi Jonny,

I see a number of posts already suggest using the land registry but thought I'd put my tuppence in too. For £3.00 you can conduct a standard land registry search on the land registry website. search for the landregistry website then select the "find a property" tab. The search results will show you who owns the house and their address (useful if its derelict etc) , and any other parties with an interest in the property, i.e. if theres a mortgage on the property then it'll show which bank has the mortgage.

Good luck finding a suitable property.

[Slow Rambler]

"..I have seen an area that I would like to build, it very rural plus has a number of derrelict houses.."


Hmm...
One derelict house is just one derelict house, and may be derlict purely due to neglect. "A number of" derelict houses sounds like maybe some wider problem - like local subsidence, or future infrastructure threat perhaps (longterm plans for industrial or transport structures close by). Clearly some research needed.

If you have spotted these buildings, it is quite likely that other developers have previously done so. What stopped them proceeding? Check for any previous refusals of planning permission.

[Damo123]

I am looking to do exactly the same thing and have found the same issue with the land registry. How did you get on? Did you try finder monkey?