How to check boundaries

debtfreeian

Hi,

We are buying a house where the current owner has previously bought land off the owner of a field that backs onto the property to extend the garden.


I know that land registry title plans aren't super accurate, but looking on Google Maps, the boundary fence exceeds the plans by a good way.

Images below are taken from the first title plan received.
Second image where I assume this is the land purchased



Google image of property.



My eyes may be deceiving me, but the second title deed plan appears to line up more accurately to the fence of the neighbour above the property I'm purchasing.

The letter from the solicitor states that checking the physical extent of the property remains my responsibility. So how do I do this? I can see the fence obviously!

moneyistooshorttomention

Is the vendor around and you could get him to literally walk around the boundary of what he has "bought and paid for".

Bit tired now to analyse clearly...but I'm wondering if that house and the one beneath it bought a certain amount of land and then illicitly extended outwards (that darn "adverse possession" malarkey).

I'd be asking, in your position, if any of your garden got acquired by other means than "buying and paying" for it, to try and help establish where the boundary lies.

I expect the owner of the "top house" out of those 3 would know the answer to this.

princeofpounds

Tell your solicitor.

The facts on the ground and the actual history matter more than the red line on the plan, to some degree.

It looks like the second plan shows that he has bought land that he already owns in the first plan!

So it needs investigating properly, it's not something that will be solved by asking a simple question.

debtfreeian

I have told my solicitor. What do the dotted lines mean?

princeofpounds

Think it's a boundary not defined by a physical feature (as most boundaries actually are)

G_M

The plot of land in he 2nd Plan appears to line up with both the house above AND the house below, which is clearly not what Google shows.

Has the house below also bought a section of field? What does their Tile Plan(s) show?

debtfreeian

Hi, there's 4 houses in the block and they all bought land to the rear so it says on the land registry site.

As you say the title plans on the property I'm in the process of purchasing and both neighbours boundaries appear to align, which isn't the case in reality.

I've spoke to my solicitor and the EA so I'll see what the seller says first off.

Thanks

G_M

Knock on the neighbours' doors.

Always good to talk to neighbours before buying anyway.

franklee

Maybe the top house purchased extra land but didn't move their fence?

Can you look further zoomed out to see if there is any other feature to line the back fence up with, house round the corner or something?

I'd agree about asking the vendor and neighbours but if they have nicked a bit of land they may not disclose.

How long ago was the purchase of the extra bits, you can look at old bing aerial maps if they cover the right dates.

Richard_Webster

It is very common for a seller to forget to tell his solicitor that he bought an extra piece of land - so the solicitor applies for the main title only and doesn't know about the piece of land bought later.

Your solicitor can do a SIM search in respect of the extra area to establish whether it is registered and then ask the seller's solicitor to produce the title.

davidmcn

debtfreeian wrote: »

The letter from the solicitor states that checking the physical extent of the property remains my responsibility. So how do I do this?

Ideally with a measuring tape, but you can get a good idea by scaling up the OS plans and comparing with the aerial pics (it looks to me that the area occupied extends further back than both those titles put together).

I wouldn't place too much importance on where fences are marked on the OS plans as those may have shifted (or not existed) depending on when they updated their mapping.