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Urgent Help Needed.... Boundary of Property

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Hi All,

We have almost completed the purchase of a property in Scotland. The house has a rear garden with a wooden fence (boundary of the pink area). Outside the wooden fence there is an area (45 degree downhill) bounded by a mental fence (red line on the map).
eje4lb47r
The snapshot of the plan map can be found here: http://postimg.org/image/eje4lb47r/

I was initially told by the EA/owners that the area between two fences (between pink and red line) is also part of the property. However it doesn't seem like that from the land register map.

On the title deeds, there is a description of the property stating: 'Subjects within the land edged red on the Title Plan being XXX(address) tinted pink on the said plan'. I am not sure if I understand it correctly. Will I own the area between pink and red line or not? (the statement is a bit ambiguous to me...)

My solicitor insists I won't, however the owner and selling solicitor said I will..... I am totally confused by them and also by the statement on the title deeds.....

Anyone who has similar experience before can confirm this?

Thank you.

Comments

  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 25 June 2013 at 6:18PM
    Deisler wrote: »
    Hi All,

    We have almost completed the purchase of a property in Scotland. The house has a rear garden with a wooden fence (boundary of the pink area). Outside the wooden fence there is an area (45 degree downhill) bounded by a mental fence (red line on the map).
    if the fence is only mental, how can it have a red line on the map? Or is the redline also mental?



    The snapshot of the plan map can be found here: http://postimg.org/image/eje4lb47r/

    I was initially told by the EA/owners that the area between two fences (between pink and red line) is also part of the property. However it doesn't seem like that from the land register map.

    On the title deeds, there is a description of the property stating: 'Subjects within the land edged red on the Title Plan being XXX(address) tinted pink on the said plan'. I am not sure if I understand it correctly. Will I own the area between pink and red line or not? (the statement is a bit ambiguous to me...)

    My solicitor insists I won't, however the owner and selling solicitor said I will..... I am totally confused by them and also by the statement on the title deeds.....

    Anyone who has similar experience before can confirm this?

    Thank you.
    Are you using a solicitor or doing the conveyancing yourself?
    If the former, what does he say?

    But as a general rule in these matters, you ignore what the seller says (they get things wrong), and you take on board with healthy cynicism what the seller's solicitor says. As for the EA...... :eek:

    You rely on your own investigations, and the investigations/advice of your own solicitor.

    If documents show a boundary is here, then that is far more meaningful than the seller saying the boundary is there.

    edit: Please clarify: do the Title Plans show a pink line, or an area tinted pink? And where is said line/said tinted area?

    edit again: got your link to work.

    Makes no sense! You are clearly not buying the "land edged red". The only red line runs along the back of ALL the houses. It does NOT edge the house you are buying.....

    (so perhaps my joke about the mental red line was not so far wrong!)
  • Money_Bunny
    Money_Bunny Posts: 102 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Can't open your link and not particularly knowledgeable in this area, but...

    Have experience of trying to buy a property (in England) where much of the land which the owners had claimed for their garden turned out to not belong to them (but to a rail company). EA and owner couldn't see the problem. We pulled out on the advice of our Solicitor.
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    . EA and owner couldn't see the problem. We pulled out on the advice of our Solicitor.
    at which point EA and owner suddenly did see the problem!
  • Deisler
    Deisler Posts: 60 Forumite
    G_M wrote: »
    Are you using a solicitor or doing the conveyancing yourself?
    If the former, what does he say?

    But as a general rule in these matters, you ignore what the seller says (they get things wrong), and you take on board with healthy cynicism what the seller's solicitor says. As for the EA...... :eek:

    You rely on your own investigations, and the investigations/advice of your own solicitor.

    If documents show a boundary is here, then that is far more meaningful than the seller saying the boundary is there.

    edit: Please clarify: do the Title Plans show a pink line, or an area tinted pink? And where is said line/said tinted area?

    edit again: got your link to work.

    Makes no sense! You are clearly not buying the "land edged red". The only red line runs along the back of ALL the houses. It does NOT edge the house you are buying.....

    (so perhaps my joke about the mental red line was not so far wrong!)

    Thanks for your reply.

    My solicitor said, according to the map plan, area between pink area and red line doesnt belong to the property, which is also my understanding.

    However, the title deeds state: Subjects within the land edged red on the Title Plan being XXX(address) tinted pink on the said plan. From this statement, I guess only pink area is the property?
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    The red line does not appear to delineanate the boundary of your property. It seems to show the boundary of whatever is beyond it (a field?)

    Therefore my instinct would be to ignore it,and focus on the 'area shaded pink' in terms of what you are buying....
  • Alan2020
    Alan2020 Posts: 510 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper
    Are you sure the fence is not your responsibility? I have a foot of land behind my garage and two others and strangely it belongs to someone far away, but they are responsible for the boundary fence that goes behind my garage to their house. So we had a confusion when I moved in, as I assumed the fence was ours, but then we found belonged to someone way down the road, and would cost them 1000s for just a narrow 1ft strip of land lol
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Alan2020 wrote: »
    Are you sure the fence is not your responsibility? I have a foot of land behind my garage and two others and strangely it belongs to someone far away, but they are responsible for the boundary fence that goes behind my garage to their house. So we had a confusion when I moved in, as I assumed the fence was ours, but then we found belonged to someone way down the road, and would cost them 1000s for just a narrow 1ft strip of land lol
    This is not about ownershipofthe fence (either the wooden one or the 'mental' one).

    Itis about the land between them.
  • Alan2020
    Alan2020 Posts: 510 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper
    G_M, just to clarify, it was like OPs picture, till we got original deeds where the pen line showed the land belonged to the other house. The OP has put the smallest picture in the whole world. If you look at the surrounding boundaries we may have a clue to if the land belongs to him. If it is on a 45 slope it will be too small at times to show on the microscopic picture. Like mine looked like no mans land, strange, till we got the originals and saw the red lines linking it to our far away neighbour!
  • Deisler
    Deisler Posts: 60 Forumite
    G_M wrote: »
    The red line does not appear to delineanate the boundary of your property. It seems to show the boundary of whatever is beyond it (a field?)

    Therefore my instinct would be to ignore it,and focus on the 'area shaded pink' in terms of what you are buying....

    Thanks. I think the area does not belong to the property, which is a shame. Will move in there in a week! We both look forward to it!
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