To think that we may not be responsible for fence/wall on either side

[PleaseLetItBeNapTime]

Hi all,

DH and I are in the process of selling our house and an issue has come up regarding the boundaries.

When we bought the house we asked for the boundaries to be clarified but our solicitor was so shockingly bad and there were so many other issues we didn't chase this and it doesn't seem that we got an answer.

The house to the right of us is responsible for the fence on that side - it says so in their their title deeds, and our neighbour to the left believes they are responsible for the wall on that side and we thought this too.
I've just bought a copy of their title deeds and it's not actually mentioned in it.

The brick wall runs down the whole of the garden and forms the back wall of their two story garage/ workshop. The issue is there are some cracks in the wall, which the homebuyers survey have shown are due to issues with the foundations abs understandably our purchaser is worried about this.

If this wall is the responsibility of the neighbour on the left as we both believe, it would mean that we are only responsible for the boundary to the rear of the property, and not any on either side.

I'm just wondering if this sounds plausible?

I've asked our new solicitor to look into it but am quite anxious about this.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Ordinarily you are responsible for the boundary on your left as you look at the house from the garden. When you say on the left, which direction are you looking in?

Can you ask your neighbours on the left if they know who owns that cracked wall?
Hopefully they might tell you that they own it, in which case could you draft a simple letter documenting this/ or ask them to give you a simple signed statement to that effect?

@EggyPegg - left as it the left side when I'm looking towards the bottom of the back garden

@SynchroSwimmer - he has seen the crack in the last 6-8weeks and did say it was his wall. I'm just worried that it if comes to signing something and knowing that more than just repointing is required he will refuse to do so as I know he can't afford to get it fixed

The plans should show a “T” on one side of the wall/boundary. Whoever’s land the T is on is responsible for maintaining that boundary.

I know IABU, but I hate the old wives tale about you always owning the boundary on the left, drives me mad. It's not possible to know without looking at the land registry plan and looking for the T mark as a PP said. You may even need to look at the original deeds, if they still exist. We are responsible for the left and rear boundaries.

It could be that you are technically responsible for the boundary on your left but your left side neighbour built the wall. In these cases I believe the person who built the wall is responsible for it's maintenance. If they remove it the boundary would return to your responsibility. As your neighbour seems to accept it's his wall, he will need to take responsibility for it so that it doesn't cause damage to person or property but I don't think he can be compelled to replace it at his expense as it's likely your house is ultimately responsible for the boundary. It's an awkward situation, I'm afraid.

Ordinarily you own and are responsible for one side. However, in my most favorite house even though I was responsible for one side my lovely neighbor insisted she was. Her neighbor had said that she was responsible for both sides of her house and so it trickled down. But your deeds should say what side you are responsible for. If it is the wall then you could offer to knock a bit of the price to cover any work?

So the house with the purple cross is ours. I've circled what appears to be a tiny arrow pointing right so that could indicate that it is their wall? Does that appear to be an arrow to anyone else?

There's no marks on my plans unfortunately.

I've read the original deeds written in fancy calligraphy, and I couldn't make out anything to do with the boundaries but hopefully my solicitor can.

Yes I have this same set up, no side boundary responsibilities just the front and back are mine. Is there nothing on your title deeds? It's specified on mine.

@user1471538283 - ah that's amusing. Yes there was a couple of things that the survey showed in our home to so we are open to negotiating a reduction, I just panicked a little bit as my father-in-law seems to think it would be a very expensive and inconvenient job due to the height of the wall. We're currently on our third buyer due to our chain breaking down and issues with another buyer getting a mortgage and I'm just anxious about the whole situation!

How old is the house. It's a fairly recent thing to mark/determine who is responsible for boundaries in the deeds.

We've bought 2 houses
1- built 1880, nothing about boundaries
2 - built 1800, nothing about boundaries around the original house. A piece of garden land bought from a neighbour 15 years ago specifies we're responsible for the fence between the 2 pieces of land but nothing about the boundaries on the other 3 sides.

@User0ne it's Edwardian so I guess that's why there's nothing in the deeds

@EggyPegg

Ordinarily you are responsible for the boundary on your left as you look at the house from the garden. When you say on the left, which direction are you looking in?

This is not true.

@SoupDragon I was wondering about that. It wouldn't make sense as front garden and back garden boundary would be different sides

pay for getting both your neighbours plans on the land registry -it cost minimal amount - theirs might show who fence belong to them so you might be able to work it out