Ty unnos

Ty unnos or tai unnos, is a Welsh term that translates to English as; house in one-night. It refers to folklore, with some evidence of practice around the 1600's in Wales, as well as in England and other countries of rights associated with constructing a house between sunset and sunrise.

It was believed that, if a person could build a house in one single night on common land, have the hearth fire lit in the morning, with smoke coming from the chimney, they could claim the freehold of that land to live on. Variations include that they could live on the land for one year and that they could claim land around the one night house to the equivalent distance that they could throw an axe. The term originates from a time when there was increasing pressure on land from land enclosure, ownership and taxation coupled with rural housing shortages.

One account of one night house traditions can be found in the book Cotters and Squatters, by Colin Ward. Ward considered the one night house tradition in the context of squatting and other informal systems of occupying and using land. He uncovers accounts from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, demonstrating parallels in different folk traditions across Turkey, France, and North and South America.

Whilst there is no reference to the term within in the law of England and Wales, discussion of the topic does relate to what might be termed as squatters rights, where land without title, that is squatted over a long period, may at some point be regarded in legitimate possession. Whilst formal planning law began with the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947, there are many examples of building regulations which although often relating to materials impacted planning from much earlier. By example, the first Major of London, Henry FitzElwyne created the Assize of Buildings, which gave eight days to effectively deal with a complaint relating to a construction, in 1212, thatched roofs were banned, requiring shingles and later in 1276 and 1466 minimum ground floor storey heights where required when adjacent to a street.

The issue of squatting was an element of the Peasants Revolt in the late 1300s, and later with the group of religious and political dissidents of agrarian socialism in the mid 1600's named the diggers, whilst squatting was an inevitable outcome of the Second World War due to homelessness. In 2012 under Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, squatting in residential property became a criminal offence. Today the UK government describe squatters rights as such "A long-term squatter can become the registered owner of property or land they’ve occupied without the owner’s permission." In more detail this means that a squatter can apply for ownership if they can prove;

• The squatter or a succession of squatters, have occupied the property continuously for 10 years (12 years if it’s not registered with HM Land Registry).
• The squatter (or their predecessors) acted as owners of the property for the whole of that time.
• The squatter (or any of their predecessors) did not have the owner’s permission, for example the property was not originally rented to the squatter.

Dafydd Wiliam, principal curator of historic buildings at St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff, indicated to the BBC that finding original examples of genuine Ty, or tai unnos is virtually impossible probably because of their materials:

"As they had to be built overnight, ty unnos cottages were by necessity simple structures built from wattle and daub or turf, and capped with a rudimentary thatched roof. They needed to last no more than a year while the family could construct a more permanent dwelling, but once a claim to the land had been established overnight, the ty unnos which came in the following months were sturdier, built from stone and slate, and often had a small mezzanine floor or 'crog loft' as a sleeping space. So while there are cottages you could say are part of the ty unnos tradition, there are no surviving original examples."

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992.
• Adverse possession.
• Architecture of Christiania.
• Common land.
• Commons Act 2006.
• Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
• Empty dwelling management orders.
• Excluded occupier.
• Green belt.
• Housing shortage.
• Housing tenure.
• How to evict a tenant.
• Land law.
• Land register.
• Land registry.
• Land value.
• Park.
• Planning condition.
• Property guardianship.
• Property rights.
• Right of entry.
• Right of way.
• Right to access land.
• Squatting.
• Types of land.
• Village green registration.
• What is the housing shortage?