Boundary descriptions: I want someone with authority to come out and tell me exactly where my boundary is.
Boundary descriptions: Does the Ordnance Survey map define my boundaries?
Boundary descriptions: Can I scale from an Ordnance Survey map the true position of my boundary?
Boundary descriptions: Can I use the title plan to measure to my boundary from the side of my house?
Boundary Diputes: How do I resolve a boundary dispute?
Buying land: Getting proper descriptions of the boundaries before purchase?
Buying a house: How do I check the boundaries?
Buying a house: Searches reveal some of the land is unregistered.
Buying a house: Searches reveal the vendor is adversely possessing some of the land.
Dimensions in Conveyances and on Deed Plans: How accurate are the dimensions that are stated in title deeds?
Fence, age of: How can I find out the age of my wooden fence?
Fences, appearance of: Must the smooth side of my neighbour's fence face towards me?
Fences, appearance of: Can I paint my side of my neighbour's fence?
Fences, appearance of: What can I do about the unsightliness of my neighbour's fence?
Fence height: How high a fence can I put on my boundary?
Fence height: Can I make my neighbour reduce the height of his fence?
Fence ownership: Who owns which fence? Is it true that every house owns the fence on its left side, as you look at it from the street?
Fences as supports: Can I hang things on my neighbour's fence? - Can I use my neighbour's fence as a support for my own plants?
Neighbour's fence: What can I do when my neighbour won't repair his fence?
Open plan front gardens: Where is the boundary of my open plan front garden?
Title Deeds: Where do I find my title deeds?
Title deeds: Is it possible for me to see my neighbour's title deeds?
Title Plans: Does my Land Registry title plan define my boundaries?
Title Plans: Can I use the title plan to work out the exact position of my boundary?
Title Plans: Surely title plans must be right?
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION |
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Boundary descriptions: I want someone with authority to come and tell me
exactly where my boundary is.
Unless you have one of those rare properties that has a "fixed boundary", a "determined boundary", or a "boundary agreement", then it is no good asking Land Registry exactly where your boundary is because they record only the general position of the boundary. There are three classes of person who have the authority to tell you exactly where your boundary is. They are a High Court Judge, a County Court Judge, and a Judge in the Land Registration Tribunal. None of these will come out to your premises and tell you where your boundary is. Rather, they will expect you to make a legal case to be tried in their court, at the end of which they will make a Judgment (High Court and County Court) or a Decision (Lands Tribunal). Taking such a request to a Court will consume disproportionately large amounts of time and money, so it is more usual to turn to a suitable professional (see Find a boundary surveyor) for an opinion as to exactly where the boundary is located. Such a professional, particularly one who has experience of giving evidence in court, is likely to identify a position for the boundary that can be relied upon. The difficulty with obtaining a professional opinion is that the emphasis is on the word opinion rather than on the word professional, and in law an opinion can always be argued against. So even if you obtain the opinion of the country's most respected boundary demarcation and disputes expert, your neighbour is entitled to a different opinion. Moreover, your expert has no authoritry to impose his or her opinion on your neighbour. It does not make sense to obtain an expert's professional opinion without involving your neighbour in the discussion as to the position of the boundary. If you want to understand how the land regsitration system in Engalnd & Wales limits the advice that a boundaries expert is able to offer then also click on its name to open our free guide into a new browser tab, and feel free to save it to your device: |
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION |
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Boundary descriptions:
Can I scale from an Ordnance Survey map the true position of my boundary?
No. Just take a look at Ordnance Survey's Relative Accuracy table, on the "Using OS Maps" page, and judge for yourself. See also the "Example of confusion arising from map generalisation", on the "Using OS Maps" page. See also the Frequently Asked Question Can I use the title plan to measure to my boundary from the side of my house?, below. |
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION |
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Boundary descriptions: Can I use the title plan to measure to my
boundary from the side of my house?
