0115 775 0284
Courtyard Business Centre, 41a Southwold Drive, Nottingham NG8 1PA Open 8.30am to 6.30pm
Property owners are often neglectful of their boundaries until it is to late. Once the neighbour has chopped down that tree that you thought was yours it is extremely hard to put it back up again.
However if you have suitable conveyance documents then it is possible to attempt to resolve many disputes. Measurements can be taken and pegs knocked in to enable a boundary line to be established. Alternatively documents, photographs and drawings can be prepared to support (or disprove) a county court action for compensation and or to get a hedge or fence re-erected in its correct location.
Unfortunately the help we can give is only as good as your conveyacne documents .The current Land Registry Title Plans are not very accurate and only enable boundaries to be measured to the nearest metre or so. This is due to the small scale of the plans on which the boundaries of a property are drawn and the reliance on OS plans which plot features of interest to the OS, not legal boundaries. Land Registry Title Plans are generally of little use in Court unless a property is actualy conveyed by referecne to them. It is thus well worth saving copies of old conveyance documents with measurements or drawings, if you have them. When buying a property it is wise to agree the ownership of any unclear boundaries with your prospective neighbours.
Steve Butler has been preparing boundary and right of way dispute reports for over twenty years. He has acted as an expert witness in hundreds of cases including preparing numerous reports for use in Court, attending Court to give evidence in respect of boundary disputes, acting an as advocate before the Land Registartion Tribunal in respect of a right of way dispute and providing a binding boundary determination for two parties who wisely chose to avoid the expense of Court.
Whilst most boundaries and rights of way can be assesed with a tape measure Steve Butler has a Geomax Total Station which can record the position of numerous features and most importantly how they all relate to each other in three dimensions if necessary. The data collected by the Total Station can be plotted using CAD to prepare a plan. It is sometimes possible to overlay the plan on to a copy of an original conveyance.
Boundary and Right of Way Law
How can you surveyor tell the judge his opinion of the boundary or right of way if they do not know the law. Steve Butler is a member of the Chartered Institution of Legal Executives and thus has a good understanding of land law, the law of contract, the law of tort, the criminal law and staurtory law such as the 1832 Presciption, 1925 Law of Property and 2003 Land Registration Acts which can all come into play in boundary and right of way disputes. Without knowing the law is it is difficult to write a watertight report.
Nottingham Boundary and Right of Way Dispute Survey Report
The claimant wanted to argue she had a right of way with a vehicle from a public car park through a splay that was persistently blocked by the land owner first with a car that was subsequently burnt out and then with bollards. Unfortunately, the judge found she had been using the splay for just short of the twenty years required for a right of way by prescription, she did not have a right of way by conveyance and that she had not acquired the right of way under Section 62 of the LPA 1925. It was found under cross examination that access to the splay had been blocked by a wall which was demolished less than twenty years ago and that an alternative access had existed at the time which had subsequently become blocked and then re-opened.
Derby RICS Chartered Surveyors Expert Report on a right of way and parking dispute
Our RICS Derby Expert Witness Surveyors look at badly laid out Yellow Lines, clamping signs and whether a Derby access road is a private right of way or public highway
The dispute was about a parking ticket issued for 'Parking on the yellow lines in a restricted zone on Full Street' a public highway. The road is in fact an access to a service yard off Full Street. Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors argued for the recipient of the ticket that the car was on a private right of way and not the public highway. The City argued that the highway ended at a gully that runs across the road marked the end of the highway. Steve Butler Chartered Surveyors argued that if the gully was a juncture of public and private highway that there should be a T bar to mark the distinction and that gullies have no place in highway law. There was also a ‘no parking or you will be clamped sign’ on a car park wall just in front of where the car was parked. The City Council argued that the signs had not been put up by them despite their distinctive logo and that they owned the car park. A clamping sign on building on the opposite side of the road way was approximately mid-way between two T bars that stretch beyond where the car was parked. Our expert surveyors argued that the T bar at back of the pavement would be considered by a reasonable member of the public to be the end of the highway and that the section of road between the two T bars would be considered to be private as the clamping sign was at the centre. Full Street was considerably altered in the early 1970's to make way for the Assembly rooms redevelopment. We asked for a copy of the Full Street adoption order. Derby City Council will do anything but provided copy!
Surveyor's RICS CPR 35 Expert Court Report on a Nottingham boundary dispute
Here our Nottingham clients were accused of having used a neighbours garage as a retaining wall for their patio. Our surveyor was able to show that the patio was separated from the garage by a gap extending to below the garage damp proof course level. The surveyor's CPR35 compliant expert witness report can be seen if you follow the link
Our surveyor thought that the client had little going for her in trying to stop the neighbour removing a hedge but fortunately she had lived at the property for seventy years and was able to offer evidence that her father had planted the hedge and that the family had maintained it since.
Nottingham Right of Way Dispute Survey
Conveyance documents showed no right of way existed and the OS sheet that an alterntaive right of way existed.
This concerned a pair of semi detached houses that were not touching. They had both extended over their garage areas so as to be almost touching. One of them trying to alter the boundary so as to be able to access the gap between them. The available conveyance plan was unhelpful as it was very vague. Fortunately there was an almost complete set of ancient boundary posts in the rear garden and the conveyance plan was clear as to responsibility for the original wall separating the front driveways.
BOUNDARY SURVEY REPORT IN RESPECT OF THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN A HOUSE AND NOW SEPERATE DEVELOPMENT PLOT.
This concerned a plot of land adjacent to a semi detached house. The land had once belonged to the house and had been sold as a development plot in about 2006. The purchaser of the land had started to construct a fence along the side of the path that lead to the house as per planning application and with full knowledge of the vendor who still owned the house at that time. The development was then abandoned, but a new owner of the house from 2009 moved the fence to a line that appeared to be randomly chosen. The movement of the fence limited the size of house that could be developed on the plot and the dispute went to trial. The owner of the development plot was somewhat over confident and failed to appoint a barrister until hours before the trial. The barrister was all at sea. The judge had originally suggested that the fence at the side of the path was correct but was persuaded to side with the new house owner. The judge seems to have been much persuaded that the conveyance plan of the development plot might exclude a demolished coal store and that the coal store was accessed from the house.
