Property Boundary Enquiry

MeteredOut

If you were to move your boundary to include the square, do you think anyone would notice/complain? 

Martinez83

MeteredOut said:

If you were to move your boundary to include the square, do you think anyone would notice/complain? 

Personally - I doubt it as the alleyway is barely used for walking and even less frequently by cars. We have owned the property for 5,5 years already and were using the gate in the past sporadically but after noticing that the gate wasn’t originally there we would prefer to gain the missing triangle back to our back garden.

MeteredOut

Martinez83 said:

MeteredOut said:

If you were to move your boundary to include the square, do you think anyone would notice/complain? 

Personally - I doubt it as the alleyway is barely used for walking and even less frequently by cars. We have owned the property for 5,5 years already and were using the gate in the past sporadically but after noticing that the gate wasn’t originally there we would prefer to gain the missing triangle back to our back garden.

In which case, I know what i would do. And wait 10 (i think) years....

Martinez83

I just had response from council and to my surprise they do not own any land surrounding the property. So who owns the alleyway then? This is so silly!

Dustyevsky

Have you tried a Map Search at the Land Registry?

https://www.landregistry-uk.com/map-search

Martinez83

Dustyevsky said:

Have you tried a Map Search at the Land Registry?

https://www.landregistry-uk.com/map-search

Yes - the alleyway has no “formal” ownership. 

The map shows our property boundary with the angle but I was expecting that error to be present since it’s seen on our deed as well.

I think our options are - track when it went wrong and challenge it for correction (which might be difficult as both LR and council aren’t in possession of helpful information), get solicitors involved (which feels silly bearing their high fees for such a minor thing) or just build the fence up to our boundary stones since it won’t impact anything in the alleyway in the slightest.

Section62

Martinez83 said:

I just had response from council and to my surprise they do not own any land surrounding the property. So who owns the alleyway then? This is so silly!

This is fairly common where the properties were privately developed.  The residual land may still be owned by the original developer, who may be dead or the company dissolved.  In which case ownership may be with beneficiaries (who may be unaware) or the Crown (bona vacantia).

It is a difficult situation for everyone to try and sort out.

It is also quite common for corners of alleyways to be 'cut off' to aid movement and visibility, so it can't be assumed the land is yours and a mistake has been made on the plans.

Martinez83 said:

I think our options are - track when it went wrong and challenge it for correction (which might be difficult as both LR and council are clueless and unhelpful)....

That's unfair, and thinking that is unlikely to help you get the situation resolved.

They are people doing a difficult job and have no more magical ability to know who owns the land and where the true boundary lies than you do.  There's a process that needs to be followed to trace back ownership and see what the correct position is.

The Land Registry have a rep who posts on this forum and is one of the most helpful posters.

The role of LR is to make sure the legal owner of land is correctly recorded - they are there to help protect the public and organisations from the risk of someone else stealing their land from them. To do that requires processes to be put in place and followed - which may at times be frustrating, but doesn't mean they are "clueless and unhelpful".

Martinez83

“It is a difficult situation for everyone to try and sort out.

It is also quite common for corners of alleyways to be 'cut off' to aid movement and visibility, so it can't be assumed the land is yours and a mistake has been made on the plans.”

Absolutely - however in our neighbourhood only our property has this angled feature. 

Plus as mentioned before - the original survey maps did indeed shown our boundary as square. So essentially someone decided to change the original fence and its shape followed through to the formal plans. Also - what would be the point of the property boundary stones - if property was angled since day one, wouldn’t the stones follow its shape like everywhere else?

“The role of LR is to make sure the legal owner of land is correctly recorded - they are there to help protect the public and organisations from the risk of someone else stealing their land from them. To do that requires processes to be put in place and followed - which may at times be frustrating, but doesn't mean they are "clueless and unhelpful".

Fair enough - I accept the challenge. It’s just frustrating and disappointing that no one can give me a direct answer.

But if the road belongs to someone the there should be records of that, right? So if LR / Council don’t have this information then how am I supposed to resolve that ambiguity ? Shouldn’t this information be available to them in same fashion as property deeds?

Thanks for your response btw!

user1977

What makes you think the council is relevant here? They're only likely to be the owner if they had originally developed the estate. Even if they maintain the alleyway (do they?) that doesn't mean they own the land.

Are there any clues from your titles about how the land was originally developed / divided? Or old maps etc?

theoretica

Also, even if your property originally owned that land you might need to demonstrate that the boundaries haven't changed -  as that can happen.  How old is the property?  Do you have a trail of deeds and ownership changes back to when it was built?