As a property owner it is crucial to understand your boundaries and any responsibilities that lie with them. The best way to ensure that you have full understanding of ownership, location and responsibility if to initially review your deeds and deed plans or seek legal advice on these documents if you are unsure.
For example it would not show whether the boundary runs along one side of a hedge, the other, or down the centre. Similarly, it would not show if a boundary was on one side of a boundary wall or the other.
Fences which are replaced from time to time may be erected in the wrong position. Ditches defining boundaries may be re-dug in a slightly different location. Water courses defining boundary lines may be diverted. Such changes often only come to light many years later when the property owners find that the original location of the boundary was not properly recorded.
Property owners sometimes construct buildings, walls and extensions overlapping their neighbour’s land or land where a right of way exists such as a footpath. The Land Registration Act 2002 allows you under certain conditions to determine and record the exact line of your boundaries on a registered title, to avoid any future boundary dispute.