h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

if i bought a plot of land to build on,and it was say 100 feet by 100 feet.How far down in depth is legally mine???

iam sorry to say that in england none of it is below the surface i.e. if you found any 'treasure' it would belong to the crown, and mineral right belong to them as well. as for the rest of our small planet i don't know

Well, you can just dig until you hit something.
Gas lines would be bad. Electric lines would also be
bad unless you're feeling a bit run down. Now, water lines...
that would fun.

In the US of A, you have to do a mineral rights search to
see if the land under your feet already belongs to somebody
else (an oil company, a gas company, a coal company, for instance).
If you do the mineral rights search yourself, you will learn the many wonderful ways paper smells as it slowly deteriorates in county courthouses.

All of it! Just tell them I said so!

Anyway, why does it have to be 100 ft by 100 ft? Why can't it be 1 billionth of a foot by 1 billionth of a foot? The same principle should apply. Go on, tell 'em I said so!

Hello?...anyone actually reading these things or am I all on my own here? I know I don't have the brain of Einstein, or the looks of Marilyn Monroe, (she did have 6 toes you know), but a short. "hi, 33717, how are you doing", would be nice. Anyway, I'm off now, bye...bye then...byeeee...oh I give up!

Whot ever you do do not by that bit of land in New Zealand or you might find that you dont even own the 100ft by 100ft, Letalone the air space or any thing under the ground. The local Maori will fight for every inch. But if you do decide to purchase that picturessqu pice of Kiwi coulture I would suggest you bring a Vogarn Taskforse with you.
And maybe a dictionary for me.

Tim - make sure you do not buy it in London - cos London Underground have rights to alot of the stuff below ground level. And they have bizarre planning rights which means that they can do all sorts to get access to their tunnels and earth.

Byh my recollection of English law:- above 6 feet is yours, below is the crowns, unless you are digging on crown or public (ergo crown) land. Below 6 feet is crown. Hence corpse are supposed to not be burried further then 6 feet!

Oh bollocks, see above.

Did you know that in Venice up until this century I think they used to dig up all the bodies in the cemeteries and dump them in the canal due to the lack of space. Except that they have never had to do this for the Protestants because they have yet to fill up their cemeteries. Of course the bloke who told me that could be lying.