Land ownership seemed suspect with northern resident (7)
I believe the answer is:
demesne
'land ownership' is the definition.
'demesne' can be an answer for 'land' (thesaurus). I'm not certain of the 'ownership' bit.
'seemed suspect with northern resident' is the wordplay.
'suspect' indicates anagramming the letters (a suspicious or unusual spelling).
'with' is an insertion indicator.
'northern resident' becomes 'n' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'seemed' with letters rearranged gives 'demese'.
'demese' enclosing 'n' is 'DEMESNE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for demesne that I've seen before include "Large landed property" , "Domain" , "Land attached to manor" , "Seed men on landed estate" , "Estate; sound like belittle" .)