When I do so I find that the fence is nearer to my house than the title plan
says it should be. Am I right in thinking that my neighbour must move the fence?
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This is, sadly, a common error.
Firstly, Land Registry is not responsible for specifying where the boundary should be: that is the responsibility of the owner who divided the land into its present parcels. It is Land Registry's duty to show only the general position of the boundary. Secondly, the Ordnance Survey map on which the title plan is based is not a perfect representation of the real world (see Using Ordnance Survey maps): scaling distances from it produces misleading results and cannot, legally, identify the boundary's position. The example of the fictitious Acacia Road, illustrated in the drawing at right, demonstrates that distances scaled from a title plan cannot be relied upon. |
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The owners of 10 Acacia Road scaled from the title plan a distance of 14 ft feet between the side of their house and the boundary. Outside, they measured with a tape a distance of only 13 feet. Armed with this information they accosted the owner of No 8, telling him that his fence was in the wrong position and that he must re-erect it in accordance with the position of the boundary as shown on the map. Their logic - that "the plan shows the boundary in this position, and the fence is in another position, so the fence is in the wrong place" - can be shown to be false logic if we examine the other flank boundary to No. 10, the one that runs along the party wall that is shared with No. 12, another semi-detached house that is identical to No. 10, but the map shows that No. 12 is 2 ft wider than No. 10. By the same logic that the owner of No. 10 has used to demand the relocation of No. 8's fence, the owner of No. 10 should be demanding to relocate the party wall with No. 12 so as to gain the 1 ft of "missing" space inside his house: to which the owner of that No. 12 would surely not agree. [In case you think that this example is far-fetched, take a very close look at the representation of semi-detached and terraced houses on any Ordnance Survey large scale map.] For another example of a misunderstanding of a title plan, or rather of the Ordnance Survey map on which the title plan is based, see Example of confusion arising from map generalisation on the Using Ordnance Survey maps page. |
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION |
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Boundary Diputes: How do I resolve a boundary dispute? This is one of those simple questions that unfortunately requires a long and complicated answer. That answer is available in our free guide. Load it now into a new browser tab by clicking on its name, and feel free to save it onto your own device: If you want further background reading then please also click for our free giude: You may also want to see our free guide: Or if you want to understand how the land regsitration system in Engalnd & Wales limits the advice that a boundaries expert is able to offer then also click for our free guide: |
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION |
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Buying land: Getting proper descriptions of the boundaries before purchase? I am engaged in the purchase of some land adjacent to my house, the searches (by my solicitor) have thrown up issues, so, I am seeking to have the boundaries clarified and ratified. I am willing to pay for this to be done. Unfortunately, it is more complicated than you might expect. Firstly, for more than 200 years vendors have been getting away with failing to describe unambiguously the boundaries of the land they are offering for sale. Secondly, because of these ambiguous boundary descriptions, Land Registry has found it necessary to operate a "general boundaries" system and simply does not know exactly where the boundaries of any property are. Land Registry is therefore unable to rule on the exact position of a boundary. Thirdly, to improve on the ambiguous descriptions and/or the general boundaries shown on Land Registry's title plans it is necessary for the landowner to enter into an agreement with each of the adjoining landowners as to the exact line of their respective common boundaries and then submit a DB application (Exact Line of Boundary: Registration) to Land Registry for each common boundary. Fourthly, as you will not become the landowner until you have completed on the purchase then you are not in a position to negotiate with the adjoining landowners. You must insist on the vendor properly describing the boundaries for you prior to completion of the purchase and make the purchase conditional upon an agreed set of boundaries. Fifthly, Land Registry is predisposed to challenge any DB application that contradicts the corresponding title plan, even though:
Seventhly, you could try to exert pressure on the vendor by:
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
