Boundaries · Report on Title scenario
No. Land that is registered under somebody else's title does not pass to you because the seller has been mowing it. You will take the house and whatever is in its title, and the strip at the bottom of the garden will still belong to whoever owns it — with everything that follows from that, now and when you come to sell.
From the e-ROT archive
This scenario is drawn from Report on Title material dealing with this specific circumstance.
No registered title to the land, which means you cannot sell it, mortgage it or build on it. It is not yours to deal with, however long it has been fenced into the garden.
You also inherit a live position rather than a settled one. The registered owner may become aware of the use and seek possession, ask you to pay for the use of it, or simply take it back — and all of those are things they are entitled to do.
If you have found out that land you have been using belongs to someone else, what was reported to you about the title during the purchase is where the question starts.
Find out what should have been explained → WhenIBought.comLong and exclusive possession can found a claim to be registered as owner. The seller's years of occupation may count towards it, and their statement of truth is the evidence; your own occupation continues the period.
The length of the period and the procedure depend on whether the land is registered or unregistered, and they are not the same. That is a question for your conveyancer on the facts of this particular strip rather than something to read off a general page.
Where the land is registered, the process involves notifying the registered owner — who gets an opportunity to object, and an objection that is pressed can defeat the claim. It is a route, not a formality.
Find out who owns it. A title search on the adjoining land costs very little and tells you whether you are dealing with a neighbour, a developer, a utility or a company that no longer trades.
Ask whether anyone has ever tried to buy it. A strip that could be bought for a modest sum is a much better answer than any insurance.
Ask about indemnity cover, with a realistic expectation: insurers may decline or exclude where there is an active risk of dispute, and whether the registered owner already knows about the use is the question that decides it.
And price it. If the garden you are paying for is partly somebody else's, that is a valuation point as well as a legal one — and it will be your buyer's point when you sell.
From the e-ROT archive
Report on Title paragraph
Since the land is not included in the seller’s title, you will not acquire legal ownership upon completion of the purchase. This means that you have no registered title to the land and cannot formally dispose of, develop, or mortgage it. Additionally, the legal owner of the land may become aware of your use and seek to reclaim possession, which could result in legal proceedings and potential loss of use. There is also the risk of a future dispute if the registered owner becomes aware of the encroachment and decides to take steps to recover possession, enforce their rights, or require payment for use of the land. Furthermore, if you decide to sell the property in the future, prospective buyers and mortgage lenders may be deterred by the uncertainty surrounding the land, which could affect marketability and value. …
Master precedent wording. This is current Lexsure Report on Title material, shown here in extract and reproduced exactly. The paragraph continues into the adverse possession procedure and states a period; that passage is not reproduced and this page states no period, because which period applies depends on whether the land is registered.
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