NEIGHBOURLY MATTERS
Boundaries & Neighbourly Matters for Property Owners
At INform Surveying, our team of chartered building surveyors provides expert guidance on party wall, boundary, and neighbourly matters, ensuring that property owners navigate their legal rights and responsibilities with clarity and confidence. Understanding your boundaries and rights in relation to your demise (your property) is extremely important. It is surprising how many property owners do not know the full extent of their demise and the rights and responsibility of the boundaries defining their property. In a world where people are more litigious, and construction works become more extensive and confined, neighbours find themselves in legal situations that require resolution.
In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of neighbourly matters, the important of obtaining the full legal title (documents) to your property and taking the time to ask questions before taking ownership. We’ll also guide you through the key aspects to consider and provide a case study on a neighbourly matter dispute, demonstrating the real-world impact of our expertise.
- Complementary services:
- + Party Wall
- + Expert Witness
- + Measured Survey
KEY CONSIDERATIONS: NEIGHBOURLY MATTERS
01 Clarity in Legal Rights and Obligations:
Understanding your legal responsibilities is critical in any matter concerning the land you own, the impact on neighbouring property owners, and boundary issues between properties. We conduct an assessment of the property and adjacent land where permitted and available, along with a desktop analysis utilising title deeds, historical documents such as drawings, photographs, aerial images, former land transaction documents, planning applications, and any information that could help explain how a dispute arose and how it might be resolved.
02 Early Engagement and Consultation:
Early consultation with a chartered surveyor is crucial to avoiding costly legal disputes and mitigating risks associated with property loss and delays in carrying out planned construction work. At Inform Surveying, we collaborate closely with clients from the beginning to identify potential issues and create a proactive plan that reduces the risk of conflict. This early engagement often results in smoother transactions and quicker project progress.
03 Documentation:
A major factor in resolving neighbourly matters is the availability and reliability of documentation. It is common for boundary clarity and maintenance responsibilities to be overlooked in the conveyancing process. Assumptions about what the title documentation confirms can lead to disputes only becoming apparent post-acquisition or once construction begins. We often encounter cases where legal boundaries are unclear or inadequately recorded, highlighting the importance of thorough document analysis at the earliest opportunity.
04 Reasoned Advice:
Drawing upon our technical background in construction law, boundary disputes, and property rights, we provide early and reasoned advice tailored to the specific situation. Disputes relating to boundaries, ownership, and residential land can be emotionally charged. Our role is to guide clients through these sensitive issues with a pragmatic approach, balancing time, cost, and likely outcomes to support informed decisions that reduce the risk of escalation.
05 Reporting:
Where neighbourly disputes become formalised, a well-structured Expert Witness Report is often required, prepared in accordance with Civil Procedure Rules Part 35 (CPR Part 35). Such reports must respond directly to the legal brief, ensuring the issues are fully addressed with supporting evidence and a clear expert opinion. Where formal dispute resolution is not yet underway, we provide tailored reports for pre-acquisition advice or early-stage disputes, often supported by detailed measured surveys to identify physical features, historic boundaries, and site conditions. In the absence of definitive legal documentation, physical evidence and construction context become essential in forming a professional opinion. The objective is always to produce a thorough and balanced report that supports resolution, whether through negotiation or formal proceedings.
WHAT ARE NEIGHBOURLY MATTER?
Neighbourly Matters are any aspect where there is a technical or legal matter between neighbouring property owners. This often covers involvement under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. However, it is more generally associated with disputes over the boundary between properties, and this can often involve multiple properties, boundaries and owners.
It would cover works to the boundary, such as:
- Where the legal boundaries need to be defined before the Party Wall Act can be implemented.
- Matters of ‘Trespass’.
- Cover access to neighbouring land where agreements or licences need to be agreed under the Access to Neighbouring Land Act to enable works to be undertaken.
- Oversailing and scaffolding licences where larger works may temporarily go over the land of a neighbour’s property.
- Review and provide a professional opinion over easements and other covenants within title deeds/documents,
- Provide Expert Witness advice and reports to provide a professional opinion in cases of dispute. This may cover multiple matters and require a detailed assessment of the historical context related to the properties.
At INform Surveying, we provide a comprehensive understanding of neighbourly matters and advice to support property owners, landowners, leaseholders, architects, developers, conveyancers/lawyers, and construction contractors. Our services help understand matters, provide advice for further investigation, identify issues for consideration before and after purchase and before construction works are undertaken, mitigate risks, avoid disputes, and ensure compliance with the law.
Whether it’s a simple residential matter or a complex commercial development, our chartered building surveyors are here to manage the process with reasoned advice and years of expertise.
For further information and advice on NEIGHBOURLY MATTERS please contact:
Our founders are always available for advice or support—feel free to reach out directly.
To learn more about our journey and values, visit our About Us page. Together, we’ve built a consultancy dedicated to placing clients first, delivering not just solutions, but clarity, precision, and long-term success.
CASE STUDY: TENNIS CLUB : SHEFFIELD
Introduction and Client Background
INform Surveying were jointly instructed by two separate residential neighbours who had been issued documents by a lawyer for a tennis club in Sheffield. A dispute had arisen over a retaining wall between the properties and who was responsible for its repair. There was also an assertion of potential trespass.
Objectives of the Neighbourly Matter
Our brief was to provide a professional assessment and an initial opinion on the validity of the claims. The report would be used in correspondence back to the Tennis Club with the aim of continuing matters before they escalated, as the appointing owners had not appointed legal representation at the point of instruction.
Survey Methodology and Legal Process
The first process was to request all past documentation related to the case, including title deeds and any other information. We then started a desktop assessment where we gathered historic aerial images from RAF public libraries and Google Earth images that date back as far as documented. Once we had a better understanding of the land and boundaries during the period of the Tennis Club and the residential properties, we undertook a site survey to capture physical features on the ground and obtain measurements to cross-reference against title plans and OS maps to check the accuracy and placement of the boundaries.
Findings and Solutions
The documentation review was very interesting, as we obtained old farmland titles before the residential properties and tennis club were built, and the RAF photographs helped to provide evidence where the original boundaries were located next to a natural watercourse and farmland hedgerows. We then reviewed the technical concept of the retaining wall. We provided evidence to support the age of the wall and who would have built the wall, as this would lead to the obviously implied ownership and maintenance responsibilities. We ultimately provided over 20 appended and referenced documents to support our opinion.
Outcome and Client Feedback
We were able to provide robust evidence to support and defend our clients’ opinions. Our clients had to appoint legal representation, and our report was used to defend that position. The matter was successfully settled without escalating legal costs or court action.
Conclusion
At Inform Surveying, our neighbourly matters services ensure that property owners comply with legal obligations and protect their interests during building projects. Our focus on clarity, precision, and proactive dispute resolution, we help clients navigate complex party wall matters with confidence.
Are you planning a property development or renovation? Contact Inform Surveying today to ensure your boundary is understood, neighbourly matters are considered and you are appraised of any necessary party wall matters to ensure they are handled with the expertise and care needed to safeguard your project.
CONTACT US
If you’d like to arrange a meeting or learn more about what we do, please email us or give us a call.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Our Office
102-103 Hague, Park Hill,
South Street, Sheffield S2 5AS
What 3 words: placed.backed.agenda
Open Office Hours
Mon-Fri : 9:00am - 5:30pm
Get in Touch
+44(0)114 321 9919
