Business Clinic: How do we identify disputed boundary?

Whether it’s a legal, tax, financial or management issue, Farmers Weekly’s Business Clinic experts can help.

Here, Mark Kieras, a partner and head of measured survey at Carter Jonas, explains how confusion over boundaries can arise and how to address the problem.

Q: I bought some land adjacent to my farm in 2020. The neighbouring plot had been sold to someone else in 2013.

The land had a fence and hedges along where the Land Registry believed the boundary to be.

However, the registered title for my land shows the boundary is actually on my property. What should I do?

A: Land Registry title documents show only a general boundary, not the legal boundary. Ordnance Survey mapping is used to show where a boundary is but has its own inherent inaccuracies, which can be up to 2m.

In rural areas, the margin for error can be greater.

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First, consider what the intent of the boundary may have been when the land was parcelled up.

The hedge and fence you mention could be the original intended boundary position and the Land Registry document, because of the inherent inaccuracies, could be wrong.

Historical features

If there is a historical feature that appears to be of similar age to the date of the original conveyance, and looks as though it could represent a boundary, then a general rule of thumb is that it does.

A hedge in a field is unlikely to be a new feature. If there is a fence in front of it that is possibly a newer feature (such as a stock fence), this is unlikely to represent the boundary.

However, it is possible that it’s the other way around. The Land Registry document could be right and the hedge and the boundaries wrong.

Where it is unclear, a boundary surveyor can assist, providing an expert opinion based on evidence – conveyances, deeds, file plans, historic imagery, old mapping and so on.

The first thing you should do is speak to your neighbour and understand why they think the boundary is in a particular place and what evidence they have. In many cases, it’s just a misunderstanding of the Land Registry document.

Once everyone understands that the Land Registry document may not be accurate, then both parties can hopefully agree on a common boundary and avoid expensive litigation.

Professional boundary survey

If you can’t agree, my advice is to bring in a credible boundary surveyor to give you a formal opinion.

They will undertake a site survey in which they will be looking for historic evidence of a possible boundary line.

They will then carry out research into filed plans, including deeds, conveyances, transfer plans, historical mapping and aerial imagery, to try to understand the life cycle of the boundary, and where it was originally created.

The surveyor will then put together a formal report justifying how they have come to their conclusion.

This determination is impartial; the evidence of the boundary is determined by what they find, not by what a client wants to hear.

If it transpires that the red line drawn on the plan is misrepresented on the Ordnance Survey map, then the Land Registry will not typically correct it (given that the plans are created to show only the general position).

Boundary agreement

If you think it may be contentious in the future, I’d always advise the two landowners come together and write a boundary agreement.

This is when both parties sign a document saying they agree that the boundary is the hedgerow, for instance, so that when it’s sold, the new owners will see that previous owners have agreed where the boundary is.

If you want an even stronger resolution, a determined boundary can be undertaken.

This is where a surveyor will collate evidence to determine the boundary position and map it to an accuracy of 10mm. This is then submitted by the applicant to the Land Registry for approval.

The Land Registry will go to the adjoining landowner and ask if they are happy with the determined boundary.

If they are not – for instance, if it wasn’t a joint instruction and their objection is not found to be groundless – the matter will be pushed through legal proceedings, which will become very expensive.

Advice from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as a boundary surveyor is therefore to try to resolve boundary issues through dialogue and mediation before any kind of litigation is begun.

If the determined boundary is accepted, the red line on the maps may not change, but the determined boundary plan would be filed with the Land Registry so that prospective buyers can download it and confirm the location.

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