Pushing the boundaries – maps and boundary disputes
As you might expect, Ordnance Survey works very closely with Land Registry. They use our mapping to cross-reference and associate their boundary information which in turn, forms the basis of all Land Registry Title Plans.
But because of this close relationship, its not always clear which organisation people should contact when they want information on property boundaries. In fact, questions about boundaries are one of the most commonly asked to our customer service team.
The basic rule to remember is that whilst our mapping helps inform the work of Land Registry, we can’t help with boundary disputes. Deciding where a boundary exists simply isn’t something we’re involved in.
Almost all Ordnance Survey maps are purely topographic, in that they show only the physical features on the ground at the time that they’re surveyed (which is itself an important point to remember).
A sample Title Plan from Land Registry.
The maps you can buy from us don’t show legal property boundaries, and they don’t show who owns a particular place or building. Sometimes a property boundary might happen to coincide with a physical feature, like a fence or wall, but that’s not always the case so you should never assume it.
What Land Registry do, is take our mapping as a base and use it to show a property’s legal boundaries using either a solid or dotted red line.
A red line on a Title Plan doesn’t necessarily mean that a dividing feature exists on the ground (like the aforementioned fence or wall) and equally, the absence of a dividing feature on our mapping doesn’t mean that information is missing or that the Title Plan is wrong.
That probably sounds a little more complicated than it should, but it really is straightforward – just remember: the maps you can buy from us will never show a property boundary and if you’re after boundary information you’ll need to speak to Land Registry.
They have lots of useful information on their website (including this guide to title plans and boundaries) and if the need to request the title plans, they’re the people to contact.
I hope that’s useful, but if anyone has any tips or advice for people looking for boundary information, please feel free to share it and leave a comment.
GI explained, Using GI and maps
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boundary disputes, Land Registry, maps, Ordnance Survey, title plans
Themocracy
Actually – the Land Registry title plan won’t necessarily help you either – the plans show “general boundaries” – so for example even if your title extends beyond your front fence to the middle of the road, the Land Registry plan will mark the boundary at the fence and not to the middle of the road.
See http://www.landreg.gov.uk/upload/documents/public_guide_019.pdf for more details.
Always seek professional advice from a Chartered Land Surveyor. We offer a free 30 minutes telephone consultation.
Regards
Kevin Perrina
My team and I provide extensive speacialist advice on boundary disputes both locally and nationally.
It is worth noting that disputes regarding your boundary may be covered by your home insurance policy, so always check your policies before you begin incurring costs.
We are very happy to offer an initial free no-obligation chat to discuss ways in which you might resolve your boundary issue and help you ascertain if the matter will be covered by your insurance. Please feel free to call me on 01926 883 023.
when we bought out house, it initially looked like the house possibly came with a much larger block of land, sadly it did not
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