Woody

[Guest]

We are buying a property in a few acres but have identified the land registry plan boundary is in a different place to the fence, by 0.21 of an acre, this is to the detriment of the property. The owner says they have lived there for 40 years without any dispute and it is up to us whether we buy it as is or not. What advice can you give please.

[des8]

I can only advise how I would approach the problem.
You are buying a few acres, so how important is this particular parcel of one fifth of an acre?
Unless it controls access, or has a watercourse you require does it matter?
I would probably just go ahead and carry on using it like the current owners.
If the registered owners suddenly woke up, I'd probably let them have it back rather than resist.
Land disputes can become expensive, and possibly not worth the stress for a comparative small piece of ground.

You could apply for adverse possession.
The procedure is different for registered and unregistered land.
The downside is that the true owners could be alerted and oppose your application and you lose the use of the land

You could search out the true owners and make an offer for the land (which they might or might not accept!)

Or you could apply to determine the boundary if you think the land registry plans are wrong.