The quick, simple, and final answer is no..... Head-over to our Blog Post that explains this in full. Be vary wary in situations when a neighbour says that their Surveyor has determined where the boundary is, or even some Surveyors promoting that they can give legally binding decisions. They cannot.

It is worth remembering that in the vast majority of cases, boundary matters will mostly tend to settle-down after our initial boundary appraisal, the worrying ’scare’ stories about Court cases and those costs, that you may read about on the internet or in the press, are most often where one side (or commonly both) have not taken advice early-on or have become too entrenched in their pre-conceived views. Well over 75% of the initial appraisals that we are involved in will result in the Owners reaching an amicable understanding (one side or the other realising their misunderstanding) or between them reaching reasonable compromises. Of those that do not resolve initially or quickly, then it may take exchanges of Solicitor letters to cause the parties to take on-board the situation, perhaps even both sides each having a Surveyor's appraisal. Most of those will then resolve. It is therefore rare few that will then continue to need mediation or court intervention.

Marking-out a boundary and placing boundary markers is not part of any initial appraisal work, but it might be possible at a later stage. > With boundaries, the way the Land Registration system operates, if the boundary has not previously been registered as a ‘Determined Boundary’ or registered with a ‘Boundary Agreement’, there can often be a range of opinion and often a degree of ambiguity in documents and plans. > Marking a boundary could be tantamount to, or misinterpreted as, the Surveyor "determining the boundary” : which Surveyors do not have the jurisdiction to do. Fixing the boundary as a precise point (a ‘Determined Boundary’) is for the parties to agree between them, and then should they wish to Register with Land Registry; or if that is not possible potentially for the Courts to decide. Once there is an agreement (or acceptance of the Court's decision) then markers could then be placed. This all needs assessing first, hence the scope of works we described in our initial appraisal quotations. Of course sometimes there may also be difficulties in physically being able to measure or being able to establish a fixed point to measure from - so until we have first visited we cannot be sure if that would be applicable or not.

The measuring equipment used at the initial stage might be handheld tapes and laser measuring devices… or might be none, it really depends on the reasons and any limitations that we might be presented with. You can rest assured that the Surveyor will always 'deploy' the best methods and make the most effective use of their time at the property during Initial Appraisals.

If you are asking if the Surveyor will enter the adjoining property to take measurements, we would not normally do this during an Initial Appraisal. This is for the simple reasons, not least we would have no contract with the neighbour and have no legal right of entry without a prior legal agreement or a Court Order. It is also normally the situation that you will be instructing us to report to you. You can be pretty certain that if you send us around to your neighbours side, the neighbour is going to be asking a lot of questions, and will not be impressed if we cannot discuss it with them (which we cannot, for reasons of conflicts of interest).

The equipment used for any accurate measurement will depend on the purpose of the measurement and the level of accuracy required. For example, for Land Registry Determined Boundary applications, a Total Station may be used (we have recently been deploying a Trimble S7 Total Station—optical, laser, and GPS‑controlled). However, this may not be appropriate in every situation. We may decide to utilise external consultants when different equipment is needed, as well as our in‑house expert, who will decide what equipment is most suitable.

Yes! We are currently updating our FAQs. If we can explain construction terms... we're just waiting for the finishing touches! If we've not got your question published yet with an answer, you can always email us.

Yes, and it’s an important distinction. Sometimes the issue is really about what the title documents and plans show, while in other cases it is about where features on the ground sit compared with the paperwork. We can review the available information and help you understand what type of boundary problem you are dealing with, and what options may be available next.