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Certain UK property websites say that unregistered land in Britain is not owned, and therefore can be claimed for free

Websites offering to help investors seize free, unregistered land in Britain have been branded a 'con' and 'misleading' by leading property institutions.

Land grab websites encourage visitors to buy publications or software or call recorded premium-rate phone numbers that purport to explain how unwanted land can be claimed for free.

Adverse possession, commonly known as squatting, was described as a 'national pastime' by Charles Harpum, author of the Land Registration Act which was introduced in 2003 to curtail the illegal practice. The legislation seeks to have all land registered by 2012 to end ownership disputes. At present, a third of land is unregistered.

Land grab websites highlight figures that show squatters winning up to 15,000 adverse possession cases each year.

Property institutions said the vast majority of these cases were not made by squatters, but by neighbours involved in boundary disputes and genuine owners who had to go through the legal process to prove ownership of their homes when property deeds and other paperwork had been lost.

'Of the few thousand cases we get each year, only a handful are real adverse possession cases,' said Mike Wescott-Rudd, head of corporate services at the Land Registry. 'Most are just people who have lost their deeds or don't know where their garden ends.'

The Land Registry warns that seizing unregistered land is more complicated than 'misleading and inaccurate' land grab websites claim. Some websites declare that unregistered land is not owned. According to the Land Registry, all land is owned by someone. In cases where the owner dies intestate, or a company is dissolved, the property in question  goes to the Crown.

Some websites claim land is unregistered because the owner cannot be traced or the land has been abandoned. In reality, some properties may not have changed hands since land registration was introduced, the Land Registry says.

Mr Wescott-Rudd said some websites told visitors that legislation passed in 2003 made it easier to claim unregistered land, when in reality the Land Registration Act protected property owners. In any case, to claim land through squatting, the claimant must occupy it without the paper owner's consent for 10 years if the land is registered, and 12 years if unregistered.

James Kavanagh,  assistant director of the land group at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors,  dismissed land grab websites as a scam.

'It is totally illegal,' he said. 'Don't go anywhere near them. It is a con. Britain's adverse possession laws are so stringent it is virtually impossible to do what they are suggesting. It only works if you use a piece of land but do not realise it belongs to someone else, but always assumed it was yours. Thirty per cent of land is unregistered. How can you claim it is yours when you don't know who owns it?'

Websites run by Logicworks Publications,  Edenn Publishing  and Land Grab UK say many opportunities exist for people to claim unregistered land as their own.

A spokesman for Logicworks defended its website. 'In our manual, we explain the process for making sure there is no recorded owner of a property before starting the process, so that you are not knowingly squatting on someone else's property. For example, by making relevant enquiries with the Land Registry.'

Land Grab UK and Edenn Publishing did not respond to our questions.

The government may introduce more measures to tidy up Britain's land system. Next year, the Law Commission will see how the remnants of feudalism can be abolished in England and Wales.

Unscrupulous individuals have been buying feudal Lord of the Manor titles to levy charges on residents within their feudal domain. Pressure is growing from MPs and affected local residents for these powers to be abolished.



Nothing free about British freehold