Boundary query

[Jungfraujoch]

My Dad has a potential issue. In a nutshell his boundary to a plot of land next door has no owner recorded on the deeds. Now a developer is looking to build a property but planning/Highways are saying the boundary fence needs to be lowered to help with visibility splays. We don’t know if the developer has confirmation or not as to whether he is the legal owner of the boundary.

My Dad has maintained it for 40 plus years and the previous owners also did the same. There is a solicitors enquiry letter from way back where it states the boundary was assumed to belong to the house.

if planning approve the build they want the current 5ft fence lowered to 2ft which means serious privacy and security concerns.

Does anyone know what he can do?

Let them - then build a new 5 foot fence right next to it!

Well yes that’s what I said once the developer has sold the house on!

I might make it clear to all and sundry that its his fence and its staying at 5 feet

Can he prove it’s his fence? Assumption isn’t the same. Next door possibly assume it’s joint. Next to a road, 1m maximum fence height is required.

Is it a safety issue because the drive exits onto a highway, and not being able to see is unsafe? Lots of people have open plan or a low fence at the front/front side. Why not plant a few shrubs? If he cannot prove it’s his, he needs to negotiate but I would suggest the highway authority wants safe exit onto the road, not the whole of the garden fence to be low if it’s between the two properties for some distance. Speak to the highway authority.

Thank you for your comments. Nothing noted on my Dad’s deeds - its just seemingly been ‘agreed’ over time. His cottage dates to the 1800s so who knows what went on! We need to know if developer can prove ownership or not. Yes its a road safety issue - very hard to explain here as boundary line is not straight and runs diagonally from the corner of 2 roads so LHA are concerned about visibility. The funny bit is that although they want the first few panels to be lowered to 2 ft, in front of that and parallel to the road is my Dads 3ft original brick wall complete with a 4 ft pillar right on the corner which impedes visibility as you approach the corner! Anyway Dad has got a local councillor on board now and she is speaking to the Highways Authority to see what happens next.

The developer is taking the piss.

The viz splay won't stop at the boundary and will presumably cut across your dad's title.

They should be asking your dad for a deed of easement for rights to repair and maintain the Viz splay and paying him for it.

Your father isnt party to any of these agreements and is free to do whatever he wants..............

Thanks all. We will be taking advice - the boundary is not legally recorded anywhere as belonging to my Dads property. Its just always been assumed. We don’t know at this stage if the developer has ownership on his deeds - he may or may not! To be continued ….

So does the land have an established exit onto the highway? Or is a new one planned? You share a boundary. It’s the fence blocking vision that’s the issue but they don’t need the whole length reduced. Why is a vision splay so difficult? It’s fairly normal.

There is an established exit which LHA deem dangerous to reverse out of. They want a turning circle and the visibility splays in order for them to approve. In the 40 odd years my Dad has lived there I can count on one hand the number of cars that have actually used the exit - neighbours always parked on the road because its too dangerous! Lowering some of the current 5 ft fence to 2 ft would be a security and privacy issue for the front corner of my Dads house where his bedroom is located.

There are some common misapprehensions here. Nobody ever owns a boundary. A boundary is a theoretical line separating two plots of land, it does not have an owner. There can be fencing obligations on the original Covenantor but that is unlikely to be enforcible on subsequent covenantors. If your father paid for the fence and erected it on his land then it is his fence. The developer has no authority to demand that your father reduce the height of his fence in order to facilitate their development. If he did do then he should've appropriately compensated and I don't mean just the cost of the fence. If they can't proceed without the visibility splay then his co operation is quite valuable to them.

@Jungfraujoch Well parking on the risc isn’t that safe either. If your dad sleeps upstairs, is that a privacy issue? It’s fairly normal to lower a fence for neighbours to exit safely. Many estates have no fences for this reason. Security is a bit of a joke really. I can assure you, burglars will get in if they want to. I’d worry more about security locks and good quality windows and doors! Get gates into the side of the house. A 5ft fence stops no one!

I think someone is being reasonable to use their drive safely. They can reverse in of course.

He sleeps downstairs. Whilst I appreciate everyones comments the crux of the matter is ‘ownership’ of the boundary fence. This is what we’re trying to confirm - the developer is not a nice person and has been overheard badmouthing my Dad when he first objected to a proposal to build 3 houses on a tiny plot! Now developer is down to proposing one house but with the visibility splay stuff insisted on by the LHA which they only insisted on has after the objection period ended. So, possibly developer can show boundary is his and of course can then do what he likes. But land Registry doesn’t show anything on either side. So it may be that a specialist solicitor is needed to access historic conveyance documents for info. We want the planning committee meeting to be postponed until the boundary clarified and hopefully with the local Councillor that Dad now has on board this will happen.

This is your father's boundary to undeveloped land, whose owner is unknown.

The fact that the only building that boundary structure encloses is your father's suggests strongly that the structure belongs to your father. If I were him I would be writing to the developer warning them that he owns the fence and they have no right to touch it.

Just to be clear you dad doesn't have to agree to a viz splay across his property.

Highways will insist on a planning condition in he developer's planning consent.

Your dad doesn't have to adhere to the planning condition, he's not implementing the consent.

UPDATE!

As I said before my Dad’s Deeds do not show ‘ownership’ of the boundary although it has been assumed his for nearly 50 yrs (previous occupants too).

I looked up the Title Register for next door and it says Deeds and Documents lost!

So am assuming an unconfirmed but shared boundary.

So as a joint ‘owner’ can my Dad say no to the suggested alterations to a part of the fence?

There is no such thing as someone owning a boundary. A boundary is just a nominal point at which two properties meet, it can't be owned. Trust me we deal with property boundaries all the time. If the fence was erected by you dad on his land then they can not make him reduce it and he can tell them to jog on. It really is that simple. Stay firm OP!

My Dad erected the fence following the line of old posts that were hidden by an overgrown hedge.

If he erected the fence, then it's his fence. Doesn't matter who is notionally responsible for maintaining the boundary. The fence and the boundary are not the same thing.

If your dad erected it as you said then there is no problem. The conditions of the planning permission for the adjacent land are not his problem and the developer can't insist that your father complies with it