Land registry boundaries

vjacx

Hi, just wanted to share my frustrations - and get opinions! In the process of purchasing a house, and the land registry plans were sent over by our solicitor. There are 2 plans, as at some point an owner (I don't know if this was current vendor's family member - deceased estate) purchased part of a neighbours garden, therefore this area is shown on a seperate plan.

The difficulty is that the area of land shown as purchased at a later date from the neighbour is much smaller (half the size) of the area that is fenced off as such at the property. I am going off the current fence being in line with the house, whereas on the plans it is honestly nowhere near.

I have flagged it to my solicitor and sent in a google earth shot to show what I mean, as I couldn't get them to understand at first, and they have said they have passed this to the vendors solicitor for their response. In the meantime I've realised that this neighbouring property has gone up for sale (showing as under offer at agents) and I am worried that this could escalate into a dispute over boundaries etc.

I know the land registry plans are not exact but it's the fact that the line of the building is a clear guide and the plot boundary is nowhere near this on the plan that's worrying me. Am I right in thinking that when this purchase of land from a neighbour was made there would have been some legal paperwork showing the area etc? Should it be as simple as the vendor providing this to prove the boundary/area belonging to the property they are selling?

Have chased the solicitor but heard nothing yet, and the neighbouring house now being under offer is making me twitchy, if the boundaries need to be resolved this could be harder if that house sells and new owner wants to be awkward about it? Or am I getting ahead of myself (and the legal people) and worrying over nothing?!

G_M

The maps on LR Plans are not on a scale small enough to be precise.

But if the fence is clearly in a different place to the Plan you needto resolve this. Does the LR Plan show a larger or smaller area than the actual garden as currently divided? Presumably you were happy with the price basedon your view of the garden, so if the LR Plan indicates a larger area, you are not losing out.

Have you looked also at the Plan for the neighbour's property? Download it here for £3.from land registry

vjacx

Hi, thanks for the reply, the plan shows it as smaller than the area fenced off, and hence what we viewed as part of the property is a larger area, and I have downloaded the plan for the neighbouring house as you suggest (sorry, should probably have mentioned that too) which would indicate they have a larger garden than they do in reality. This is where I'm thinking it might get messy if not resolved before the neighbours sale completes, because if they see it and look at the line of the house etc and then think they should have more land than they do... The last thing I want is a dispute with the neighbours!

G_M

Your vendors need to resolve this with LR before you progress.

princeofpounds

There are a few possibilities here.

One is that some kind of error has been made, where the map is not representative of the transaction for some reason.

More likely more was fenced off than was legally bought.

If it has been possessed for long enough then it might be a case of adverse possession, so even if the extra land was not bought originally ownership may have passed to the purchasers.

But that all depends on the facts of the case. Obtaining the title of next door might help also, to see if it matches.

Basically there is probably a dispute here. It will need to be sorted out and potentially this can be done amicably, but it is complicated by the fact that up to 4 parties are involved (the two owners and their two new prospective buyers).

So I would be ultra-wary of taking the hassle on and I'd be looking at other properties.

ValHaller

First thing to decide is whether the property is acceptable to you with the reduced boundary.

If it is not acceptable, you need to make it clear via your solicitor that your offer is only valid subject to good title on the questionable bit.

And if it is acceptable, then you should reduce your offer accordingly but make it clear that the original offer is still valid subject to good title on the questionable bit.