BELIEVE it or not, according to the Land Registry, if you live in England or Wales, there is usually no record of who owns the hedge, wall, tree or fence between two properties.
It is easy to understand why issues with neighbours can arise when a fence is blown down or a wall is starting to crumble.
Unfortunately, this means the land registry title and plan, which may be the obvious place to check first, will largely be fruitless.
However, there are some ways one can check this, avoiding any unnecessary issues coming to the fore.
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Once you have purchased a property it is always advisable to keep hold of ALL of the documents supplied by your solicitor once the transaction has completed.
These will almost certainly include information forms completed by the seller (former owner), which invariably formed part of the contract between the two parties.
A section within these forms, if filled out appropriately, will name the boundaries which they believe belong to the house, which ones they have been maintaining, which ones they have had shared responsibility for and which ones belong to the neighbour.
Checking these forms should be your first port of call.
If you own a property which has been built recently enough for you to have the original site plans, an arrow pointing to the inside of the boundary will sometimes depict ownership.
On occasion, the scaled plans used for title deeds can use a ‘T’ symbol on the inside of the boundary, depicting your ownership.
A second ‘T’ shown just the other side of the boundary, forming an ‘H’, will illustrate a party wall and a shared responsibility.
Other more physical tell-tale signs the boundary belongs to you for fences and walls, in particular, can sometimes be having the supporting posts/spurs or piers clearly being positioned within your garden.
Ironically, this means the best side of the wall or fence faces your neighbour.
If you have expended the above suggestions, then best practice when needing to understand ownership of the boundary between you and your neighbour should always be to open up dialogue with them in a friendly manner.
This way, you may find out their deeds clearly show their boundary responsibilities, or that they have always maintained the boundary in question and are happy to deal with the repairs when introduced to them from your side of the fence.
If the property is tenanted, they may be willing to pass on your comments to the landlord for a response, but failing this you will need to go direct to the landlord, or via their letting agent.
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