How do we formalise a small boundary change with our neighbour?

[Vinculum]

Posting for advice as we’re getting hopelessly confused.

I'll try not to add too much extraneous detail unless needed but in a nutshell: to build our planned back extension so it’s properly square, it looks as though we need to slightly redraw the boundary with our next-door neighbour (the existing wall of our house abuts his driveway). It’s annoyingly unclear on the Land Registry but the existing boundary of our property appears to taper slightly (diagram available if needed, I know the rules!).

Our neighbour is absolutely fine with this; he readily agreed when we raised it. We've had more than one good chat, and met with the architect, who's redrawn the plan to reflect the proposed new boundary between us. Btw it’s not a huge chunk of garden - it’s a narrow strip, a matter of centimetres.

We think we need to get a solicitor to make sure it’s all properly okayed (we'd be paying the neighbour's costs, obviously). But so far we’ve had a lot of vague and/or conflicting advice, and it’s proving more difficult than expected to find solicitors; two different firms have said they can’t help - no particular reason given, just that they can’t.

Iirc, you can make an informal agreement between two parties and lodge a new plan with the Land Registry, but we both want this to be done properly and a legal process seems safest. I suppose what I'm asking is whether anyone has experience of this situation and if so, how did you deal with it?

Thanks if you’ve got this far!

We're the solicitors you tried conveyancers? We swapped land with a neighbour (odd shaped plots, shared pathways etc) and no money changed hands, but we had a conveyancer draw up all the land registry stuff for us both.

Are you paying your neighbour for taking over part of his garden?

@LizzieLazzie as you asked, no, but it’ll be a ‘payment in kind’ because his garden is massively (and I mean massively) overgrown and we’ve offered to deal with all that, the taking down and disposal of a totally ruined asbestos garage he wants to get rid of, and other things. So quite a substantial amount in fact.

My question was actually more about the practical aspect so I’m interested in what you say @DysmalRadius. So the same conveyancer acted for both of you? It seems we’d need 2 different solicitors if we went down that route.

I only asked as that might affect how you need to formalise it. When you come to sell you house and your neighbour sells his you will have to complete a form about property boundaries so make sure you keep all the paperwork re any agreement.

People do it all the time, but I am not sure I would encroach on someone else's land (even slightly) with only an informal agreement. He sells, new less tolerant owner gets pissed off, demands you take your extension down, things sour.

Tbh I am not a fan of to the boundary building full stop. Any reason you can't set it back a little to avoid all this hassle? Don't forget overhang as well - eaves, soffits, fascias and gutters. They all need to be within the confines of your land, you can't encroach in the air either.

How small is the strip of land? You mention a matter of cm. Land registry plans are only indicative and are not exact. If it’s literally 10cm or something I wouldn’t bother going down a legal route!

Sorry - my wording wasn't clear - we both used separate conveyancers (although IIRC ours recommended one to her as she had lived in the house for decades and we used the ones we had when we'd moved a few years earlier.) It only cost a couple of hundred quid at the time because they just did the land registry stuff and a deed of some sort and there was no money changing hands.

I am not sure I would encroach on someone else's land (even slightly) with only an informal agreement

That's exactly why we don’t want an informal agreement 😁

They’re both old buildings and as our wall is already the boundary, our eaves and gutter overhang his driveway anyway. It’s been that way for 100 years or more so 🤷‍♀️ Not much we can do about that tbh.

I have to be honest, I’d be asking myself if it’s worth the £££ of conveyancing and all the effort to get an extension a few cm bigger.

You each need a property solicitor. Most law firms that do property work will be able to take this on. What they won't do is the surveying bit. For that you need a surveyor who will draw up the new plans to show the new boundary.

@Vinculum to do it semi formally with agreement you fill in a form for the Land Registry and pay a small fee to register the change (presumably for both properties).
Fully formally you appoint a land boundary surveyor who draws up new plans with detailed measurements which are then lodged with the Land Registry. That avoids any dispute in the future when one of you sells your property.

@Gratin231 and @Tastycelery thank you. That’s helpful info.

Nope there isn't, there's not much your neighbour can do either once it's been that way for 20+ years. But we're not discussing the old building, we're discussing the new one along a tapered boundary.