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Do we own land that we have maintained for over 20 years?

We bought our house 22 years ago, with came some land that was "joint owned" with 4 neighbours. When the land was bought the owner of our house was named as the owner with the 4 neighbours named as trustees. When we bought ownership was passed to us through consent with trustees. Twice trustee ship was passed on with with consent when other property was sold. This practice ceased when subsequent sales took place and now no original or consented trustees remain. The largest portion of the land has been maintained by myself all this time. Do we now own this land outright? Thanks for the answers so far, just to let you know we are in the UK.

Public Comments

1. Doubt it, but contact the land registry department for a definitive answer.
2. Depends on the contract wording. Seek a lawyer's advice.
3. I would check with a lawyer in your state. It could get pretty messy.
4. In some states if you put a permanent structure and maintain the land you own it.
5. Depends, your local governments may now own the property, or maybe yo as the only remaining trustees, call the land office.
6. No. Check with the land registry or ask a solicitor, but if the land was registered as shared between 2 properties, you can't just commandeer it (though you could with unadopted land.) Also check the true status of the land. Sometimes you can think you own something, but be mistaken. Is the land freehold or leasehold?
7. No. The title to the land if done right would show that there are 4 different owners to the land, some maybe be Trusts but others may own it individually. If the property is in a Trust then there are beneficarys to that trust. When the trust is no longer, the assets are distributed to the beneficary.
8. You will need to contact an attorney. But if you live in certain states and have built a fence or a structure and it has been in place for seven years you can force a lien and own it by 'hostile improvement' statute. You will need a lawyer either way, and of course it will be a good idea to not talk about it with the neighbors about it in the meantime :p
9. Unless you have a contract or deed to the property you do not own it, it doesn't matter who maintained it.
10. difficult technicalities here, You need a solicitor to sort this oiut
11. It is possible. In some states, if you maintain a plot of land connected to yours for a period of XX years, you are able to petition the town to have it added to your own. I would go to your town building inspector / board supervisor or anyone else in the land development office to enquire.
12. In my state, there is a such thing as a "homesteading" law which means if you live or control a property for so many years and no one else attempts to claim or dispute your right, you own it. As others said, contact an attorney and see if this law applies in your state.
13. I think not, but depends on the country you reside in and the deeds controlling the land. They are usually quite detailed, if arcane. In the UK you can download the deeds (don't recall the site, but google will sort you). At best, I think you have legal access to the land, but not ownership. You'll need to be able to prove you've been solely maintaining the land as well. It'd be worth finding out about the deeds at the land registry as a first step, b4 u go to a lawyer (who might be your only sure way to find out).
14. You simply need to see the title report on all transactions of the associated trust deeds. Depending upon the state most county recorders office will have this documentation on current file and most can be researched on line. When land is sold or transferred there will usually be a new recording at the county level. Look up all related parcels in question and you will see how the documents are recorded. If only your name is on the recorded documents then you can rest assured you are most likely the only legal titleholder. Also if land transactions were financed by a bank or third parties there is probably a provision for title insurance. And before title insurance is issued a title search is performed to make sure there is no discrepancy in legal ownership. However if things were not recorded properly and there is a sloppiness involved in getting proper information recorded you will most likely have a problem based upon the earlier recordings. All of the original title owners should have signed off on some type of recorded transfer for you to claim title legally. The fact that you maintained the land or assumed ownership means very little in real property law and transfer. Assuming you are correct in your assumptions you must proceed to secure all recordings to state your claim. You will need to produce documents or get the previous title owners to record what you have basically stated. Otherwise you will have a very difficult time claiming title.
15. The original trustee covenant hasn't been broken. In practise your deeds make you owner, but the four neighbours as trustees have the power to veto you selling or using the land to a purpose that would effect their property value. You've always owned the land, but the trustee clause limits what you can do with it. If you are talking about land that was formerly council green space, this isn't an unusual property clause, they did it all the time to protect the value of the other houses, which wouldn't have sold otherwise.