Establishing boundary line, next door in probate

Motherofcelticdragons

Hi,

We have just purchased our first home. It's a mid terrace, and there is not fence to one side. That neighbour has died. We want to put up a fence, if only as a barricade to the foxes that have made their home in the now overgrown jungle! 

How do we go about establishing the boundary line in this situation? In particularly it 'feels' like their conservatory style green house might overhang onto ours a bit...

Thanks in advance. 

Grenage

You can look at the deeds to get a rough idea... then I'd make an educated guess.

Mojisola

Motherofcelticdragons said:

How do we go about establishing the boundary line in this situation?

Does the map of your property in the deeds show any distinct features - old fence lining up with house wall, meeting other garden fences at particular angles, etc?

Rosa_Damascena

Is the responsibility to maintain the fence on that side yours? (Its usually the RHS boundary as you look out ionto your garden you are responsible for).

In your position I'd just get a fence up and not give too much thought to the boundary for now. If the lean-to overhangs then deal with the new neighbour.

I say this as someone who's property has been the recipient of a historic land grab, there's sweet FA I can actually do about it.

ThisIsWeird

Presumably sorted by now, but in a terraced house it's usually dead easy to work out the exact boundary line in parallel properties - it's the centre of where the two houses join. 
Compare the unknown side of your house with the other - does that help at all?
Then check your deeds to see if there's any suggestion whose responsibility the boundary/fence on that side is. If it's 'yours', then the best solution - tho' it could be argued otherwise - is usually to take full ownership of that fence, so that means positioning the posts so that the neighb's side of the post sits dead on that line, so that the whole actual posts sit on your land. That will make it 100% your fence sitting 100% on your land, and you can 'dictate' everything about it, including not allowing others to hang things on it - if you wished.
Or, if all the other neighbours' boundary fences appear 'shared' - ie the posts sit on the boundaries, one half in each garden, then perhaps broach that as a solution to this neighb. You'll gain a couple of inches, but lose ownership...

subjecttocontract

Ownership, maintenance, position et c of fences are all covered as part of the conveyancing process. Your solicitor would have asked these questions......what answers did he get ? Did you not query boundary/ fencing before purchase ?

ThisIsWeird

subjecttocontract said:

Ownership, maintenance, position et c of fences are all covered as part of the conveyancing process. Your solicitor would have asked these questions......what answers did he get ? Did you not query boundary/ fencing before purchase ?

Good point! The boundary responsibility should have been answered in the SIP, tho' with probate sales the person filling it in might not know.

In any case, the position of the actual boundary line should be easy to determine in semi and terraced houses.

subjecttocontract

* Its not the OP dealing with probate.....it's the property sale next door to them.
* Foxes can jump easily over 3ft high fences or dig holes under taller ones.

ThisIsWeird

subjecttocontract said:

* Its not the OP dealing with probate.....it's the property sale next door to them.

That's what I meant - the folk filling in the details from the probate sale might not have any personal knowledge of the house, such as boundaries. The SIP might well have lots of "Don't know"s.