Buying a house: How do I check the boundaries? You are in the process of buying a house and your conveyancing solicitor tells you: "Before we complete on buying the house you had better the check the boundaries. Here is a copy of the title plan. Go round and see whether the fences conform to this plan." Shame on your solicitor. There are many things wrong with what he is asking you to do. 1. By law, Land Registry title plans show only the general position, not the exact position, of the boundary. 2. Land Registry title plans are usually based on Ordnance Survey maps, and Ordnance Survey maps are by law prevented from showing property boundaries. 3. Title plans made from Ordnance Survey 1:1250 scale maps should not be relied on to an accuracy of better than 0.8m: in other words, the Ordnance Survey map might show a fence at 800 mm (2ft 6in) away from its position on the ground. Title plans made from 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey maps, including title plans enlarged to 1:1250 from 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey maps, should not be relied on to an accuracy of better than 1.8 m (6ft) for similar reasons. 4. Some title plans, for lack of up to date Ordnance Survey mapping at the date the title plan was produced, are based on developer's plans. Such developer's plans are often found to portray what was planned rather than what was built. What was built may have been built in a different place from where it was planned. In such cases the title plan may represent something other than what was actually built and will prove to be quite misleading. How should you check the boundaries? Ask your conveyancing solicitor to: a. see if he can obtain from the vendor a copy of the original Conveyance deed or the original Transfer of Part that first described the boundaries in question: and b. see if he can obtain from Land Registry the original Conveyance deeds or the original Transfers of Part relating to the neighbour properties that first described the boundaries: and c. check the boundaries against these documents. What should you do if the boundary features do not match the descriptions of the boundaries? Ask your solicitor to contact the vendor's solicitor to demand that the vendor puts the matter right by means of an Exact Line of Boundary: Registration applicataion made to Land Registry to reflect an agreement between the vendor and the appropriate neighbours as to the true position of the boundary in question. If for any reason the vendor is unable to have the boundary determined and recorded as such by Land Registry then you should withdraw your offer for the house and start looking for another house to buy. |
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
Buying a house: Searches reveal some of the land is
unregistered. You have made an offer to buy a house and your solicitor's searches have discovered that part of the garden is located on land that Land Registry has recorded as unregistered land. It really doesn't matter whether: - the boundaries of land were poorly described in the original deed (a conveyance of unregistered land or a transfer of part of registered land), - Land Registry made a mapping error in drawing up the title plan (it does happen), or - the vendor is (and one or more of his predecessors in title was) squatting on land they do not own. The fact is that part of the land the vendor is selling is land that Land Registry recognises as unregistered. Land Registry will therefore advise that the appropriate action is to apply for First Registration of that part of the land that is currently unregistered. Your solicitor should demand that the vendor should make an application for First Registration of the unregistered part of the land before the sale can proceed. On receipt of the Application for First Registration Land Registry will approach any other registered owners whose land abuts the unregistered land to see if any of them has a claim to ownership of the unregistered land. If any one of them responds with such a claim then Land Registry will likely refer the application to the Land Registration Division of the Property Chamber First Tier Tribunal (a lower Court). The Tribunal may decide to settle the matter by a court hearing, so uncertainty and disproportionate expense may well attend the application, and the Tribunal resolves most cases within 70 weeks. As you will not wish to incur the uncertainty, the possible expense, and the delay, my advice is that unless the Application for First Registration proceeds unopposed you should withdraw your offer and look for a different house to buy. |
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION |
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How accurate are the dimensions that are stated in
title deeds? As the conveyance and conveyance plan (see extract on the right) are a legal document, and an official copy of it is held by Land Registry, which is a government appointed official archive, surely the dimensions it shows must be correct? |
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Barristers are prone to argue, and judges are prone to accept, that any dimensions
stated in the conveyance deed or on a conveyance plan must be accurate, or at least
true to within whatever tolerance they ascribe to the term "or thereabouts". The argument
they propose is that because land is a valuable commodity then the vendor must have
gone to the trouble of accurately measuring it out. However, this is an utterly
