How to find out who owns the land
- Thread starter Tommyd345
- Start date
Land Registry (Registers of Scotland North of the boarder) will have some records. You would be surprised how out of date they can be, that's assuming they have records to start with. There are large gaps in their info. Local sources are often useful. Other landowners, parish records and the like.
Good luck.
Good luck.
As Nigel says asking around is often the best way, especially in a rural setting where land and family connections can become quite convoluted. Ask in a local shop, post office, village council.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
There's no real substitute for getting out there and wandering the public paths and bridleways for at some point these will take you through farmyards and with luck some interesting conversations. Websites such as Geograph along with the Bing and Google map services that have access to OS maps and aerial photo's may also be useful for planning where to start wandering. Very often you can figure out what farm a particular field belongs to just by looking at the field tracks in this manner.
All the land round where I live is owned by the Church Commisioners, but I've never seen the vicar out ploughing. Sadly, many farms are owned by absentee landlords. It is probably more important to find out who manages the land and this may not be so easy and Land Registry will not help. On the few occasions when I've been challenged, it has usually been by a tenant or gamekeeper. Local knowledge and asking around is the best way, but usually not easy when in unfamiliar territory.
Knock on the farm door and ask. If they are tenants they can probably give permission to camp. If not, they know who the owner is and what they own.
First of course, ask what you are offering in return.
First of course, ask what you are offering in return.
Seems easy to me. its what i used to do when looking for shooting permissions as a lad.......Effort = reward
Land Registry Records should be able to help you or even Local Council should be able to point you in the right direction.......
Am I wrong in thinking that whatever agency is responsible for collecting property taxes probably has a good idea of the actual owner? That said, it sounds like the OP's really more interested in who has control of giving permissions, such as an active tenant or manager.
Last edited:
No, not wrong, but they won't share the information, whereas Land Registry will (on payment of a fee.)
However, as others have said, a chat on the doorstep works really well. You may even get pointed to a better site than the one you first asked about.
We don't have land taxes in the UK so no records for them for this purpose. Houses are taxed, Council Tax. According to Wiki 18% of land in England and Wales was unregistered in 2013. Our house and curtilage was unregistered until about 2006 in Wiltshire.
Good question and one I've been thinking about. What if you end up literally in the middle of nowhere? No humans or their dwellings in sight *daydreams*
