How to legally change boundary. And should we?

[FenceFandango]

Name changed just in case.

The boundary in dispute has been damaged by Doris. It is a fence on top of a retaining wall and the wall stops our house sliding down the hill.
It is our neighbours responsibility but he claims it is ours (in which case get your shabby lean to off it) and we should be responsible for the repairs.

The thing is, it may be to our benefit to own the wall as he didn't allow the previous resident to install a gate post on top so we have a gate that is hobbit sized and can barely fit a wheelie bin through.

To make it clear, he is not claiming we have the entire length, just the bit damaged by Doris. He wants to keep the sections either side

Advice please? Change the boundary legally and do what we want (and can we ask him to remove the eyesore lean to); or show him the deeds where it states it is not our responsibility?

Who the hell is Doris? I don't find your post clear at all.

That would be Doris the storm

Urge neither option sound great. I think I'd stick to making it clear it's his and having a tiny gate than agree to 'own' it and have him demand xyz.

Op don't know how you legally claim a boundary - hopefully someone more useful along soon. Would surely make sense for the part which abuts your house to be yours. Do you actually want the bits either side?

Honestly, it's a total bastard to do. You maybe will need a solicitor to do it, then you defo need to go via the land registry and their lawyers look at it and if either of you have a mortgage both mortgage companies need to approve of the boundary change

I've done it and it was beyond painful. Especially since the land registry eventually made the change, got it wrong, had to redo it, then both us and neighbours had to approve the change and our solicitors then both sets of mortgage companies.

It's doable, but it is indeed a bastard to do.

Ah - okay Storm Doris. In that case then show him the deeds. He can see whether his insurance will cover the repair. If you have legal cover on your insurance you may be able to get them to write him a letter telling him to get on with it.

Our neighbour suggested we were responsible for a fence that was his responsibility. We said "great" and put in a much taller, higher quality fence all the way along the boundary including the drive that he wanted to leave open. It cost us some money but more fool him because it gave us control over how to fence it.

I'm taking it you mean change the fence (the boundary "treatment") rather than make an attempt to redefine where the boundary actually is.

The boundary will be set down in the Land Registry. This can't be changed, I wouldn't have thought?? If your neighbour is claiming the portion of fence that happened to blow down in the storm belongs to you and the rest of it belongs to him; he is clearly deranged.
Who actually put the fence up?

He would have to agree to a change of boundary and he probably won't. You can put up any fence you like on your own land. As long as it does not exceed 2m in height overall. Does there have to be a gate in it?

I put fencing up on a house I own because the neighbour responsible just let it fall down. Now a panel has blown down and he won't pay for it to be put back up. As he never cuts his grass and the house is a tip I did need to do something about the view from my house. You are sadly living next to a nutter. You cannot get on with idiots. It is just impossible!

This can't be changed, I wouldn't have thought?

We changed one last year. Wasn't too difficult. We were taking out a huge leylandii hedge and wanted to put in a nice wall with fence panels but wanted to own it and for it to be our responsibility. Spoke to neighbours and let them have some time to think about it. They agreed and we approached solicitors. We paid obviously. A bit of to-ing and fro-ing but not too bad.

I think it's generally the case that the property on the higher ground is legally responsible for maintaining the retaining wall.

Is it clear where the boundary is on the deeds? Is the neighbour responsible for the retaining wall? Or is the boundary the midline (as it was in our previous house where a retaining wall separated two properties), in which case you might both be jointly responsible?

Thank you for the replies and apologies for the rather dodgy diagram.

The thick line is the retaining wall between the two properties, at the front part of the wall has been removed by the neighbour. The rear fence he wants to keep.
On top of the wall is a knackered old fence which is now forming a wall for a lean to the neighbour built over the side access.

The retaining wall is only between the buildings with the rear gardens terraced into the slope.

We asked our solicitor to confirm who is responsible for the wall and fence before we purchased and it is not, nor has ever been, ours.

We'd like to do what HiDBandSIL did and improve the wall and fence but having got his measure, we are likely to find he reclaims the wall and demolishes it.... he prefers posts and gravel boards to bricks and mortar.
bojorojo has it right, we've got ourselves a nutter!

Agree with bojorojo. Speaking as someone who found themselves on the wrong side of a nutter 18mths ago I would urge caution as you definitely don't want to inadvertently create a boundary dispute. The red lines on the Deeds are only good to +or- 0.5m. My chap was arguing over 10cm. You need a boundary expert to determine where the boundary actually is and then register the exact measurements with the LR. I would say that if everyone is agreement, it's fine but if there is any argument of rescinding of agreements, the bills can quickly reach £000's not £00's.