Boundary Dispute Surveys — Call 01189 342934 or 0800 311 2077

Boundaries

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.

Another source of information regarding boundaries is Land Registry. Land Registry hold information about the general position of the boundaries between properties, however this is often at too large a scale for any accuracy to be deemed from and critically a larger proportion of land is not registered at all with land registry and therefore cannot be relied upon at all. It is therefore also important when dealing with any matters regarding boundaries to ensure that once ownership, position and responsibility is accepted and/or agreed it is registered with land registry accurately.

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.