Boundaries, fence and the land registry

[didireallysaythat]

Hi

Looking for a quick bit of advice here...

We are buying a house where the fence between the property and the neighbouring house has been placed in error about 20-40cm in the garden for a distance of around 5m. As a result the neighbour has a tiny slither of unusable space which should in theory be in our new house's garden.

The vendor told us about this from the very beginning and we are fine with it. But our solicitor has flagged it and one solution is that the fence is moved back. The house us not yet on the land registry.

We visited again today. There's a pleasant selection of plants growing against it and given that this arrangement has been in place for 20+ years we are inclined to let it stand. I presume the solicitor will need to document all parties are agreeable, but is there something I'm overlooking ?

We don't want or need to upset the vendor or neighbour - the area of land is insignificant, especially when compared to the rest of the garden.

What would you do ?

You need to speak to your solicitor about it again - ask them to explain it. They will deal with it, it is what you are paying them for.

As for what would "I" do, I am a bit unclear as to whether you have a bit of the neighbour's land, or they have a bit of yours

They have a bit of ours. The solicitor has told them to move the fence and then register it as the straight line it should have been. The vendor previously said we could move it if we liked (the neighbours are apparently relaxed about it too...)

I would leave well alone, I think. Boundary issues are a nightmare and since everyone is happy with the status quo (and the situation has been this way for 20 years) I'm surprised your solicitor is suggesting moving fences.

Land Registry work to general boundaries so they would not be able to tell you where the boundary lies. And when the house is registered the 20-40cm discrepancy would not be picked up by them as the Ordnance Survey maps they work to would not show that level of detail. I'm not sure, in this case, that anything formal would need to be done but perhaps someone with more experience of conveyancing will be able to confirm this?

Disclaimer : i dont really know what i m talking about but here are my thoughts......

The neighbour could probably claim 'adverse possession for the strip of land if he has been using it for that long so you are probably best just leaving it as is.

...... However, If the area that the neighbour has 'gained' is tiny slither of unusable space then you might as well get the fence moved back to where it should be so that you can benefit from it.

It doesn't sound like a big deal but you might as well get everything sorted out properly now one way or another as otherwise you may get problems when you come to sell the house or when your nieghbours sell their house.
You could also consider formally giving the strip of land to the nieghbour and changing the paperwork to reflect this.