Boundary query - no dispute

vaunmul

Hello All,
We are putting in a new back fence with our neighbour, but as part of this we have noticed the current fence seems to not be along the boundary line and we are after some advice regarding how to determine where our boundary lies.
The deeds for both properties show a line down the middle of the driveway (specifically between the two houses, with each side highlighted in a different colour), which then continues straight between the front and rear gardens. The wording in both property deeds also says the driveway is equally shared for access etc. (in more formal words).
However the current back fence between the two properties is significantly away from where we believe the midway line would be, so both sides are looking to sort this as part of putting the new fence in.
To confirm, there is no dispute/issue, and we are working together to resolve before submitting a form (cannot think what it is called) to Land Registry to formalise everything.
But we are stuck on where to define the middle of the driveway line.

My husband (office bod working with computers) thinks using the side wall of each house at various stages down the driveway to give a starting line, then continuing this on via laser in each direction (front and rear) when the wall ends.
But the neighbour (50 years on building sites before retirement) thinks we should measure the width of the driveway where it first starts next to the public pavement for our road, and determine the halfway point there to continue on via laser.
Our query is that my husband thinks if we find the middle at the point where the driveway first starts next to the public footpath, it is open to being wrong as the driveway has our block paving off street paving on one side and the neighbours self built (albeit many many years ago) wall on the other side. So who is to say that the point where each of these areas meet the driveway area is correct, especially to then use to continue the measurement.  The driveway itself is concrete and is defined as the space that was left between the two front garden areas and then continues down between the houses, and it does look equal but is this enough.   
At least the physical house walls were built at the time the deeds were drawn up, so the middle point between these should be as per described in the deeds and nothing should have changed.

Is there anything formal as to where we should measure the middle of the driveway that is described in the deeds, for us then to continue this on for fitting the new back fence?
We did ask some local surveyors but were quoted ridiculous values for their help, which didn't even involve exact marking of the physical area or paperwork completion after as this service would have added to the quote!

We just want to ensure before fitting the new fence that we put it in the correct place, and not somewhere were it may cause issues in the future if either side moves and new owners come in.

Hopefully the above makes sense, to receive some help/advice.

theoretica

If you take your husband's line and the neighbour's how different are they really?  Do both and split the difference?

user1977

A drawing would help!

Section62

vaunmul said:

My husband (office bod working with computers) thinks using the side wall of each house at various stages down the driveway to give a starting line, then continuing this on via laser in each direction (front and rear) when the wall ends.
But the neighbour (50 years on building sites before retirement) thinks we should measure the width of the driveway where it first starts next to the public pavement for our road, and determine the halfway point there to continue on via laser.
Our query is that my husband thinks if we find the middle at the point where the driveway first starts next to the public footpath, it is open to being wrong as the driveway has our block paving off street paving on one side and the neighbours self built (albeit many many years ago) wall on the other side. So who is to say that the point where each of these areas meet the driveway area is correct, especially to then use to continue the measurement.  The driveway itself is concrete and is defined as the space that was left between the two front garden areas and then continues down between the houses, and it does look equal but is this enough.   

The house flank walls are less likely to move than the mid-position of a pair of driveways, so in principle that would be the more robust approach.

But the neighbour is not wrong per se.

The line you are trying to establish is known in surveying as a "base".  The longer the base, the more accurately further operations such as extension or triangulation can be carried out.  If the mid-point of the driveways was correct then using that to establish the base would give a more accurate result.

Ultimately the accuracy will depend on the ratio between the measured line and the extended line - in other words if the back gardens are long compared to the depth of the house then the inaccuracy is likely to be greater than if the back gardens were shorter.

If the rear elevations of the two houses are in line then there is a third technique which could be used as a check - that would be establishing a line perpendicular to the rear elevations by measuring 'x' metres from the corner along the rear wall of each house, and then measuring equal distances from those two points. The third measured point will definitely be at the mid-point between the two houses and perpendicular to them.  If you like I'll do a sketch to demonstrate as the method is actually simpler than the description sounds.