Needing an expert. Surely this land is mine?

[Humblepie1]

I have lived in my current home since 2009. There are some bushes/shrubs/hedges to the front of my property on the other side of the front fence. This part is maintained by factors and on the whole they do a good job to the front. However, I maintain the other side, which is becoming a struggle as I am on the elderly side of life. There is also a stupid dirt part (factor maintained) with nothing growing on it giving an edge to my front lawn.

Looking at my title plans/deeds I can see that these bushes/shrubs/hedge and dirt edge are totally within my property boundary (the red and pink boundary). The front fence (which is not neighbour shared) looks to have been placed back from the boundary to accommodate them. The position of the fence has also cut down the size of my back garden.

What I would like to do is get rid of the bushes/shrubs/hedge and dirt edge and move the front fence to the red line/pink boundary which is the kerb to a public pavement.

I am unsure the best way to go about this. Should I be confident that the land is mine and just go and do it? (the landscapers might not be bothered, but if they tell the factors then they might be). So,

Q1. Is the land definately mine? It looks to be on the title plans but is there some other law in place?

Q2. If so. Do I politely tell the factors of my intentions and wait and see if they dispute? Or do I just go ahead and do it?

Anybody have a similar experience?

You need to look at local regulations as to whether there is pp required for a fence, assuming one bordering a road is permitted, and any height limits. Are there any constraints in the deeds

By ‘factors’ do you mean local authority?

Sadly you may find you need planning permission to relocate the fence. Check with them. We recently looked into moving our rear fence, which is within our boundary and we own the redundant 6ft grass strip behind. LA stipulated that we’d need PP and sent us loads of complicated forms (which didn’t seem to fit our scenario) and wanted nearly £500 for the application, whether we were successful or not.

You may find it less complicated because the front area is already part of your useable garden (ours was a switch from open land to garden) but please take care and not proceed without some sort of permission from LA

There are some rules about how high a fence can be when bordering a pavement. Our front garden fence cannot be higher than 3 feet. Our back garden has planning permission for a higher fence because it also borders a pavement.

I assume you are in Scotland? Probably best to confirm as it will likely be different to England. Have you checked for any restrictions or covenants on your title documents? Have an neighbours done similar works?

Thank you for the replies. Helpful and informative. I am in Scotland and "factors" are property factors who the people on the estate pay to manage the common areas (grassed areas, shrubs, etc). This is why I was asking for guidance as I cant see how this part of my property can be classed as a common area.

I looked at title plans for other neighbours who have shrubs/hedges placed on the outside of their fences and they have the same as me, that is, "common areas" within their property boundary.

I have now asked the LA planning department about my request to move the fence. Fingers crossed it is straightforward.

As with "Fernsandroses" the LA have come back saying as it is a change of land use from landscaping to garden use then I need PP at a cost of £500. What a con. The LA approved the landscape plan when the estate was being built. Placed shrubs, trees, and hedges within property boundaries. Then stipulate that there has to be a burden placed for owners to obtain a property factor to maintain the landscaped areas and we have to pay!!

The thing is I cant find anywhere the regulation that mentions change of land use from landscaping to garden use. I have read the change of class use but that is vague. Has anybody had this reason and challenged successfully?