Law Column: Talk to your neighbours and try to avoid any costly disputes
Disputes between neighbours are on the rise due in part to the increase in the amount of time spent at home during the pandemic, largely due to people becoming irritated by issues that they might have previously not noticed or ignored.
More time at home and less travel abroad has seen a huge uplift in home and garden improvements and new fences and extensions have in turn led to lots of disputes revolving around boundaries.
The fundamental problem lies in how to work out the location of the boundary.
Often, people rely on the red boundary lines indicated on Land Registry title plans to determine a boundary, but in most cases, those lines only show the general location of the boundary. Boundaries can also change over time depending on how land is used. This can lead to disputes and upset, particularly where one neighbour tries to build or extend their garden onto a neighbour’s property because they think they own more than they do.
Disputes even involve claims to ownership of trees, a client’s neighbour chopped down our client’s tree to improve the view from their garden. The neighbour thought that because the tree was on the boundary, they were entitled to fell it, but the tree and boundary was jointly owned, so the neighbour needed our client’s permission to chop it down.
All these cases show there is more to boundary determination than meets the eye. If there is any doubt as to the location of the boundary, people should contact a specialist property lawyer or land surveyor to determine the boundary to resolve any issues as quickly and as cost effectively as possible.
The advice is do your best to avoid disputes in the first place as such issues usually need to be disclosed when the property is sold, which can impact its value or may prevent a sale. Always communicate with your neighbour before any work commences, as it is often the lack of prior communication that can often be the cause of a dispute to escalate.
Tom Edwards is a partner in LCF Law’s Dispute Resolution team.