I can't work out who owns the fence

[ViolaTricolor]

I have looked at the copy of the Land Registry entry which came with our HIP and it just shows a thick line round our whole plot. Is there somewhere else I should be looking? Excuse the naivety; I'm new to the world of home ownership.

standing with my back against the house looking to the bottom of the garden, the fence on my right is mine. Don't know how standard that is though.

The person whose side the posts are on.

It doesn't matter who's side the posts are on. Call land registry and they can explain.

Basically if a fence/wall etc straddles/touches the boundary in any way then it belongs to both neighbours. If the fence/wall etc is 100% on your land inc the posts (regardless of which way they face) then as its wholly on your land then its your fence.

The plan you have from land registry will have been copied a few times so it wont be accurate. Also its drawn to scale so you will need a scale ruler. The best thing to do (which is what land registry advised me to do) is to buy a copy from land registry online which is around £3. You can print it out so as its the first copy it should be pretty accurate. Measure from the house wall out to the boundary.

We were having a few issues with our neighbours a few months back when we were having a new fence put up. The nice lady at land registry measured their copy for me so that i knew exactly where our boundary was.

Your side should have like a sideways T kind of symbol against it

Thanks all, and especially SandyChick. I'll get in touch with the Land Registry; I didn't know they'd have a more accurate plan. I'm pretty sure the fence is original from when the houses were built, by the council, in 1933 (so it's not surprising it's a bit tired). The house next door still belongs to them, so they will also have a view I guess. The most important thing for me is that the people who actually live there are happy.

Most deed plans are to a scale of 1:1250, which means that a 1mm thick line on your plan represents a 1,250mm thick line on the ground i.e. over 4 feet wide. As your plan has a "thick line" if you tried to measure that on the ground you could have a boundary 2 or 3 metres wide! For a 1933 property the plan would have been copied several times, probably folded and so on all of which would make those lines less and less reliable. The Land Registry copy, being based on these types of documents is of little use when agreeing the exact position of a legal (as opposed to physical) boundary.

Unless your plan shows dimensions taken from fixed and permanent points - such as the corners of buildings - it is almost impossible to determine the exact position of a legal boundary, although Mumswang is right about the ownership aspect i.e. if there is a 'T' inwards it indicates who is responsibe for a fence or wall.

Sorry, read that again.

I meant "...if there is a 'T' inwards from a boundary into the land it indcates that property is responsible for that particular fence or wall.."

sometimes there is a letter "T" on its side on the boundaries, the side it faces into is the party the boundary belongs to. If you get the actual "deeds" from Land Registry as well (the registers they are called now) this may contain or refer to covenants saying who maintains what fence.

We have a 1930s ex council house - the rule for us is the fence on the right of the property is your responsibility (in our case we are on the left end of the row so we are responsible for all out boundaries.

Having said that I am not sure how it works with neighbours at the back since we don't have any.

Ours is on the left which is good for us as the left one is a fence & the right one is a listed stone wall which is in need of renovation! We are contributing but at least we don't need to do the planning permission bit

Thanks for all the new responses, and for clarifyng the 'T' issue. Sorry Mumswang, I didn't properly say thanks for that tip earlier. There are no 'T's on the drawing I have, but it's very minimal in its detail. I'll contact the Land Registry and, failing that, I am hopeful that the council may have an easy answer.

The council probably won't know tbh. Copies of the Land registry plan and registers will cost you about £8 in total.

If there are no "T"s on it then it is a shared fence. We had issues with a neighbour in the past over a boundary, the deal is at the end of the day that a land registry title deed merely identifies which property you are buying, that is it.

In terms of scale drawings unless there are actual measurements on the drawings then it stands for nothing.

Just like Pendeen says, the boundary lines are guidelines. Check out www.gardenlaw.co.uk and their forums on boundaries and fences.

If you want to make a nice fence yours, then put up a new fence on your side of the existing fence. Take photos as you do this, before and after shots too. Because 10 years down the line something may go wrong. Yes I am pessimistic but as the saying goes, been there, done that

I've found a bigger drawing, there are Ts! Wahey. And the one at the bottom of the garden is a shared fence. Thanks so much everyone.

Fizzylemonade, you sound like you've got some hardened veteran's fence stories to tell .