The complex field of boundary ownership

When buying or selling land it’s important to establish where boundaries are. Whose responsibility is it to repair that crumbling wall or overgrown drainage ditch?  Which land has the benefit of that stream or spring?  However, establishing where your property ends and your neighbours begins is not always as straightforward as you might think.

If land is registered, the starting point is the Land Registry title plan.  Title plans, though, only show ‘general boundaries’.  The exact boundary line is left undetermined unless you apply to the Land Registry for the boundaries to be fixed.  Such applications aren’t common as they can be expensive and may cause aggravation because the adjoining owner will be notified and given an opportunity to object. 

Land Registry title plans may not be conclusive of actual boundaries, but a registered title is usually better than an unregistered one.  Title plans in old deeds are often poor quality, sometimes little more than sketches; sometimes there is no plan or a reference to a plan in an earlier title deed that is missing. If your land is unregistered, it may be worth applying voluntarily to have it registered before commencing a sale.  There may be additional evidence in your deeds to help the Land Registry determine the line of boundaries, such as old photos, sales particulars and auction catalogues. 

If boundary ownership is unclear you may need to consider the legal presumptions that govern where boundaries lie.  For example, there is the ad medium filum rule; where land abuts a private roadway, in the absence of a contrary indication, the presumption is that your boundary extends to the middle of the roadway.   The same principle applies where land abuts a river or stream. If it changes course, then so does your boundary.   And then there’s the ‘hedge and ditch rule’.  Where a hedge and ditch form a field boundary, the boundary is at the opposite side of the ditch from the hedge.  It’s presumed the ditch was dug on the edge of your land and the earth piled on your land with the hedge planted on top of it. This is rebuttable if you can show the hedge and ditch existed when both fields were owned by the same person or if the ditch is not man-made but a natural feature.

If part of a larger area of land is being sold then the boundary, and ownership of the boundary feature, can and should be fixed between seller and buyer.  A professionally drawn plan is invaluable, not only to ensure the accuracy of the land being sold, but also compliance with the Land Registry’s strict requirements relating to plans – they must be to a stated scale, not reduced or enlarged, contain no disclaimers, such as, ‘for identification only’, show a North point and sufficient geographical features to identify the land and, ideally, any intricate features on a separate larger scale plan.

As with any land transaction, I would recommend early discussion with a land agent and solicitor.