Assistance with land purchase after death of owner

Questioner

In 1991 we bought a plot of land from a private owner to build a house. Behind the lot was another lot. The owner of the land gave us verbal permission to use the piece as a garden and said that we should discuss it further later. In later years we asked him several times if we could buy those 260 meters. He always waved our question away with the words: 'never mind, it will be okay one day!' All those years that piece of land was part of our garden. The landowner passed away two years ago, his wife is still alive but knows nothing about that extra piece of land. We now want to sell our house and put our name on this land. How do we tackle this?

Lawyer

Because the use of the land is based on a (verbal) agreement, you are not a legal owner, there can be no prescription in this case. The only way is to buy the land from the deceased owner's wife.