Boundary question

[_Jay_]

Hi All, I am attempting to determine who owns a fence between two residential properties. the land registry title doesn't have T marks on the plan but only states "The T marks referred to affects the northeastern boundary of the land" .
can anyone advise which would be considered the northeastern boundary here ?

53B37A9D-57F8-4701-B47A-6B8E2BD034C9

• _Jay_
• 7 Sep 2021

Thanks

 

[oldbutnotdead]

It's the boundary fence/wall between the end of your garden and the back lane. What do they teach in schools these days?

 

[_Jay_]

Thanks for your reply. Not familiar with the curriculum these days but having asked a couple of people about he boundary one was not sure and one thought it was what I would consider the northern boundary. hence my reason for asking.

 

[jeds]

Not being funny Jay, but the 'East' in 'northeastern' gives it away.

On the fence situation;

On a new property the buyer takes ownership of a fence from the developer, until it rots away and is replaced. After that the owner would be whoever pays for and erects a new fence. So, in your case, that could be the previous owner of your house, or it could be next door, or a previous owner of next door. Sometimes people go halves - in which case the fence would be jointly owned.

Ownership of the fence has nothing to do with (so-called) ownership of the boundary. The boundary is an imaginary line, of no thickness, between two properties. So, if you 'own' the boundary you don't really own anything, just the space that the boundary sits in (remember it has no thickness so that amounts to nothing really) The fence might run along the apparent line of the boundary but the owner of the fence is a different thing. Bear in mind that an owner of a fence is entitled to build it right up to the boundary.

 

[_Jay_]

Thanks for the response John. In this case it is a fence ownership question rather than boundary. The title register states about maintaining fences but that only applies to the north eastern boundary which backs on to a lane. Would it not have been established when the house was built who owned the surrounding fences (regardless of who subsequently replaced fences and therefore may have then taken ownership of them)?