Common Land
Private ground with historic rights of use
Common land is privately owned land over which other people, the commoners, hold legal rights. Those rights typically cover grazing animals or collecting wood, and often date back centuries. The county or unitary council registers it, as commons registration authority. The system runs in England and Wales only; Scotland and Northern Ireland have no commons register.
What This Means
This property is on or beside registered common land. In most cases the common sits nearby rather than under the house, leaving the garden untouched. Expect livestock and walkers on the common itself, and no realistic prospect of it being built on. Where registered land forms part of this plot, fencing, surfacing or building on it needs consent. That restriction runs with the land, whoever owns it. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Ask your conveyancer to run a commons registration search (CON29O) to confirm whether any part of this plot is registered.
- Ask the council's commons registration officer which rights are registered over the land, and who holds them.
- Ask your conveyancer to check the register plan against the title plan and reconcile any difference.
- Apply to the Planning Inspectorate in England, or the Welsh Ministers in Wales, before fencing or building on registered common land.
Key Points
- Dartmoor and the Malvern Hills are registered common land that the public may walk on under open-access rights.
- The New Forest, Epping Forest and the Forest of Dean are excluded from the registers and never appear on them, despite their commoners' rights.
Additional Information
Town and village greens are registered separately from common land and have their own, stricter rules. Deregistration of a common is rare and normally requires replacement land offered in exchange. Scotland's crofting common grazings and common good land are separate systems, not commons registration.