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Original poster

Boundary title wrong on land registry

12 replies

SB1712 · 02/10/2023 21:22

Hi all

Hoping someone might be able to shed a bit of light or knowledge on this! Please excuse my poor descriptions on things!

We are in the middle of selling our house and our buyers have recently pointed out that on the land registry, the blue border around our property doesn’t seem to include our side path, which allows access to our back garden. My partner has lived here for 20 years, and the side path to our back garden has always been his/used by him&us. We have a lockable gate on the front of the path, which is attached to our house on one side, a high fence on the other.
On the other side of the fence is a large priority ( 4 x1 bedroom houses) and the fence runs parallel down the side to our garden and there is a close behind us.

Currently the land is unclaimed on land registry, so it’s not like a border dispute with neighbours but rather it looks unclaimed (left white) when it is ours.

Does anyone know how long something like this could take to rectify? It is with our solicitors at the moment for them to look into and sort but I am worried this is going to push everything back…and probably over worrying this can’t be sorted 😵‍💫

Any advice welcome!

OP posts:
GearChange · 02/10/2023 22:18

We had a very similar issue in the late 2000’s. Bought our 1970’s cottage flat in mid 2000’s where the area in front of our ground floor flat windows was meant to be shared to allow upstairs access for ladders for window cleaning, gutter cleaning etc. However when we came to sell again our lawyer noted that it was still owned by the director of the building firm who had passed away a long time before!
Our lawyer contacted the original lawyer we used to purchase the flat and they sorted it out with the developer at no cost to us. Our original lawyer (large city company) was negligent (as was every other lawyer used in previous sales) but our lawyer had gone to law school with the large firms director so that’s why there was no cost to us.
Think it added two weeks to our sale but don’t know how different it would be without the lawyers being friends.
This all happened in Scotland but can’t see it being much different if you are elsewhere in the UK

GearChange · 02/10/2023 22:19

Sorry that was so long!

LandRegRep1862 · 09/10/2023 07:23

If you apply to register it or apply to claim a right of way over it then it would take several weeks to process once submitted to HMLR
It reads as if you are going to claim it so there’s a need to do a site visit and to carry out wider checks with neighbours for example. Those two stages add up to 5-6 weeks minimum once lodged with us
Once an application has been made the solicitor needs to then request expedition to get things moving. If it’s not expedited then the wait time before the site visit/checks are carried out is much much longer

PosterBoy · 09/10/2023 07:27

We wrote a letter to say we had used the land uninterrupted for x years and sale proceeded as normal.

DepartureLounge · 09/10/2023 10:48

LandRegRep1862 · 09/10/2023 07:23

If you apply to register it or apply to claim a right of way over it then it would take several weeks to process once submitted to HMLR
It reads as if you are going to claim it so there’s a need to do a site visit and to carry out wider checks with neighbours for example. Those two stages add up to 5-6 weeks minimum once lodged with us
Once an application has been made the solicitor needs to then request expedition to get things moving. If it’s not expedited then the wait time before the site visit/checks are carried out is much much longer

This is where the estate agent earns their fee imo, as the process itself sounds pretty straightforward but it would be better for the chain if the buyers could be persuaded it's a job for them to deal with after completion. I suppose it depends how pragmatic the solicitors are too.

Original poster
SB1712 · 09/10/2023 11:03

Thank you for all your replies.
Our buyer won’t proceed until this has been rectified so it is on us to sort really.
Our solicitor has complied evidence that the land/side gate and path next to our house has been used by us for over 20 years, and the owner of the house before.

I have since read about the 7 year rule (which I think is actually the 12 year rule) where if you maintain and ‘own’ a piece of land for over 12 years then legally you can claim it as your own.
That isn’t the case with this is it really does seem to be a mistake on the LR, but if all fails I suppose we have that route to go down but we are reluctant to do it that way due to timing.

@LandRegRep1862 should our solicitor ask for it to be expedited right away? I know last week he was going to get in touch with the LR. Or does this have to be done when processed by the LR?

OP posts:
Original poster
SB1712 · 09/10/2023 11:30

Also I should point out it isn’t a right of way, no one has access to it.
The side gate is attached to our house and has been used by us and the previous 2 owners dating back to the 1970’s.
It leads directly into our back garden. There is a fence on the other side which was put/ maintained up by the developers of the houses behind us.

OP posts:
LandRegRep1862 · 09/10/2023 11:39

If the solicitor is simply querying it then there’s no expedition.
If they are actually applying to register the land then they should request expedition asap after submission to keep wait times to a minimum
I should stress that if you got stat decs from your seller then it seems very unlikely any registration error happened, otherwise they’d have sought a correction years ago and not done a stat dec
NB - do read others mentioning 7 year rule but that’s not a timeframe I’m familiar with in land law/conveyancing. 6 + 1 years is usually linked to record keeping by firms in my experience

DepartureLounge · 09/10/2023 11:40

What a pain for you, OP, I really hope you can get it sorted quickly.

I guess this thread is a salutary lesson for the rest of us to check your own land registry entry for any irregularities as soon as you start thinking about putting your house on the market, especially if you've owned it a long time and previous conveyancing was done in a less litigious era.

GasPanic · 09/10/2023 12:17

I would prepare myself for the fact that it may take some time.

Collaborate · 09/10/2023 12:54

The title plan is so that you can work out which property is yours when standing on front of it. It's accurate to within a few feet but tht's all. It's based on the OS map.

You would need to take a look and see whether in the original sale from the builder there was a better plan.

If there was, and it shows you won the side passage, you simply need to have a better HMLR title plan drawn up. If the original transfer deed is not much help to you, and you can prove 12 years enclosure of the side passage (which you can), then you can register a claim for adverse possession of it. Might delay your sale but that's probably the best you can do, unless the buyer is prepared to go ahead based on the claim having been lodged at HMLR.

Engagebrain · 16/11/2023 22:46

Did you manage to solve this? Is it possible that this piece of land is a public right of way and that's the reason it was not included in the title plan? If it is or it is an easement for utilities you won't be able to claim adverse possession. I hope you got it sorted.

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