seller did not provide truthful info

claireb

I bought a house earlier this year and it transpires that the owner before the last one had errected a fence that fell within the neighbours boundary. The said neighbour complained (unofficially) but nothing was done. He raised the issue with the person I purchased from but was ignored again. Now he has raised the issue with me and I would like to do the right thing and have the fence moved but its not an easy or straight forward job because there is concrete where the posts would have to be moved to, so it may cost a bit to get it done.
The person I bought from stated on the Seller's Property Information Form that there were no disputes or boundary issues - clearly a lie. However, as my neighbour only made a verbal complaint to the previous owner - not an official one, I guess its just his word against hers? Do I have any grounds on which to get the previous owner to pay for the cost of moving the fence?

Thanks in advance!

Debt_Free_Chick

claireb wrote:

I bought a house earlier this year and it transpires that the owner before the last one had errected a fence that fell within the neighbours boundary.

How do you know it's definitely within the boundary of his property?

claireb

We are going off the measurements from the internal walls of our houses plus wall cavity.

Debt_Free_Chick

claireb wrote:

We are going off the measurements from the internal walls of our houses plus wall cavity.

It's notoriously difficult to transfer a line on a piece of paper to a "line on the ground" as a boundary is simply an invisible line dividing two or more plots of land.

Is this the first and original building on that plot? If not, then lining up the boundary with the building will almost certainly not give the true boundary.

To which edge of the line on the plan do you measure? The edge closest to your property? Or furthest away?

Has the site plan been redrawn at any point in the past? If so, has the boundary been accidentally moved?

Does the title/site plan actually state the dimensions of the plot? Or are you interpreting it from the stated scale? How do you know that you're not looking at a scaled down version of the original siteplan?

Most of us would not just take our neighbour's claim as being correct - and your previous neighbour didn't seem to.

Is there any reason why you're convinced he's right?

claireb

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

It's notoriously difficult to transfer a line on a piece of paper to a "line on the ground" as a boundary is simply an invisible line dividing two or more plots of land.

Is this the first and original building on that plot? If not, then lining up the boundary with the building will almost certainly not give the true boundary.

To which edge of the line on the plan do you measure? The edge closest to your property? Or furthest away?

Has the site plan been redrawn at any point in the past? If so, has the boundary been accidentally moved?

Does the title/site plan actually state the dimensions of the plot? Or are you interpreting it from the stated scale? How do you know that you're not looking at a scaled down version of the original siteplan?

Most of us would not just take our neighbour's claim as being correct - and your previous neighbour didn't seem to.

Is there any reason why you're convinced he's right?

Hi

This is the first and original building on the plot. The only plan we received on the purchase of the property is not detailed enough and does not give any dimensions. Do I need to obtain more detailed documents from the land registry?

My Dad is a builder and he thinks the neighbour is correct because the boundaries on new houses (its 15 years old) are nearly always divided from the cavity wall. I guess that's why I assumed he must be correct.:think:

seven-day-weekend

claireb wrote:

Hi

This is the first and original building on the plot. The only plan we received on the purchase of the property is not detailed enough and does not give any dimensions. Do I need to obtain more detailed documents from the land registry?

My Dad is a builder and he thinks the neighbour is correct because the boundaries on new houses (its 15 years old) are nearly always divided from the cavity wall. I guess that's why I assumed he must be correct.:think:

You almost certainly will not be able to tell where the original boundary line is.

The only sure way of marking an accurate boundary is to have it re-surveyed.

linlin_3

How much land is involved? If that side of the boundary is your responsibility, perhaps you should tell your neighbour that after paying for the fence to be removed, you will only be able to afford the statutory two-wire fence!

Woby_Tide

our 'boundaries' in the front and rear gardens are offset about 6 inches compared to the line of wall on the house, likewise our neighbour on the other side has the same. very hard to tell or determine exact boundaries especially when work has been done in past, disputed or not

Debt_Free_Chick

claireb wrote:

Hi

This is the first and original building on the plot. The only plan we received on the purchase of the property is not detailed enough and does not give any dimensions. Do I need to obtain more detailed documents from the land registry?

Any plan lodged with the Land Registry ought to be the same as that supplied when you bought the property. But for £2 you can download the plan from Land Registry Online. You'll need to pay another £2 for the Title Register, which may, or may not, describe the boundary.

My Dad is a builder and he thinks the neighbour is correct because the boundaries on new houses (its 15 years old) are nearly always divided from the cavity wall. I guess that's why I assumed he must be correct.:think:

He may well be, but I would want to be sure that this applied in your case. Anyway, the boundary may well be the cavity wall at that end of the boundary line - but how do you measure where the other end falls?

I wouldn't be too quick to agree with your neighbour as you could potentially be giving him land that you bought :eek: Some people are dab-hands at bullying neighbours into handing over some of their land.

I have to admit that my stance with your neighbour would be to, politely, ask him to prove that the boundary is in a different place. If you get into a dispute, then you may need advice from a Land Surveyor, who specialises in these things.

You mentioned concrete posts - is this the new boundary or an old one? Even if they're old ones, the fact that they are where they are does not prove that they form the correct boundary - they could have been put in the wrong place. See ... these boundary issues are really tricky, aren't they?

Regards

clutton_2

D_F_C ""But for £2 you can download the plan from Land Registry Online. You'll need to pay another £2 for the Title Register, which may, or may not, describe the boundary""

i bought some yesterday and these plans and titles have gone up by 33% !!!!! They're now £3 !

Debt_Free_Chick

clutton wrote:

D_F_C ""But for £2 you can download the plan from Land Registry Online. You'll need to pay another £2 for the Title Register, which may, or may not, describe the boundary""

i bought some yesterday and these plans and titles have gone up by 33% !!!!! They're now £3 !

Yep, you're right. That's a recent price hike as I bought some only recently ... 6-8 weeks ago :mad: