Advice in boundaries.........

SCOYA

Hi All

Apologies if this is a bit waffle like, but I'm just trying to paint pictures with words.......

The property we're in the process of buying is three years old and was built in the garden of a larger property.

As you look at the property we have a hedge to the front and fence to the RHS, which are our responsibility.

To the LHS, and working from the front to the rear, there is a small hedge, then a small side wall of the house next door, there is what appears to be a flower bed about one foot in depth in front of this wall, which runs along the LHS of the garage and finishes at the back wall of the garage, (just tapers off) beyond the garage is a full size hedge leading to the end of the garden.

The plot of land is a wedge shape, which explains the tapering of the small piece of land to the LHS. The rest of the driveway is shingle.

Although there is no access from the next door property to this piece of land, unless they walk up the drive, the current owner just shrugged his shoulders when I asked about boundaries, and our solicitor has emailed today to say the boundaries map is general and if we want this investigating we need to get a surveyor.......

Has anyone had any experience of something like this, or could advise what kind of surveyor we need?

Thanks for reading.

I_have_spoken

Sounds like you need a new solicitor not a surveyor!

A 3yo property build in a 'garden grab' must have accurate plans and boundary info.

Worst case the vendor has knows about a 'ransom strip' or RoW and that's why they are so vague.

AdrianC

The Land Reg boundaries will be general, yep, but you should be able to relate them to features on the ground. They might not be millimetre-perfect, but you should be able to figure it out with your neighbour from that.

Given how recent the construction is, have you checked the council's planning website, see whether there's more detail on the drawings that were submitted back then?

moneyistooshorttomention

A vendor that is vague about boundaries could be a vendor that is trying to hide a Naughty Neighbour.

Now that is voice of experience time there = as I found out just what the vendor was being vague about later and am still in process of sorting out the resultant mess from the combination of spineless vendor and Greedy would-be Grabby G*t (as I am rather re-naming Little S*d, as I fondly, or otherwise, am calling the neighbour to date).

In hindsight, I should have checked up on my solicitor (who turned out to be a legal executive) and wasn't up to scratch and then told the vendor "You sort your mess out first and then I'll buy your house from you". Have managed to sort out some of the mess so far, so some down, some to go...

SCOYA

Thank you all so very much for your advice, it is most appreciated and so helpful. I have spent last night on the local planning website and found good clear plans showing boundaries, covering my particular concern being the LHS of the property.

The plans also show TPO's on the building plans, that we're was confusion over, however, they are further along the road in the plans and nowhere near the property we hope to purchase........... They obviously appear as they were part of the whole site when planning was applied for and granted.

I'm so 'green' at all this but I'm starting to wonder what it is the solicitors do................

moneyistooshorttomention

SCOYA wrote: »

I'm so 'green' at all this but I'm starting to wonder what it is the solicitors do................

"The dead basics only" would seem to be the answer for some of them:( and not warning the client of potential problems and suggesting what they think are ways forward to deal with them (be it "Reject that house" on the one hand or "Do such-and-such and that should prevent that possible problem" on the other hand).

princeofpounds

As you look at the property we have a hedge to the front and fence to the RHS

We get descriptions like this all the time on the forum. They rarely make any sense because

a) we have no idea of the positioning of the new house and plot in the old plot and

b) where are we supposed to be looking at the new house FROM?!

OP, that's not an aggressive criticism, everyone does it, I just needed to blow off steam on that point.

Anyway, to be more useful...

Yes, boundary plans are general. There is a practical sense to that (the scale is small so a red line on the plan is a couple of feet on the ground), and a legal sense (in that the legal boundary is more determined by physical features, which can and do move and shift, unless it has become a measured, 'determined' boundary).

Boundaries can be all sorts of odd angles and shapes, but the keys are:

a) the plan matches the ground
b) the boundary feature indicated by the red line on the plan is identifiable
c) the neighbour's plan matches yours
d) the boundary hasn't been altered outside of the plan through long-term practice or an unregistered transaction
e) the neighbour isn't a nutjob with strange ideas about boundaries

I agree that the vagueness of the vendor and the odd plot shape is an amber light warning.

The solicitor isn't being particularly helpful in their explanation to you. They can check that the legal boundary recorded in the plan is all in order, but they rely on you that the situation on the ground matches the plan.

Normally there is nothing weird and it's a simple eyeball, but if there is a problem on the ground, then it gets into surveyor territory.

Land_Registry

Our online guidance explains some of the issues around boundaries which are often encountered and which invariably rely on neighbours agreeing a way forward. AdrianC has referred to this already.

Two things to add re your specific posts though, namely

A surveyor can help to interpret a plan and property layout etc and advise on where they think a boundary might be - that is based on experience and professional understanding but it is not binding on any party.

And planning deal with how a property is to b e built, laid out, what materials are used etc. Whilst in the vast majority of cases I am sure a builder will stick to their plan when it comes to putting in fences, walls, hedges etc sometimes the lay of and type of land as well as existing structures may mean they could go 'off plan' in some cases.

Neither comment is to suggest that this will or has happened here but simply to emphasise how you can seek to draw on a wide variety of knowledge, experience and recorded information to aid your understanding but at the end of the day so much will rely on what neighbours agree is the best way forward for all concerned over deciding where a boundary is for example, how it's position was arrived at and who will take responsibility for it and so on.