Buying a House with potential Boundary Issue

paddy's_mum

throughthickandthin wrote: »

Our solicitor suggests the only way forward is through the sellers entering into a formal boundary agreement with the neighbours.

But why should they? It's not them with the problem. You may have to buy your way out of the difficulty if you wish to pursue the purchase.

sooty&sweep

Hi

Does the seller or the neighbour have an issue with the boundary ?

If no leave it well alone.

Try & tell your mortgage company that you made a mistake.

You will always struggle to define categorically where the boundary is & so the surveyor will presume it's in the logical place for where the boundary should be if that makes sense.

Jen

diggingdude

Why would 30cm lose you your access?

throughthickandthin

Worth also mentioning that the line of the fence does not match up with the title plan. The title plan shows the boundary as dead straight, whereas the fence has a slight kink outwards.

The seller/neighbour has no issue, but we are worried when we come to sell it the same issue will occur.

princeofpounds

I feel for you.

Firstly, the general boundaries principle. If you want to learn more about it, there is a useful sticky thread over at gardenlaw boundaries forum. It's called 'put the tape measure away'.

But the basic point is not quite that the title plan boundary is fuzzy and that the fence somehow falls fuzzily within that fuzz. Rather, the title plan boundary is generally indicative of a boundary feature on the ground, which defines the legal boundary. That can be a very clear and entirely non-fuzzy boundary feature, even if it doesn't quite follow the title plan line in all respects (after all, no fence is perfectly straight).

There are other methods of determining a boundary, but this is the most common as few people millimetrically-survey their gardens and make legal agreements with each neighbour for determined boundaries.

The important thing is that the boundary feature has been mutually accepted for a substantial period of time and that it is identifiable from the title plan.

30cm is a small issue, to be honest. But I'm afraid I don't wholly agree with posters who think it is a trifle, because it appears to be critical to side access. It appears the mortgage company is taking the same view (and remember, your solicitor is also working for your mortgage company's interests, so he can't just take your instruction and let things slide).

The thing here is that you don't really know what has happened. It's quite possible, as suggested, that the far side of the hedge, or the middle of the hedge, was always the accepted boundary between the two neighbours.

Or, it might not have been, but the neighbour didn't mind the losing the land to your vendor when the fence moved.

Or, they might have minded, and your vendor is lying to you about the lack of a dispute (actually rather unlikely).

The fact that the fence moved does not really mean very much in itself. It's generally assumed that people will fence to the fullest extent of their land, and therefore define the boundary, but if they also owned the hedge there was a practical reason why they would not have done that until the hedge was gone. Unfortunately the new fence hasn't been in place long enough to become an iron-clad definition of the boundary itself.

If the neighbour is in agreement with the boundary (and a co-operative type) it shouldn't be at all difficult for them to draw that up legally. But it will cost, so maybe one way out of this is to fund that cost. Even if you don't, your vendor may do so despite the bluster, who knows.

getmore4less

throughthickandthin wrote: »

Wouldn't matter hugely if we lost the land, although it would be a nuisance as we'd lose side access and would be costly to move the fence I imagine...

We don't envisage any boundary dispute as its definitely not obvious that the fence has moved and it doesn't affect the neighbours access in any way. The only thing we are worried about is when we come to sell will we have the same issue....

Check the planning application for any need to retain side access.

You say there was a hedge before, what fixed feature are you using to determine the current fence is not on the boundary?

paddy's_mum

princeofpounds wrote: »

it shouldn't be at all difficult for them to draw that up legally

Except that if the neighbours themselves have a mortgage on their property, they may well not wish to open a can of worms with their lender, which amending the deeds would almost certainly require, whoever is actually funding the solicitor drawing up the changes.

Davesnave

diggingdude wrote: »

Why would 30cm lose you your access?

If it's like the extension I did, losing 30cm on the corner of the building would have precluded getting a wheelbarrow through there. Access by squeezing through a narrow gap carrying building materials etc isn't much good.

Yes, I removed a hedge and replaced with a fence to create the space, and I'll admit that it was angled to favour our plot....

Hey, it's not my old house is it? :eek:

Davesnave

paddy's_mum wrote: »

Except that if the neighbours themselves have a mortgage on their property, they may well not wish to open a can of worms with their lender, which amending the deeds would almost certainly require, whoever is actually funding the solicitor drawing up the changes.

Alternatively, in the case of a small area of difficulty like this , the lender, now alerted, might prefer that it's sorted legally for clarity, if doing that doesn't disadvantage the property in some way.

Slinky

If you can't unravel this with the mortgage company I suspect you're going to have to look for another house as the vendor is unlikely to want to entertain your can of worms when it will most likely not be an issue that gets raised again by another purchaser. Currently, this is your problem, not that of the vendor or their neighbour.


I didn't notice the kink in the boundary of our previous home, due to there being a wall separating the front and back gardens. I suspect our neighbour claimed part of our front garden when laying his lawn parallel with his drive when the houses were built 40+ years ago. I didn't bother doing anything about it, too much time had passed. Our purchasers didn't notice it either, not my problem anymore.