Property Boundary

2BuyOrNot2Buy

Hi There,
Myself and my wife are in the process of buying a house at the moment but we’ve hit a snag. It turns out that the land registry map (red line outlining the folio) doesn’t match the OS map or the physical boundary (fence) on the ground. In fact the red line shows that the folio we’re intending to buy contains land on the neighbour’s side of the fence on one part of the entrance avenue and on another part of the avenue the neighbour would appear to own part of the avenue including the gateway on the vendors’ side. All very complicated!
To complicate things further the next door neighbour won’t sign a deed of rectification because she’s currently involved in a long running dispute with the banks over the ownership her land post Celtic tiger etc. She claims that she’s happy for the boundary to be where the fence is but if she signs a deed of rectification she fears that her bank will need to be informed and that will adversely affect her own position in terms of her ongoing negotiations. Our solicitor has said he’s not happy to drawdown the mortgage until the folio that we buy contains the gateway and all the avenue (Which is fair enough). Does anybody have any experience of this type of issue? And if so can they answer any/all of the questions I have below?

1.The vendors’ solicitors have said that the neighbour’s bank wouldn’t need to be informed of the deed of rectification (Our own solicitor tentatively disagrees), is this true?
2.Is it possible to have the boundary changed to the physical boundary by court order?
3.Are there any other avenues(Pardon the pun) open to us on this one?

Thanks in advance!

waynegalway

Best advice is to talk to someone involved in boundary disputes. I've done a few very low level and easy-to-fix ones over the years, but what you need is an expert. I'm not sure how the mods would feel about me posting the name of a business here (might look like advertising, even though I am in no way associated with any company), so PM me if you want the name of someone that I think could help.

jmayo

I would be very tempted to walk away if I could.

This could drag on for a while, especially if the next door neighbour is involved in a dispute of her own with her bank.
It is possibly not in her interest to have all her deeds and boundaries sorted as it makes it difficult for anyone to shift her property.

waynegalway

jmayo wrote: »

I would be very tempted to walk away if I could.

This could drag on for a while, especially if the next door neighbour is involved in a dispute of her own with her bank.
It is possibly not in her interest to have all her deeds and boundaries sorted as it makes it difficult for anyone to shift her property.

That's a very good point. If there's any court actions pending on her land, the bank will pretty much find it impossible to do a fire-sale on her.

the_syco

2BuyOrNot2Buy wrote: »

She claims that she’s happy for the boundary to be where the fence is but if she signs a deed of rectification she fears that her bank will need to be informed and that will adversely affect her own position in terms of her ongoing negotiations.

To me, this reads that she's a bit two faced. Happy to keep the boundary fence, but at the same time should she get her way, the person in the house that you're looking at will be given the short straw, with complications over how she controls access!

Run away, imo. I do wonder, however, was her house there originally, and "your" house was built to generate some cash?

2BuyOrNot2Buy

Thanks folks. I hadn't considered the fact that by stalling on this she could be holding it as an ace in her own saga.
The house wasn't built by her and older maps show what we would consider the correct boundary. According to our solicitor it's the digitisation of the maps that has led to this. He says he has to go by the new maps.

cinloom

Hi , We are also in a process to buy a house and we also have a problem with the map. What i dont understand is who rule when there is a boundary issue ? on internet it say OSI and land registry dont rule.

waynegalway

cinloom wrote: »

Hi , We are also in a process to buy a house and we also have a problem with the map. What i dont understand is who rule when there is a boundary issue ? on internet it say OSI and land registry dont rule.

Again, seek the advice of a land surveying company that specializes in boundary disputes. If you have a solicitor or architect involved, they may have some expertise in disputes, but in my experience it's a surveyor that can act as a legal expert that you might need in the end. These things can be sorted out in a few ways, ranging from low level negotiations where you can get common sense to prevail, right up to court settlements. It doesn't help that mapping in this country is of such poor quality from a legal POV.