Land ownership query

[Shamrock]

Hello and good evening everyone (well it is in England.)

I am plotting out the sub-plot for one of my stories and need some advice on land ownership to get the legalities right.

A community discovers a field that is believed to be 'common land' is to be bought by a property developer to build a casino on it. Long story short, the community band together to raise the money to buy the land to prevent the building on it. However, there is a snag - everyone thought the land was owned by the local council/state but it turns out they did, but sold it to someone back in the 70s.
Just to make things more complicated - the deeds/records of the sell were destroyed in a flood at the council's archive in the 90s before they were put on the computer. No one knows who the buyer was or is. Both the community and the property developer need to find out who it is before the other does.

Now questions:
1. Who would own 'common land' - (my research says in US the local authority or state might.)
2. Would it be possible to hide the identity of a landowner and, if so, how?
3. How would someone discover the identity of who owes land in such a situation?
4. Could a community association set up be allowed to own land itself?

All advice welcomed. Thanks

 

[lynnmosher]

Is there any mystery involved? You could make this as part mystery.

 

[Shamrock]

Finding the owner is the mystery. As it is a subplot it dovetails with the main oplot later on.

 

[lynnmosher]

How 'bout someone hoarding a copy of the sale but someone gets killed?

 

[Shamrock]

Thanks Lynngood ideas but I am really looking for advice on the legal aspect of the story.

 

[lynnmosher]

Yeah, I was trying to get you out of it with the copy of the sale. LOL

 

[carolinamtne]

1) Land can be owned by the federal government, by the state, or by a local government. Was the county office affected by the flood too? That's where property deeds are recorded.
What state is this in? State rules differ.
You might contact the county register of deeds in the county in the state in which you story takes place.
2) One way to hide the identity of a landowner would be to set up a dummy corporation. Of course, the corporation would have to have officers, but some states make it easier than others to handle that.
3) That's a challenge. A local realtor might have the information, if they handled the transaction. The catch would be to find a realtor who was active at that time.
4) Again, state laws differ, but I believe that is allowed.
Again, figure out what county your community is in. Look up their website. Find something like the Register of Deeds. Email them and explain what you are doing.

 

[Shamrock]

Yeah, I was trying to get you out of it with the copy of the sale.

Click to shrink...

Being thinking about this.

Interesting. How does that work/ - Who would hold the copy? I quite like the idea of a dummy company being the cover for the real buyer too.

I would prefer not to kill someone off as I have done that in a previous book in the series.

 

[carolinamtne]

a flood at the council's archive in the 90s

Click to shrink...

So did this flood include the county offices? That's where the record would be. In some states, the state might also have a copy. Ownership should also be on record with the tax people.

 

[Shamrock]

Er, this is getting complicated. Thanks for the info.

 

[quietspirit]

Something to think on: The interested parties may file suit against who they believe own the land. If there is a question of who actually owns that land,, the court would have to publish a legal notice in the newspaper for three times that this issue is going to be looked into in court. I know this because I read that part of our daily paper and saw a notice for a huge piece of land that is in our neighborhood. (I was actually looking for something else about another piece of property.)

 

[Blythesr]

I think most of your questions were addressed already - but I'll give you my two-cents worth. There has to be a legal owners of property on record. The mechanism by which that legal owner can be identified varies significantly by jurisdiction. Most counties have some sort of on-line register where you can look up owners. To the point raised before - the owner can be a company, city, county, state, federal government, etc. In the case of a company which is trying to hide the actual owners - I wouldn't call it a 'dummy company' so much as a 'shell company'. You would then have to figure out who owns the shell company (which could, in fact, be another shell company). It can be an arduous task, but it's typically possible to get to actual people eventually. Worth noting that properties can also have liens against them which are typically public information (i.e. non-owners who now have a legal right to all or a portion of the property). In this case, the owners of record may not actually 'own' any significant value associated with the property as the lien-holder has legal rights to all or a portion of the proceeds. You probably already knew most of this - but figured I would throw it in there!

 

[Shamrock]

Thank you @Blythesr - that is very helpful - when I finally get around to working on the story all this advice will be great to digest and use.

 

[carolinamtne]

Good luck. It may take a while to sort it all out.

 

[KirkSutton23]

So, did the county offices get flooded? It would be the location of the record. The state may also have a duplicate in some states. Ownership should also be documented with the tax authorities.

 

[lynnmosher]

@KirkSutton23 you probably don't know that we have a Meet and Greet section because, at the moment, it's hidden. I hope you'll hop over to Meet and Greet (which is unfortunately hidden at the moment) and introduce yourself so everyone will know you are here and can welcome you. Go to the Christian Fellowship forum and start a new thread. Where it says (no prefix), click on it and choose Meet and Greet.

 

[Shamrock]

I have been working away at pulling together a plausible plotline for the ownership of the Field of Sorrows - the piece of land in my WIP. Here we go - feel free to point out the flaws. I am out of my depth here and on the other side of the pond being in the UK.

H - the m/c - and her community are in a race against time to find out who owes the FOS so they can buy it off them before Y builds an adult entertainment/hotel complex on it with a casino.

Problem - the land was sold by the local authority in the 70s but the paperwork for the sale was destroyed along with other archived papers in a flood. However, they discover via XXX that the buyer was a shell company set up by an English man who died in a fire that occurred at the FOS (hence its name) in the 70s. Assuming that the man's family are now the owners, H contacts them but discovers that they know nothing about the land or have any information on it.

H eventually traces the real owner who turns out to be a former resident of her town who was friends of the English man and fled to England after the fire because he was blamed for starting it. The twist is that the real owner did not know they owned the property. He does recall signing some papers but was told by his friend that they were for renting the land for their joint venture to set up a project there. His friend bought the land via the shell company and registered him as the owner rather than his family so that it remained within the community. He agrees to sell the land to the community association the town sets up to prevent the build.

That the nuts & bolts - there is a lot more to it but at this stage I just need to know it works in principle.

 

[carolinamtne]

Given the fact that your description probably leaves out some details, it sounds good to me.

 

[Shamrock]

Yes it leaves some finer details/spoilers out, but pretty much contains the plot.