Obligation to proceed to court after issuing Letter Before Action?

[Chickenbrick]

We have issued a letter before action via a solicitors in the hope this would help resolve a boundary issue. The other party have responded and despite further communications being exchanged we are still in dispute. We have suggested either a joint boundary survey or mediation as a form of resolution, but they are demanding we provide survey and expert witness reports as we initiated the LBA and either commence legal proceedings or withdraw our LBA.

Are we under any obligation to proceed or bound by any other timescales since we issued the LBA?

[Pezza54]

You are under no obligation to proceed with litigation. A letter before action should offer alternative dispute resolution (ADR). You have contacted the other party suggesting mediation and a land survey.
The other party has refused your offer to try to resolve the dispute before court action and may face legal costs as a sanction for this refusal
There is no set time limit for a party to start a court claim but it makes sense to do it within a reasonable time

[Chickenbrick]

The other party have now set a deadline for us to provide a surveyors report despite themselves only providing a title plan overlaid on an aerial image (scale 1:2500). they are claiming we are not following pre-action protocols as our evidence is not sufficient. What level of evidence is considered appropriate to exchange prior to initiating court proceedings?

We have now approached our household legal insurance and are waiting for a response to confirm if they will take on our case, if we do not receive this confirmation by the deadline can this be seen as not responding in a timely matter if this proceeds to court.

We are very conscious of the costs and timescales involved with court and had hoped that the LBA would be sufficient to help resolve this, but I guess we may need to make a decision if we can continue,

[Pezza54]

IMO you could write another letter repeating your request for ADR. The court would look favourably on a delay between LBA and commencement of proceedings whilst attempts are made to resolve the dispute without or before litigation.
You should ignore their deadline. Chase your insurance company for a decision

[atticus]

If you say you will take action and then do not follow through, that may adversely affect your credibility in any future dealings.