Recently purchased house wondering where back garden ends

TommyGG

Bought a house, garden has a fence around it. Solicitor confirmed we owned that fenced land.

However, all our neighbours gardens extend back (there's nothing there for 100m to railway line) significantly further than our houses back fence. 3-5 meters further back.

Solicitors searches show our garden back fence should be level with our neighbours, at the moment it's inset.

How do I find out exactly how large our garden is in meters legally? All the maps sent by solicitor during purchase seem quite zoomed out and not detailed enough to establish this.

I see two options here:

a) Our garden is actually bigger than we expected
b) Our neighbours are wrong about their garden size

Any help appreciated!

Bossypants

If there's nothing but railway shrubbery back there anyway, you could always try moving your fences to be level with the neighbours' and see if anyone protests...

martinthebandit

Who is going to complain if you move your fence back so that it's level with your neighbours?

davidmcn

You own whatever your title deeds say you own. So assuming that includes a scale plan based on the OS map, you should be able to work out the length in metres. If your title boundary is level with the neighbours' fences then that seems straightforward.

need_an_answer

It might be worthwhile contacting network rail to see the exclusion zone between yourselves and the line.

It could be that they need to maintain a ROW across a certain area which obviously you'll need to allow but it may just be that the previous owner fenced off a manageable amount as their garden at some point that allowed them privacy away from any ROW or similar

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/communities/living-by-the-railway/buying-property-next-railway/

AdrianC

The LR plans are not massively high-resolution, no. But they certainly should give enough detail to refer to landmarks and neighbouring plots.

Remember, your solicitor never visited the property. You are the only person in the purchasing process who compares the legal paperwork and the on-the-ground expectation.

TommyGG

I just bought the title plan, here's the property:
i.imgur.com/YOYaQz0.png

Plan doesn't have a scale on it other than 1/1250

And here is the plan the solicitor provided us, which is from 1951:
i.imgur.com/bUZ7PHP.png

I'm thinking we just move our back fence level, and if anyone asks show them the second plan?

I'm not sure why the two versions are different.

Edit: Found this confirmed from seller:

The small triangular piece of land behind the red edging on the title does not fall within the physical boundaries of the property.

Even though the attached plan referenced doesn't show the triangle piece of land, and as I understand it property boundary can simply refer to where the fence is. Is this right?

davidmcn

The area outlined in red is what you own. That is (probably) identical on both plans. What's happened is that some time between 1951 and whenever the LR plan dates from, the back fence (i.e. the black line on the OS map) has been moved out to create the triangular bit which is now occupied as if it's part of "your" garden, but it isn't within your title. I think the seller's statement is wrong, unless the fence has since been moved back to the correct position and hasn't yet been updated on the OS plan. You might be able to claim adverse possession for the extra bit.

TommyGG

OK thanks for info, makes sense. The reality is neighbours fences look more like this:
i.imgur.com/rOjW5dX.png

On this basis, I suppose it would be entirely reasonable to move our back fence to the purple line as long as:

a) It connect to the end of neighbour B's fence
b) It is relatively straight to neighbour A's fence

AdrianC

TommyGG wrote: »

I just bought the title plan, here's the property:


Plan doesn't have a scale on it other than 1/1250

And here is the plan the solicitor provided us, which is from 1951:


I'm thinking we just move our back fence level, and if anyone asks show them the second plan?

I'm not sure why the two versions are different.

Edit: Found this confirmed from seller:

Even though the attached plan referenced doesn't show the triangle piece of land, and as I understand it property boundary can simply refer to where the fence is. Is this right?

TommyGG wrote: »

OK thanks for info, makes sense. The reality is neighbours fences look more like this:


On this basis, I suppose it would be entirely reasonable to move our back fence to the purple line as long as:

a) It connect to the end of neighbour B's fence
b) It is relatively straight to neighbour A's fence

That all looks as if the neighbours are the ones who've moved their fence line.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Tom99

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