Transcription
Hello, and welcome to an abandoned building. This building has been abandoned, to my knowledge, for a minimum of 4 years now. As you can see, there are some windows open just up there, around the other side; windows are actually smashed. Now, this building just happens to be in the Town Center of where I live at the moment. Now, what can I say about this? Well, adverse possession. Adverse possession is when you can take ownership of any property, land, or building in the United Kingdom. Now, of course, adverse property is worldwide; however, I only really know the laws about the United Kingdom.
Now, what can I say about this building specifically? Because in today's video, we're going to be going to other abandoned pieces that I know of, and we're going to be discussing how to find property and how to get land and businesses and whatever you want for free. Now, a couple of things that you have to remember when you're seeking out free property in the United Kingdom is leasehold and freehold. Because leasehold, obviously, is owned by a company, and the freehold is what you're after. But as well as that, it's getting access to the property. Now, you're very lucky if, for instance, up there, there's a smashed window. If you can find yourself a smashed window. However, the legal way of entering properties such as this one here would be through a legal registered locksmith that you pay for. You photograph the entrance, and you document the receipts.
Now, I'd like to show you this interesting piece of land that I've just stuck my way into. This land has been in this condition, with storage containers and derelict stuff, for about 10 years now. Now, you would assume this piece of land here is abandoned, and to be honest, I kind of do think it might be abandoned. However, this piece of land was used to store things like bricks, which have physically been here for about 8 years now. As well as that, it was used as entrances to build properties. So, why is this piece of land still here, and why is nothing being done with it? Well, that's a great question, but another question is, is could someone successfully adverse possess this piece of land? Possibly not. And I say that purely because of its location, with houses. That's one thing that people struggle with with land: the nosy neighbors. Nosy neighbors are something you don't want to deal with. You don't want people intruding on your piece of land. Honestly, if you're going to choose a piece of land near neighbors, you need to befriend them.
Now, 5% of this land, remarkably, is completely unclaimed in this country. Now, there is more than 5% unclaimed on the land registry, and that's purely down to 1998, where you had to start listing your properties up. And someone may have owned a property over 30 years, and it's just not listed on there. In this video, though, I'm going to tell you some genuine forgotten pieces of land locations where you yourself can go and grab yourself a free piece of land.
Now, I've just arrived at an abandoned building. Now, this abandoned building is a great example of a piece of property that you should not take. It's next to a Tesco Extra, and it is explored by the urban explorers quite often. In fact, my dad, a known Urban Explorer, has explored this building. Now, if the private property signs and the danger keep out signs don't put you off claiming a property, one thing that should is the fencing. Now, you can always tell if a property has been abandoned based on its fencing and based upon the rust. Now, this property has not been abandoned, even though it is an abandoned property. It's an absolutely beautiful property; it's huge behind me here. Now, to my knowledge, this was the Cannington Shore Bottle Shop, which is a remarkable building. Again, something you don't want to claim, doing adverse possession. You see, the point of adverse possession is taking a property and making it better for the community. So, if that means you're finding yourself an abandoned house, successfully entering it using a locksmith, and then doing up the house to rent out, you have bettered the community, and you have upped the price of the road.
Now, a piece of land which you're looking for needs to be overgrown, overturned, something which isn't used. Now, if it has a rusty gate and it's not been used, used, brilliant, to be honest with you. Just because it's got a gate, it doesn't mean that it's not abandoned, at the end of the day. Now, turning a piece of land into a beautiful place, you could use it as a garden for the next 10 years whilst you're claiming possession over it, or turning it into a lovely park that kids can go to. Those are the ways that you can successfully gain a piece of land; you need to make it good for the community.
Now that we're back at home, we can go through some forgotten land options which are available, and I know a few which will tediously interest you. For instance, did you know that Shell, who own Shell Oil, they bought all of the land around their petrol stations? And back in the '90s, I believe there was a flood, and all of their records got destroyed. Now, Shell are not 100% certain on what pieces of land they own, and a lot of the land has become overgrown and forgotten. Shell has since moved on and sold a lot of their petrol stations; however, this land still remains. So, if you know an old Shell petrol station location, and there's some derelict land around it, there's a good chance that it is forgotten, and you could easily claim it.
Another great example of forgotten land is one that my granddad actually told me about, and I confirmed it as well. Back in the 1960s and '70s, a lot of towns and villages were built in the United Kingdom. Now, these villages were built by companies, and companies didn't fill every square inch of the land up with houses. There's often land left at the end of driveways, beside houses, or even at the back gardens. Now, a great example I can give you, which I have been able to confirm, is there is a village that I know of with a road in the village, and next to the road is a bunch of trees. Now, these trees are between the path and the back fence of some houses. Now, check in the land registry; this specific parcel of land is owned by the company, and in fact, it is forgotten by the company. If I was to claim it today, i.e., maybe putting up a village notice board or something, and I take possession of it, that company would not know because they've assumed that the council has taken rights over it.
Now, there are hundreds of examples of this, and also another example which I can perfectly give you is social housing. Not only the council, but companies have built social housing, and quite often with social housing they built garages back then—not as common these days. However, if you're able to find some abandoned garages—an example that I know very well of—garages often get forgotten, especially by the social housing. The people who live in the houses do not own the garages; in fact, no one owns them at this point. I know of a section of 20 garages, completely abandoned, completely overgrown, and overturned, and if I went to them now, I could successfully adversely possess 18 of them. And I say 18 because two of them have actually already been adversely possessed, and someone has converted it into their house. Pretty cool, isn't it?
Now, the way to find out if a piece of land is owned, obviously, is going onto the land registry and paying your £3 for the title deed of the land. Once you have those details, you're able to check online to see if there is anyone out there, possibly still in the area, who has that name and most likely will own that piece of land. They might be willing to sell it if you're interested, but on the other hand, they might be dead; they might have moved country; they might have no heirs; and this piece of land has just become forgotten. Lots of land becomes forgotten in the United Kingdom. Lots of properties become forgotten, and people successfully enter the properties using a locksmith; they turn them into rental properties, and no one says a word for decades. It's pretty simple, to be honest with you.
Now, if this video has interested you, please make sure to give it a thumbs up, as I'd love to make more adverse possessed videos. If you'd like to see a video of us going out together and going to find some potential abandoned land, we could go through the whole process of finding it, going through the land registry together, and documenting everything. One thing that I should always make aware is when you document an adverse possessed property, please make sure to always take photos of receipts, expenditures, and the property and what you have done to it. Send these photos and videos to an email address; keep all the documents; keep them all dated. What I have done personally with adverse possessed property is I record videos every time I go there, and I upload them on an unlisted YouTube channel. I then send myself the link, all on a separate email address not connected to myself, and I have this email address so when I do go to successfully claim the land, I can pull up all these documents immediately, and they're right there. I make sure to add as much information as possible: any changes I've done, any questions I've heard from neighbors, absolutely everything. So please make sure to do the same when you go looking. As I said, if you'd like to see us go on an adventure together and find some adverse property, let me know in the comments below, cuz I'd really like to know. Adios, mis amigos, and I shall see you guys all in the next video. Goodbye. The end. Like this [Music] video. Let Me Entertain You. Let Me Entertain You. Let Me Entertain You. Let Me. Let Me Entertain You.