Ransom Strip and the Council

[GoodOldBoy]

Briefly, my wife and I own some land (behind our home) on which we have recently obtained Outline Planning approval for several houses. (We hoped it would be our somewhat belated pension pot as we are both comfortably over 60).

The access road will cross unregistered (white) land, and we would take out an Indemnity Insurance (in case the owner suddenly appears). It is open land and the County Council cuts the grass.

The Council Assets Management Team has been in touch. They confirm it doesn’t belong to them but, because they have cut the grass for many years it ‘should belong to them’. They say they regard it as a Ransom Strip and want to charge us £80,000 for putting the access road across it.

Here in the North East land is much cheaper than in most of the UK and an additional charge of £80,000 would make the project unfeasible.

We talked to our (non-specialist) solicitor who says he has never encountered unregistered land used as a Ransom Strip and doesn’t believe it is legal or enforceable. Even if he is right, now the Council have taken this stand we cannot obtain the necessary Indemnity Insurance unless we can get them to admit they do not have a claim.

Has anyone seen such a thing before?

Advice or opinions would be very much appreciated.

[efpom]

You will, no doubt, be aware that detailed planning permission will be required.

If the owner of the 'ransom strip' is unknown, to you and to the council, it is not open to the council to 'deem', the land should belong to it and charge you a fee to use it.

It may be that the council consider that by cutting the grass, they have adverse possession - they would have to register that with the Land registry

But, perhaps two different, but interconnected things are in play here - detailed planning permission and who owns the ransom strip needed to develop the site.

Because of the speculative nature of my writing, it might be worthwhile posting up the correspondence between you and the council about the ransom strip, to see if some of that speculation can be 'bottomed out'.

[GoodOldBoy]

First sign of trouble was this email from DCC:

I have received legal advice which has confirmed that DCC are in a strong position to claim the unregistered land due to the fact that we have maintained it as part of our own open space for a significant period therefore should be in DCC ownership. On this basis if I am to progress this request to purchase, at this point at this point I am obliged to consider this case as a ransom strip as I am required under S124 of the Local Government Act to ensure that the council receives best consideration. Therefore I consider the council are due a third of the sites uplift value as per Stokes v Cambridge.

My surveyor replied:

As a Chartered Surveyor, you will be aware of the specific requirements to establish ‘Adverse Possession. Cutting the grass is not sufficient to establish this.
Before I recommend that my Client seeks legal advice, no doubt at significant, and in my opinion, unnecessary cost to him, could you please ask your legal department to provide details of any precedent to support your ‘strong position’.

This prompted the DCC reply:

I have undertaken a valuation on this site on the basis that we consider the land a ransom strip, however it is currently waiting for sign off which has been delayed due to a back log.

Yes I am aware of the requirements to establish adverse possession, however we consider that this being part of public open space owned by the County Council, it is not your typical case and historical mapping would suggest that it should be in our ownership along with confirmation from council staff of our historical maintenance.

It is in the interests of good estate management that when we come across cases such as this that we aim to regularise the title ownership. Until we have established this, I wouldn’t be comfortable agreeing to dispose of an access strip at less than what the site is worth if we are successful in registering the land to the County Council. Consequently we intend to submit an application to regularise this ownership.

For your information our land ownership at this site is also classified as public open space and is therefore subject to a public consultation if we were to dispose.

It seems that there is some legislation relating specific to public open space, which cannot find.

And that is where we are at present.

[tom997]

Briefly, my wife and I own some land (behind our home) on which we have recently obtained Outline Planning approval for several houses. (We hoped it would be our somewhat belated pension pot as we are both comfortably over 60).

The access road will cross unregistered (white) land, and we would take out an Indemnity Insurance (in case the owner suddenly appears). It is open land and the County Council cuts the grass.

The Council Assets Management Team has been in touch. They confirm it doesn’t belong to them but, because they have cut the grass for many years it ‘should belong to them’. They say they regard it as a Ransom Strip and want to charge us £80,000 for putting the access road across it.

Here in the North East land is much cheaper than in most of the UK and an additional charge of £80,000 would make the project unfeasible.

We talked to our (non-specialist) solicitor who says he has never encountered unregistered land used as a Ransom Strip and doesn’t believe it is legal or enforceable. Even if he is right, now the Council have taken this stand we cannot obtain the necessary Indemnity Insurance unless we can get them to admit they do not have a claim.

Has anyone seen such a thing before?

Advice or opinions would be very much appreciated.

Hi there GoodOldBoy, were you able to get this resolved in the end? I work on a show called Rip Off Britain and I'd be interested in finding out - thomas.bowen02@bbc.co.uk

Many thanks,

[paulajayne]

Hi there GoodOldBoy, were you able to get this resolved in the end? I work on a show called Rip Off Britain and I'd be interested in finding out - thomas.bowen02@bbc.co.uk

Many thanks,

Did you clear this with the site owner / Admin.

[Gamesmanship]

Unregistered 3ft strip of land adjoining my property as shown on historic survey map and not belonging to the neighbours land on their title deeds.The strip is identified with land registry number. And historical was retained in 1954 when the adjoining land was sold to developers.
The strip remains unregistered although over ten years ago I put a caution on the strip (thus the land having a title number)
The strip allowed access to my front door in the passageway and is and part identified with being raised and a line marker.
The strip (pavement) to the house conforming to building regulations when the house was built”in 1829 “every house must have a pavement access.
The gated strip was removed by default in 1968 when the developers purchased the land iand built a block of flats that service that serviced the rear entrance to 40 flats and 34 garages that have made claim to the ten foot passageway. (Includes the 3ft strip)
Since 1975 I maintained the strip as a safe access to and from the house.
Having failed to register the strip to my property on several occasions with the land registry is there any suggestion how this may be achieved for safe access to the property with larger cars now driving over part of the pavement.

i believe this may be a random strip as no compensation was paid to the property use of at the time of development and adverse procession by the property company will not support an act that is not legal. (Driving over a pavement )
Had it been disclosed at the time of planning the 40 flat development and the 35 garages the access road to be 7ft it would have unlikely to have been passed

Thanks for reading this