Neighbouring land not registered?

[DogDaysNeverEnd]

I've done a search for the neighbours deeds on the land registry and the search said, "not available but that doesn't mean not registered". Can anyone tell me what it does mean? House was built around 1940 and has been in same family since.

The fence between our houses was damaged by Storm Arwen, the house is for sale and the fence is laying on the ground. We looked at our deeds, and it might be our fence, but only if there is an easement between our gardens which is on the plans but not obvious on the ground. We assumed it was the neighbours fence because they had it painted on their side a few years ago without mentioning it to us. We were just waiting to see what happened but now wondering what's going on. We have our paper deeds but don't really know how to read them. Did our neighbour possibly annex the easement at some point?

I think most people just paint their side of the fence without mentioning it to their neighbour. Responsibility for the boundary is normally marked with a 'T' on the land registry documents

Also some fences are shared between the 2 properties

It means that the property is not digitally registered at the Land Registry. Very common for properties that have been in the same ownership since before the mid 90s. The deeds will be digitally registered once the property is sold.

Thanks. No T on paperwork, will have a look and see if our deeds are online and if that's any clearer. The estate agent is hopeless and we have no contact for the executors.

If the house has been in the same family since tbh 1940s and never changed owner that is why you won't see it on the land registry.
Anything that was sold before 1990 won't be on the land registry.

Normally your fence is the one to the left when you look out of the back of your house.

But even if it is their fence there is no legal obligation to have a fence. The only obligation is to maintain and mark the boundary - which could be with a hedge or even a piece of string!

If it is theirs and house is being sold then surely they would want to replace the fence? Have you spoken to them or the estate agent who's selling the house?

Normally your fence is the one to the left when you look out of the back of your house

This is a common myth

The owner passed away and the estate agent is hopeless. We were expecting whoever is responsible to either fix it or tell us we need to fix it, as assumed the buyers would want it sorted. We have fixed the fence in the other side (left) that has the posts on our side as we just thought that was ours.