Boundry dispute with title plan

princeofpounds

Thanks for the extra info.

I do agree it is most likely the neighbour is mistaken, using title plans that have since been superseded.

If you download their title plan online you will see their current version. If it confirms your position then that is the easiest 'reply' to them.

Don't get drawn into anything if possible, just show them their own plans. If they want to discuss further they have to provide you with the plans they want to invoke and explain why they believe they are relevant. It is not enough to wave old plans around and assert claims.

That is not to say that old plans cannot have any relevance today, but the default assumption is that they do not if more recent (yet still massively established) plans contradict them.

I also strongly advise visiting garden law boundary forum, reading the stickies and past threads. It will help you with understand boundaries, although to understand the exact legal history of the title plans you would probably need to get legal advice.

cc051079

Thank you everyone for your replies.
It seems simple but they don't seem to understand.
Will get some advice as to what to do next.
It's all civil bar raised voices so they might have to prove the LR wrong!

Land_Registry

cc051079 - from the information being posted I doubt very much that it is a case of proving anything is 'wrong' but more a case of discussing the available information, registered or not, and agreeing a way forward as others have stated.

The age of a plan is largely irrelevant when dealing with measurements as it is extremely rare (if not impossible) for any plan to identify where the person who did the measuring measured from and what account they made for any physical features or gradients when doing so.

Equally as the years have passed the way in which measurements are taken and recorded has of course also changed from the days of olde when we measured by rods/chains, to imperial measurements of feet and inches or cm and metres.

Plans are by their very nature one dimensional and a representation only of the reality on the ground at a specific date. For example did they measure from the inside or outside of a fence post several inches thick or a brick wall of several courses thick?

Old deed plans can help to understand where the position of a boundary might be but as you will appreciate boundaries do change simply because for example fences get replaced (moved slightly) or other physical features change from when one person measured in 1952 and another did the same 20 years later.

And of course neighbours build up a view of what is fact/reality based on their own experiences and what for example the previous owner told them when they bought the property.

Two people looking at the same plan can often have a different interpretation over what it is telling them just as easily as two plans may appear to differ.

All of this can be added to the mix re knowledge. information and understanding.

As others have mentioned 30cm is too small to measure on a plan at a scale of 1:1250. Residential properties will invariably be mapped at that scale (rural at 1:2500) simply because we use the Ordnance Survey map as our basis for then adding the general boundaries/extent.

Our online guidance on boundaries and our series of supplementary guidance to Practice Guide 40 will help explain some of the details re registered title plans/boundaries.

If you can discuss and share available information, both registered and not, and come to an agreement over where the boundary line is then you can formalise it through a legal agreement or determined boundary application. The latter remains a fairly rare outcome though but something to be considered where applicable.

If you can avoid falling out over a boundary dispute then this is clearly the best option - such disputes can have a big impact on how neighbours co-exist next door to one another and can also impact on efforts to sell/move in the future as buyers are put off by the dispute.

A resolution is likely to only be in you and your neighbour's hands - others can offer a view, can provide what you may or may not think is accurate information/advice and you can enlist and pay for legal and professional (say a surveyor) advice but ultimately they are simply views not binding on either you or your neighbour.

Ultimately a court of law is the sole arbiter but nowadays, having read a large number of threads re such matters both on MSE and other forums, a court would take a very dim view if such a case was bought before it.