General Chat

Where I live the houses are the first to be on this piece of land so how can I find out who owned it before it was built on please?

Try the land registry search

Sorry to butt in, but I'm wondering if you have to pay for the land registry search?

Search fee is usually a small amount.

Jan probably will, it rare to get something for nothing these days.

Thanks JoyLouise and ZZzzz , I guess you are both right - it is rare to get something for nothing! :-)

Before you spend money on a Land Registry search, do you know when the first houses were built?

If you do, try the local newspaper archives as there will almost certainly be something about it from someone objecting to the idea!!

Depending how far back and where you are, they might even be on FMP.

The Local Studies centre or records office may have maps of the time which may help.

Maybe a local History Society too, ours has loads of that sort of information and maps

If your house is built on the land in question, it might be on your Deeds :-)

Thanks everyone, sometimes the answers stare me in the face but I just don't see them. :-)

Anyone who has - or had - a mortgage will probably have had a copy of the 'Deeds' provided by their solicitor. But information therein is unlikely to include anything prior to when the land/property was was registered.

I have the original records of a house build in the 1880's that my great grandfather bought in 1901. He was the second owner. He sold it to one of his sons in 1920. (My grandfather). None of this early detail is recorded in the Land Registry 'Deeds'.

BTW
I was the executor for the eventual sale of this house. I took all of the documents that I found to the solicitor. She was only interested the the Land Registry item. And she told me that I should either keep the rest for interest, or sell them (!!!!!) It seems that there is a market for these old hand written and illustrated things.

My parents bought a new build bungalow in 1936.
I do remember seeing the deeds at some point and there was mention of who had owned the land prior to that. It had at one time belonged to a manor estate.

The property stayed in our family until 2006, when it was sold.
As I knew paper deeds were not required to be kept, I requested to have them or at least a copy, but sadly the solicitor got rid of them :-(

It may also be possible to find out more info from the LA valuer - they have never been ones to miss out collecting what’s due. I’ve seen them refer to aerial photographs in order to see who’s been adding what without a permit.