Know Your Boundaries - Nova News Editorial June 2015

No doubt most of the articles in the property section of this month’s Nova will be relating to the anticipated effect that the election of a majority Tory government will have on the housing market. This is obviously a very important matter for all of us. I want to concentrate on another important factor concerning our properties; the boundaries.

If your property hasn’t been sold or mortgaged since 1990 it has probably not been registered. This means that if you sell a property the transaction will have to be registered with the Land Registry, this does not have to be done prior to offering a property for sale. To do this your conveyancer will have to provide a Land Registry compliant plan to the Land Registry confirming the boundaries. This plan has to be presented in a prescribed form; a service, which I offer. In many cases this is usually straight forward as most of us live in properties with clearly defined boundaries, our fences are virtually permanent fixtures.

There are times when they are not so clearly defined such as in rural locations, or when a property is divided into more than one section such as if you sell part of your garden off as a building plot. The revised area of ground will have to be registered to the new owner and your ground will have changed shape and size so will need re registering. There may be the unfortunate situation where there has been a dispute with your over the positioning of a boundary, a notifiable matter during a property transaction.

When a property transfer takes place now the process has to go through the land registry to check that the boundaries are correct. Most of the time we never have a problem with our boundaries but there are times when some aspect of our boundaries can have a profound effect on our lives, be it a dispute between neighbours or simply a factor relating to the positioning of a boundary which has to be adjusted or amended slightly. Problems can occur, for example, where a conifer hedge had been planted along a boundary line resulting in difficulties with the neighbour. If you are planting such a hedge be sure to plant it inside your boundary so it is allowed to grow up to the boundary line.

If you require advice relating to land registry plans or boundary issues I will be pleased to talk to you.

Andrew Mason Independent Valuer 07507 928008
Email andrew.mason1551@gmail.com