hi everyone!
I'm not sure that you can advise me on the situation I have, but i would appreciate any thoughts you might have.
It's a boundary dispute in the offing. I have a shared boundary on the left side of my house. The fencing at the front was installed some time before we purchase the property 3 years ago. It is currently in a somewhat delapidated condition, the top couple of panels have gone the way of concrete fencing everywhere and crumbled into a small pile.
There're also a couple of issues with the rear boundary on the same side. Two years ago, there were some storms and four of the wooden fence panels were damaged. At the time, next door indicated that the fence was ours to replace. I didn't question it at the time and spent about 85 pounds on some replacements. My girlfriend thought differently, thinking that the boundary on that side was the responsibility of next door. She left it at the time, saying no more about it, after all, I'd purchased the fencing the day after the storm and it was in situ. And we didn't really want to get into an argument with next door.
There's also been another damaged panel where the dog from next door bashed it repeatedly with it's head and broke through at one point. Gave our cats a bit of a fright but failed to catch them. Next door agrred to replace the panel. They have yet to do so, it's been a year since this happened.
Since then, we've spent some time rationalising our paperwork into one location, during which, we came accross the land registry documents that were provided at the time of the house purchase. They clearly indicate that our property boundaries are the front, right side and rear fence lines, marked in red on the original document and denoted by a 'T' in the key.
Back to the front fencing. It's gotten worse in the last 12 mponths or so and Next Door have apparently moved the bits that have dropped into their front garden over the wall into ours. We had not broached the subject, other than Next Door pointing out in conversation one day about 'what were we going to do about it..'. At the time, I left it, not wanting to comment.
This last week, the crumbling concrete has meant the there's more being placed in our garden.
This morning we happenned to bump into the lady from next door and mentioned the fact that we had found the boundary to be their responsibility. She immediately stated that they thought otherwise and that there was no way they were going to be paying for the replacement or even to meet halfway on any repairs. The gist of the conversation went in the direction of her saying she would speak to the council with regards the fence and ownership. I'm not entirely sure as to why as they are not council tenants. She also stated that the previoius owners had sorted the fencing as theirs, we have nothing to indicate this to be the fact, also that they had spent money getting the other 3 sides of their property sorted out and nice.. and indicated surrounding properties that had questioned boundaries in the past and the the outcomes of those 'disputes'. I don't think these have any legal play on the particular boundary line between our properties.
At this point, things are cordial. We don't want to have a falling out with our neighbours, we have to live next to them. I don't want to have to 'go legal' but at the same time, I don't want to find us in a stasis situation that ends up with bad feeling and the fence not being fixed.
My main query is, I suppose, if the Land Registry document is the final arbiter of the argument, what would be the best process with which to take it forwards? I fully intend to go on speaking to Next Door about this and put the situation to them when they next wish to discuss the matter. Ideally i'd like to be in a position of correctness with regards the ownership and responsibility for the fence and the boundary it defines.
Any advice you have on the matter would be greatly appreciated, even if it's in the form of a 'barge-pole' with info on where to ask for better info. I've looked at the Land registry site and will be looking into it further myself at the citizen's advice etc., but any good advice you have will be gladly heeded.
Regards,
Lol Whibley
I'm not sure that you can advise me on the situation I have, but i would appreciate any thoughts you might have.
It's a boundary dispute in the offing. I have a shared boundary on the left side of my house. The fencing at the front was installed some time before we purchase the property 3 years ago. It is currently in a somewhat delapidated condition, the top couple of panels have gone the way of concrete fencing everywhere and crumbled into a small pile.
There're also a couple of issues with the rear boundary on the same side. Two years ago, there were some storms and four of the wooden fence panels were damaged. At the time, next door indicated that the fence was ours to replace. I didn't question it at the time and spent about 85 pounds on some replacements. My girlfriend thought differently, thinking that the boundary on that side was the responsibility of next door. She left it at the time, saying no more about it, after all, I'd purchased the fencing the day after the storm and it was in situ. And we didn't really want to get into an argument with next door.
There's also been another damaged panel where the dog from next door bashed it repeatedly with it's head and broke through at one point. Gave our cats a bit of a fright but failed to catch them. Next door agrred to replace the panel. They have yet to do so, it's been a year since this happened.
Since then, we've spent some time rationalising our paperwork into one location, during which, we came accross the land registry documents that were provided at the time of the house purchase. They clearly indicate that our property boundaries are the front, right side and rear fence lines, marked in red on the original document and denoted by a 'T' in the key.
Back to the front fencing. It's gotten worse in the last 12 mponths or so and Next Door have apparently moved the bits that have dropped into their front garden over the wall into ours. We had not broached the subject, other than Next Door pointing out in conversation one day about 'what were we going to do about it..'. At the time, I left it, not wanting to comment.
This last week, the crumbling concrete has meant the there's more being placed in our garden.
This morning we happenned to bump into the lady from next door and mentioned the fact that we had found the boundary to be their responsibility. She immediately stated that they thought otherwise and that there was no way they were going to be paying for the replacement or even to meet halfway on any repairs. The gist of the conversation went in the direction of her saying she would speak to the council with regards the fence and ownership. I'm not entirely sure as to why as they are not council tenants. She also stated that the previoius owners had sorted the fencing as theirs, we have nothing to indicate this to be the fact, also that they had spent money getting the other 3 sides of their property sorted out and nice.. and indicated surrounding properties that had questioned boundaries in the past and the the outcomes of those 'disputes'. I don't think these have any legal play on the particular boundary line between our properties.
At this point, things are cordial. We don't want to have a falling out with our neighbours, we have to live next to them. I don't want to have to 'go legal' but at the same time, I don't want to find us in a stasis situation that ends up with bad feeling and the fence not being fixed.
My main query is, I suppose, if the Land Registry document is the final arbiter of the argument, what would be the best process with which to take it forwards? I fully intend to go on speaking to Next Door about this and put the situation to them when they next wish to discuss the matter. Ideally i'd like to be in a position of correctness with regards the ownership and responsibility for the fence and the boundary it defines.
Any advice you have on the matter would be greatly appreciated, even if it's in the form of a 'barge-pole' with info on where to ask for better info. I've looked at the Land registry site and will be looking into it further myself at the citizen's advice etc., but any good advice you have will be gladly heeded.
Regards,
Lol Whibley