fallacious argument. If land is valuable then the vendor will seek to maximise his net receipts, or profit, from the sale of the land. As any economist or entrepreneur will point out, minimising costs is one sure way of helping to maximise returns. Given that the vendor will most likely have paid an estate agent to market the land and a solicitor to deal with the conveyancing, why would he go to the "unnecessary" additional expense of employing a land surveyor to measure it? If the purchaser is concerned as to the dimensions of the land he is about to purchase, then - caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) - it falls to the purchaser to go to the expense of accurately measuring the land he is about to buy. If the conveyance dates from before 1950 then modern land surveying accuracies were not available: modern standards of land surveying productivity arrived much later. Accurate land surveying would have been far more expensive then than now, taking into account inflation. It was certainly not common practice for a vendor to instruct a land surveyor to measure the dimensions of a piece of land prior to its being offered for sale. The dimensions would have been supplied by the vendor, his estate agent or possibly his solicitor, none of whom would have had the relevant land survey training, all of whom were probably inadequately equipped for the task. Perhaps the dimensions were measured by no more accurate a method than pacing out the distance. |
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In the above example, part of the same land was sold on ten years
later. The new conveyance plan (extract at right) repeats the dimensions from
the earlier conveyance plan and adds some new dimensions. The new 90'0" dimension
is apparently parallel to the 95'0" dimension. The 85'0" dimension is clearly
not parallel to the other two, but if it is rotated about its bottom end to make
it parallel with the 95'0" and 90'0" lines then it becomes only 82'1" long. |
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Consider the drawing at right, which is a more accurate version of the second conveyance plan. Now, using proportions: if the 82'1" line increases to 90'0" by moving it 155'6" to the left, then it increases to 102'0" by the time it is moved by 395'6" to the left. So we must conclude that the 95'0" dimension must actually have been 102'0". This suggests that the 95'0" dimension was not accurately measured at the time the first deed plan was drawn. | ||
There is a further fault in these two conveyance plans. The two lines labelled 240'0" cannot be parallel to each other. Assuming the 90'0" and 102'0" lines are both perpendicular to the lower 240'0" line then, by Pythagoras, the upper line must be 3.5 inches longer than the lower 240'0" line. This explanation relies on mathematics that should be fully understood by every 13 year old school child. Neither is it rocket science, nor is it arcane knowledge to which only land surveyors are privy. But it is basic mathematics that was not adhered to by whoever was responsible for each of these two conveyance plans. It should be remembered that the quality of a dimension stated in a deed is determined by the measurement technology and measurement methods used. The quality of a badly measured dimension is not magically improved by its appearance in a legal document. Nor does its quality magically improve simply because Land Registry has seen fit to make and retain a copy of that legal document. It must also be remembered that Land Registry's role is simply to compile a register based on information supplied to it by applicants and that historically, at least until the advent of Determined Boundaries, Land Registry has exercised little or no quality control over the information it has received and placed on the register. The fact of the matter, and it is generally applicable to the vast majority of conveyances, is that dimensions were poorly measured and that no thought was given to providing sufficient measurements so that the dimensions could be mathematically checked to confirm their veracity. Dimensions given in conveyances should always be treated as being unreliable unless they are corroborated by some other evidence. For a fuller, generic, dicussion of Dimensions, click on the name of our free guide to open it in a new browser tab, and feel free to save it onto your own device: |
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION |
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Can I use the title plan to work out the exact
position of my boundary by scaling the distance from the boundary to the side of
my house? Firstly, the title plan is based upon the Ordnance Survey map, and as to the accuracy limitations of the Ordnance Survey map, one need only consult the table of relative accuracy of Ordnance Survey maps to appreciate how dangerous it might be to scale a distance from a title plan. Moreover, there is a warning in red text at the foot of the title plan that states: This title plan shows the general position, not the exact line, of the boundaries. It may be subject to distortions in scale. Measurements scaled from this plan may not match measurements between the same points on the ground. |
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