Who is responsible for garden walls?

[Hurraahhnaptime]

I am buying a mid-terraced house and have had the land registry form through. It just says that the walls are party walls. What does this mean? Do we share all our garden walls with the neighbours? And therefore have equal responsibility? I thought you tend to be responsible for some walls and your neighbours others? Thanks

Well in this case, it's clear cut: responsibility is shared between the house you are buying and the respective neighbours each side and possibly the neighbours over the back for the back wall if there is a wall at the end of the garden.

There is no one consistent approach. If there is nothing in the title register or marked on the title plan then the assumption is shared responsibility. In some places, responsibility is solely for the wall or fence on one side. This is usually marked on the plan and noted in the title register.

Interested in this, because of own garden walls with no marks on title deeds plan to suggest which property has ownership or responsibility for upkeep. I know from hanging out here that you are wise and knowledgeable poster wowfudge . I would be very grateful if you could point us in the direction of any further info on this situation, or how shared responsibility is supposed to work on the ground? Previous neighbour, we just worked it out between us. Current neighbours are ,shall we say, less amenable to discussion, so might be useful to have something to refer them to.
Many thanks.
Hope you don't mind me jumping onboard, Hurrahhnaptime, (great name), thought this might be useful for both of us.

I looked at my land registry deeds but there are no T's on them. Shame! I heard that you are responsible for the boundary on your left. But I don't see that written in the deeds. It just seems so open to difficulties if you all share the responsibility if all the walls. Yes please do join the thread to get some answers :)

There is no need for T marks OP because it is already explicit that they are party walls! In practice most people do share the upkeep of their party walls fences amicably - you tend to only hear about the problematic ones.

The trouble with party walls and fences outside comes when one side refuses to pay for repair or replacement. Communication is the key and there's not a lot you can do if someone flatly refuses to contribute to repairs etc unless there is a covenant to keep them in good repair and the person with the benefit of the covenant is still around (so not a defunct building company, etc).

Also a perfectly good fence may not be to your taste and you may want to change it - why would your neighbours choose to incur costs in those circumstances?

In the scheme of things OP, it's not a big deal, but you might want to visit the house again prior to exchange and check the walls are in good nick.

I'm blushing Dancing. Some would call me a know-it-all!

Ahhh okay so party walls mean that they are shared ownership. As you might have guessed I'm a first time buyer and get confused easily about it all. Thanks for the info :)