Risk of developing on Common Land
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Before proceeding with your development, an area of contention that should be addressed is whether your development might encroach on common land or areas classified as town or village green. Although you might be the rightful owner of the land i.e. private land owner, others might have certain rights over that land known as "rights of common". A typical indicator of such common land is if it has been used by the public/community for recreation, be it sports or other pastimes (e.g. dog walking, grazing) regarded as benefiting that community. The location of such land typically encompasses the unfenced open land close to local communities. Formerly, contentions that may have arisen were dealt with by the Commons Registration Act 1965, which is now being phased out and replaced by a consolidating statute - the Commons Act 2006 - for the regulation of greens and common land by providing for the establishment of local management institutions (Commons Registration Authority e.g. local council) to regulate the use thereof with a view to ensuring sustainability in the future. Some important points to note about the new enforcement: • A group of individuals can apply to register any land as a town or a village green where that land has been lawfully used for sports or pastimes for at least 20 years by a significant number of people in the locality of that land. • The group does not need to have had permission to use the land for their use to be lawful. • Even if the group has been stopped from using the land in the past years, they may still have the right to register the green. These points are taken in the view of public interest which may include the exercising of rights of common and access to any area of land as well as nature or landscape or historical conservation. This not only affects potential developers, but also affects land owners looking to sell to potential developers as any restricted works such as those which may prevent or impede access to or over the land, including fencing, constructing buildings, digging ditches or resurfacing the land with tarmac are prohibited and will require special consent from the Secretary of State. Therefore, if your position is that of a prospective buyer of land close to communities, it would be a matter of due diligence to carry out full investigations as to the use of the land, and to explore options that reduce the risk towards your investment such as title insurance policies. Each Commons Registration Authority will have a register that they are required to keep up to date which contains information pertaining to ownership of the land, the area it encompasses and any rights of common registered against it. |
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Page last updated: 21/02/2012 * Disclaimer: All article content is the opinion of the author and does not represent the views of RenovationFinance.co.uk. In all instances, you are advised to seek independent advice. |
