In this week’s Property Surveying Blogpost, we are going to be discussing boundary surveying issues, and what to do if you find yourself in a position, whereby the Adjoining Owner has trespassed onto your land, taken up part of your land, or has informed you that they will indeed undertake work that results in either of these situations.
First and foremost, do not panic, boundary issues are just as common as boundaries themselves are. There is a tried and tested procedure in place, to ensure that the correct and proper legal procedures are adhered to, this ensures that Owners are not left in positions whereby they can be disadvantaged by particular issues such as this.
The first thing we would recommend doing here at Stokemont, is to speak with your neighbour. Now this may seem like a difficult thing, especially if there is a historic issue, or generally speaking the neighbours do not get along.
However, it is important to bear in mind that in many cases, speaking to the neighbour directly, can go a long way to effectively resolving the dispute, and moving it away from a legal issue to a neighbourly one.
However, if this is not possible, or has been tried and resulted in a negative response, we would recommend the next two options.
The next option, would be to instruct a Boundary Surveyor to undertake a Bounder Determination Inspection on your property, whereby that Surveyor will visit, undertake significant research on the property, for example historic maps, Planning records, aerial photographs, or any other historic findings that could be of assistance in determining the matter.
Generally speaking, the Surveyor will visit, conduct a thorough site survey, and ultimately provide an opinion on the boundary dispute, ultimately confirming where they believe the boundary line to rest.
Assuming that the Boundary Surveyor’s opinion was akin to yours, and it was indeed confirmed that a trespass is in place, at that stage we would recommend writing to your neighbour, and requesting that they abate the trespass, effectively meaning that they remove the trespassing item. Should they fail to do that, or fail to respond, your next option is the one and only one that you can proceed with.
The final option, as noted above, would be to proceed to the Courts, with the ultimate aim being that the Courts effectively determine the matter on behalf of the parties, and hopefully help move the matter towards resolution, amicable or otherwise.
In proceeding to the Courts, the existence of the Surveyor’s report will be a significant help in assisting them to determine the matter. However, ultimately, they may still want to appoint a Court-appointed boundary expert to advise, and ultimately determine the matter on their behalf.
Boundary matters can often be over very small stretches of land, however can be of significant issue to neighbours.
If you have a boundary dispute and would like to discuss how our Surveyors can be of assistance to you, please give us a call now, and we will be more than happy to assist you.
