land boundary question and drain pipes!

[Roger Mills]

That depends on what you mean by "definitive"! My house was registered with the Land Registry when I paid off my mortgage in 1994. [For the earlier part of my ownership, and that of the previous owners, it had been unregistered].

The document produced by the Land Registry refers to "The Freehold land shown edged with red on the plan of the above title filed at the Registry . . ". But the plan attached to the document is to a scale of

1:1250 and the red line between my house and next door is almost as wide as the gap between the houses - so you'd be hard put to see exactly where the boundary is. There are no dimensions stated anywhere in the document. I don't know whether they have anything else in the Registry itself.

I also happen to have a copy of the original conveyance between the builder and the first owner, and that has a 1:500 plan which states the area of the plot in square yards and the length of the frontage in feet and inches. Even that is subject to *some* interpretation!

[Norman]

Exclusively ours.

Funny you should say that. I was going to post about fences in my original post but thought that might confuse the issue. The fence between our house and the neighbour with the drain is flush with the wall of our house. According to the deeds, we are responsible for that fence. In other words, none of that fence is on our neighbour's property.

However, the fence on the other side of the garden is outside of the wall line of our other neighbour's house. The concrete fence posts are on our side of his wall, yet the deeds say the fence is his. I wonder whether this inconsistency means his fence is technically on our land. When you erect a fence, do you mark the boundary with a rope line and dig the posts on your side of the line? I think they dug on the wrong side. Not that I want to start fighting with neighbours on both sides, I think I will live with his "sharing" four inches width of land!

Thanks. I think the deeds do show an outline but I don't remember them showing a great level of detail, which agrees with your comment about them not being particularly explicit. It's a while since I have seen them so I could be wrong but I thought the diagram showed which fences we were responsible for but was not of a scale that it would be useful for much else. Do the land registry have a more accurate map that is not included in the deeds?

[Norman]

Me or him?

[Norman]

flank wall of our neighbour's garage

this is specifically mentioned in

have boundary hedges to the

responsible for - they aren't definitive.

The deeds say no fences or hedges on the front but along the street people have erected wooden fences or planted hedges. They also say no caravans or LGVs but people have them parked on their drives. They also say no conservatories without paying a fee to the original builders, yet people have built them. Are these conditions enforced and by whom and what happens if I plant a hedge or get a conservatory or white van, etc when I shouldn't?

I don't suppose most people have access to their deeds to know what is and is not allowed?

[steve robinson]

Yes they can be enforced,

[Roger Mills]

My deeds are very similar, and require me to get the permission of the original builder (in addition to Planning Consent, if applicable, of course) before doing more or less anything.

I don't think anyone actually does this - I certainly don't - and I don't think the original building firm still exists (the houses were built in the 1960's)

My impression is that the original builder was only interested whilst he was still building and selling houses on the estate - and didn't want anyone to do anything which would make sales of further phases more difficult. Once he'd finished, he'd have no further interest.

[Big Les Wade]

Norman posted

If - as it appears - he has paved over the drain on your footpath, he has trespassed on your land and in principle you have a remedy through the civil courts. Alternatively you could dig it up again.

[djc]

flank wall of our neighbour's garage

but this is specifically mentioned in

or have boundary hedges to the

responsible for - they aren't definitive.

Such covenants only apply to the extent that people are prepared to enforce them. If they are not enforced then it is much harder for anyone to come along latter and insist on them.

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