Are Title Plans worth it?

[User1706]

Just the above and what info do you receive?

I live in a lovely period terraced, the only problem is my neighbours. They appeared harmless, just not very nice people, but yesterday, one of them completely snapped. We have two lovely pillars at the bottom of the walkway up to our house, one is understandably in the middle of both our home but as we have the matching pillar I assumed they were both part of my property (or at least the middle one was shared). I had (wrongly) thought they were removing the one in the middle so had asked what they were doing when she started shouted its my fucking pillar. Turns out they're removing their path and replacing it with tiles. All fine, nothing to do with me. To do this, their tradesman has now chalked a line establishing a boundary where he's going to tile up to which includes about 70% of the pillar dividing our homes.

Now, I really don't want to get into a huge boundary war as I just want a peaceful life but I thought would having title plans show me who the pillar belonged too or if it is infact shared. I just want to ensure they don't remove or edit the feature.

Yes - definitely download them, it’s worth it for £3.50 surely!

How long ago did you buy your property? You would have got a copy from your conveyancer - I’d check if you still have it before buying a new one.

Only just over 3 years, I've seen the 'line' as in the big box around the house but these were from previous owners (these were from some old documents the previous owner left us to show the history of the house) not our own. They weren't very helpful when establishing ownership of a pillar, though, as it was just a line on a map.

I was a first-time buyer, so not very knowledgeable, I'm afraid!

This. You just do it online at the Land Registry site.

I'm not entirely sure of the question being asked here.

But there certainly should be a title plan for your property, assuming it's been registered.

Although the thickness of the pen showing the extent of the property could easily be a metre one way or another, so may not be very helpful to get a very precise boundary measurement.

Your solicitor would have bought the title plan from the Land Registry and sent you a copy. Check in the paperwork from when you bought.

no plans will have that level of detail and they are not legally binding (i.e. they indicate boundaries, not specify them - so I wouldn't bother.

I would however talk to them about the party wall act (not sure how it applies to pillars, but certainly applies to fences and walls) which they legally have to comply with...

and beyond that I would get a solicitor writing to them warning them not to damage anything that is yours...

Chances are that a pillar between two houses will be equally owned by both - but you may need to look at other parts of the property to confirm it - you can get a surveyor to come around and establish a boundary but it is expensive

It's a party wall dispute not a boundary one, seek legal advice.

@Mildura I would like to know if there's any document that would define ownership of a pillar. I had assumed land registry would be a photo or something very clear as if its just a rectangle on a map that wouldn't be very helpful in this scenario.

Thank you to everyone who's posted! I appreciate I must sound very naieve here. As I mentioned in my OP this woman is particularly difficult and i would really prefer to live and let live. It just seems odd that she snapped so aggressively and has since started pushing about boundaries and features. Surely most terrace house are a simple shape where you wouldn't own land and features that push into the imaginary 'line' slipping over into directly in front of your neighbours front door...

It could belong to them, 'matching' doesn't mean anything if its legally their boundary.

I know on my street the pillar to the right belongs to the left neighbor all the way up regardless of who matches what.

In the past neighbors who don't care let others redecorate or pushy neighbors boundary stomp quiet old ladies or neighbors of empty houses have done all sorts to the boundaries that aren't theres to make it 'tie in' to their renovations. My old neighbor was a twat for it but it doesn't mean that becomes his property just because he paid for it to match.

Land registry is very NOT clear!
Definitely no photos
so common sense is generally used, or reference to landmarks.
in a terrace of houses then generally boundaries will run from the midpoint between the two houses as a direct line front and back - but there are also thousands of exceptions.

the only way to confirm is by using a surveyor who specialises in boundaries...

for now - as before - party wall act - you can appoint a surveyor at their cost! May be worth mentioning that to her as she may back off - lots of info online