Safeguarding your smallholding - who owns the land?

Agricultural journalist, smallholder and editor of Ford & Fordson Tractors Magazine Jane Brooks, joins us for her regular look at the world of agricultural machinery, smallholding and life in general.

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This impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes' - The Cobbler of Preston by Christopher Bullock 1716

Many of us go through times in our life when we have to face our own mortality, or the loss of friends and relatives, possibly, even finding yourself the executor of a loved one's estate, as I have done on several occasions over the last few years.

The vagaries of the inheritance tax system aside, all we can do is make things as simple as we can for those left behind as they deal with our affairs when we are no longer in this world

Having recently been involved with The Land Registry in the transfer of some farmland I was quite shocked to find out that around 15% of all land in England and Wales was unregistered.

This means that although it is pretty certain that someone, somewhere owns the land, it will not actually be recorded at The Land Registry. In essence, someone will generally hold the paper title deeds to prove their ownership, but it isn't registered with the Government.

So, the question could be, who owns all this unregistered land, do you? Most unregistered land is located in rural areas, so it is quite possible that some of the smallholdings belonging to our readers may well be unregistered.

Of course, if you own unregistered land it may not bother you, and it's only since 1990 that the registration of land on sale has become compulsory in England and Wales. In the case of inherited land, it has been compulsory to register it since 1998.

But to me it seems strange that in a country where you need to register or identify all your farm animals in some form or other, property ownership at least since before 1990 had no such requirements.

REGISTERED LAND