house boundary rights?

[Evecob]

Hi there,

Looking for a bit of advice, I have attached a picture of our plot given to us in the contract/deeds when we moved in 5 years ago, and a picture of the current fence cut off. It shows the boundaries of our plot, however we never looked at it until recently, as we have been having issues with nobody coming to maintain the section of grass/weeds to the side of our garden fence, so we have been doing it ourselves. It is a new build cul-de-sac with a management company who maintain the area for a small fee, we have a park and field opposite our house which they maintain, but refuse to come to this.

We also found the boundaries show 3 parking sections designated to our property, however when they marked the spots, they didn't put a tree, they put a V for visitors on the one to the right, which has allowed other peoples visitors to come and park.

Upon looking at the deeds, it seems to show the fence should be coming up all the way to the parking area, and the patch should be part of our garden. Are we within our rights to get the fence moved to cover that area, and to get the parking spot changed to say our house number instead of a V?

There's currently a lamp post on there, so not really sure what to do about that.

By the looks of it yes. The right hand parking space shown by a tree is part of your property. You need to check the wording of the register in case it says you have to allow access to that space for visitor parking though.

I've lived on a new build estate with visitor spaces marked with an 'v'. Each space was on somebody's deeds but all it meant is that you are responsible for maintaining that space. It doesn't mean it's your space for your own use, it's for anyone's visitors.

Where is the picture from? Is it just the builders site map? They are subject to change, it's not a legally binding thing.

What does the land registry show?

Maybe the maintenance people can't access that strip because of the way people are parked or because of those bins. What are the maintenance company saying when you contact them to say about the strip?

Can you explain which area is shown in the picture? Fences are not specifically demarked as such, that presumably was negotiated with the builder.

@LIZS

Can you explain which area is shown in the picture? Fences are not specifically demarked as such, that presumably was negotiated with the builder.

The area shown is the side of the fence... I will attach another picture we marked on the plot to show what they actually did, compared to the plot map given in the deeds.

where they actually put the fence is shown in orange on that new picture

@ReRun

I've lived on a new build estate with visitor spaces marked with an 'v'. Each space was on somebody's deeds but all it meant is that you are responsible for maintaining that space. It doesn't mean it's your space for your own use, it's for anyone's visitors.

Where is the picture from? Is it just the builders site map? They are subject to change, it's not a legally binding thing.

What does the land registry show?

Maybe the maintenance people can't access that strip because of the way people are parked or because of those bins. What are the maintenance company saying when you contact them to say about the strip?

Yeah, I understand where you're coming from here. The only reason we are querying the visitor thing, is because it is shown as a tree on one of the plans, and it is right outside our house, therefore looks like it is our property.. they just decided to change it to a visitor bay after it was laid out, as a tree was not planted there.

So the area marked x between red and orange line falls within your plot, regardless of the position of the fence. We had a strip like that in a former property and planted bulbs along it.

The maintenance company say its not on their plans

They can get things wrong, I live in a new build and the agents had told my next door neighbours they owned part of my front garden, they also did our boundary wrong and gave some of our garden to next door.
They did correct it but the builders were still on site when I had noticed their mistake.

Also looking at your picture it does look like the fence is in the wrong place. And that you own the space.

I would imagine the streetlight position partly dictated the fence position. There is no requirement for a fence to be on the boundary.

Are those your actual deeds from the LAnd Registry? THey look more like planning drawings?

there is currently a lamp post in that space, how would we get that removed?

@LIZS

I would imagine the streetlight position partly dictated the fence position. There is no requirement for a fence to be on the boundary.

Yes we think so too..

You need to see what's registered at the Land Registry.

Also the tree may have been there previously rather than there having been an intent to plant one - you'd need to check the planning application to see if it was a condition to retain or plant one. Otherwise probably not much you can do, unless it was specified in your purchase details.

As op have said, the you don't need a fence to demarcate your land, but it's odd to have the lamp post on your land.

You need to read your deeds; its possible there is an agreement for utility ( lamppost) to be positioned on your land, and you cant move it. And you need to endure access for maintenance . In the same way you can't just move underground sewer pipes crossing your garden if they are in an inconvenient location.

Id check the planning maps which will show where utilities were to be sited on the development to see if the lamp is where it was meant to go. I suspect it is correct given they cant move it off your land because it then is in someone's parking space.

You could always move the rest of the fence to the boundary with a dod leg around the post ?

As others have said, a good starting point is to read the title register and have a look at the plan for your home held by the Land Registry.

You can do it online here:-

www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

It costs £3 for the plan and £3 for the title.

This will just confirm that what you have been given is the same as has been registered with the Land Registry for your home.

If you have a read of your title then it may say something like there is a right of way for visitors to park in that parking space even though it is on your land.

It may also help to get a copy of the plans for numbers 21 and 22 as well (they will cost you £3 each as well) just to make sure that their plans or title don't also show that they supposedly own that bit of land as well - dafter things have happened.