Advice Regarding A Land Dispute

[Urban Sports]

Evening,

I have a bit of a dispute going on with the neighbour behind my house, to cut a long story short I think he has a piece of my land, he thinks it's his.

Unfortunately different plans / outlines of the land show slightly different boundaries, some in my favour some in his. I have lived in my house for 5 years, he only built his last year.

I don't want to get into a debate over the specific details over the internet, all I really need is some advice as to who to speak to to find out which of the plans is correct.

Is it possible to get the council / land registry out to measure the land and see who is right once and for all?

Thanks

[DavidY]

I had this many years ago in a property. A few points:-

1) The lines on the drawings can be up to 6ft in real life

2) I paid for an independent surveyor to measure our boundaries from known datum points (the middle of the road) - cost about £450 in mid 90s.

3) Having established my boundary, I put up a fence and wrote to the other party with some selected quotes from my surveyor (effectively stating this is where my boundary is)

4) He then cried that we should have used a mutually chosen surveyor of his choice!! I said that I was happy for him to instruct his own surveyor at his expense. - Never heard anything more on the matter.

I did declare it as a dispute with a neighbour, but submitted 3ins of paperwork to the buyer's solicitor, along with a note saying that there had been no activity on this matter for 5 years.


My advice would be:-

If you are thinking of moving, and it's not much land, then don't do anything formal as it could jeapordise your house sale, if you aren't going to move then instruct as I did someone to measure it, erect the boundary and submit selected evidence to prove it. That will probably be the last that you will hear of it.

davidy

[Jobbo]

Check your house insurance - it may have legal expenses cover and that would pay for you to look into this properly.

Also, are you in touch with the previous owner of your house? Can you get evidence from them as to the historic boundary in practice (not on plans)?

The Land Registry boundaries are not definitive, unless you go through a process of agreeing a definitive boundary and getting that registered. That isn't really a dispute resolution procedure either; you would need proper legal advice if you turn this into a formal dispute.