MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
looking for some advice. currently selling our house and the buyers solicitors have found a discrepancy with the boundaries.
We live next to an apartment block, there is an alleyway in between the two buildings that leads to our back garden. there is a fence that runs from the corner of the flats to the rear boundary, so there no access to the rear of the flats for the residents. However on the land registry plan, it shows another boundary which is not there coming from the corner of our house running parallel to the one from the corner of the flat, with the land in between being marked as common land. ie shared between residents of the courtyard.
This has always been our garden, we have spoken to the developer who agreed its ours, and the residents committee of the flats who agree its ours too.
what i need to know is, what is the quickest and cheapest option to appease the solicitors and close the sale.
do we get HM land registry to amend the boundary on the land plan? how long does take, cost?
do we claim adverse possession, how long does take, cost?
do we erect a false boundary as per the land plan? this would involve moving/knocking down a shed!
any other options, outcomes, advice, possibilities?
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it shows another boundary which is not there
The boundary is there - you just don't have anything marking it 🙂
do we get HM land registry to amend the boundary on the land plan?
And, presumably, the plans for the flats as well and then you need their lenders and owners (not the committee but both freeholder and leasholders) on board and agreeable and legal fees paid for them and aargh.
Your possession isn't adverse possession if it is agreed so that probably isn't the route to use.
what i need to know is, what is the quickest and cheapest option to appease the solicitors and close the sale.
You could always ask your solicitor? It's what you pay them for...
Easiest option is tell the buyers that's how it is if they want to pull out that's their call. Chances are they won't want to drop out at this stage but it is a gamble.
You can't just change the boundary on the land registry. You'd need anybody with a claim over it to get involved and sign forms. Adverse possession is the way to go if it has been fenced off and you have exclusive access to the land but might be muddied by others being aware of your use. Might take a little while. Starting the process might be enough for your buyers. Maybe you can get an indemnity policy to cover it, not that they are worth much but it seems to be standard practice these days
How long have you owned the house and the fence been there?
Can you prove it?
If all concerned are aware thats how "its always been" then letters of agreement from them should be enough going forward.
Then adverse possession gets granted due to you being able to prove how long, etc.
This has always been our garden,
How long is "always"?
development was built in 2002. we bought in 2006.
easiest way if the freeholders/management company agree it's your land is to get them to transfer that part to you, simple form to complete, no waiting* for surveys or notices once the application gets processed. Land registry fee will be £20 (or £40 if your sols don't submit the application electronically) no idea what a conveyancer will charge to do their bit but I doubt it will be horrendous.
Unless you can get a statement of truth from the previous owners you can't claim adverse possession as the limitation period is 12 years continual use.
*bit of a backlog currently so applications are taking a while to get processed
12 years uncontested exclusive use is required for adverse possession...
12 years uncontested exclusive use is required for adverse possession...
10 years.
2016-2006 +10yrs 😉
10 years
This barrister seems to think it's 10 or 12 depending on the exact circumstance.
At the other end of the spectrum is the situation where there is a dividing wall between the gardens of two properties, A and B. Both A and B assume that they own the land up to the wall and use their land as a garden right up to the wall. If it later transpires that the wall was, many years ago, erected in the wrong place, so that part of A’s land (as shown in his title deeds) was actually on B’s side of the wall, then A will have lost that part of his land, and B will have obtained ownership of it by 12 years adverse possession. In this case B (unlike the opportunist described above) had no intention of acquiring land he did not own – he thought all along that he owned it. He was wrong about that but he ended up owning it in the end by virtue of adverse possession.
http://www.johnantell.co.uk/adverse-possession-of-land
Interesting reading thanks.
I've obtained a 6-8" strip of land as the fence I had installed was put on my neighbour's land about 18 years ago. Neighbour only pointed it out about 6 months ago and has since sold the house....