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MarcinST's avatar
MarcinST
Tuning in
12 months ago
Solved

Green cabinet on property land

Hi, I'm in the process of buying a house and there is a VM cabinet on the property's land. As far as I know, the previous owners of the house never gave permission for the installation. Please can someone advise what I need to do to move this cabinet to another location on public land?

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    12 months ago

    Nope not necessarily. It just means that they weren't drawn on the plan when it was made. On my own property deeds it mentions the 'T' bars defining the boundary but my site map shows no 'T' bars at all and the deeds note that no 'T' bars were ever drawn in.

    You could try contacting your local highways authority (assuming the roads around your house are adopted roads) to find out where the highway boundary lies but they are likely to charge for the service.

    I am not a solicitor so the above is nothing more than a personal opinion. Speak to your solicitor about all of this for proper advice and what to do to investigate and resolve.

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  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    12 months ago

    Your second photo shows what looks like the cover of another utility company. You want that moved also?

    I'm inclined to think that the wall was built where the owner believed that boundary is, and what you've got is council-owned land up to the carriageway edge and available for the public to walk on it (especially as there is no pavement). And it's probably the council which has been cutting the grass on that verge.

    That cabinet might have been installed 20-30 years ago and maintained ever since. Even if it's on your land the fact that the land has been accessed for such a a long time possibly gives the council and VM reason the claim of adverse possession or prescriptive easement due to lack of objection from the property owner. Of course I'm not a lawyer let alone someone who can make accurate comments on what could be an area of complex land law, but I really don't think you should be pursuing this as you can spend a lot of time and money for no reward.

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    12 months ago

    The red line on plan includes a piece of tarmac surfaced pavement. 

    Perhaps you assuming the maintenance of the tarmac pavement as well as the grassed area outside
    of the boundary wall are to become your responsibility on taking over this property.

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta
      12 months ago
      Client62 wrote:

      The red line on plan includes a piece of tarmac surfaced pavement. 

      Perhaps you assuming the maintenance of the tarmac pavement as well as the grassed area outside
      of the boundary wall are to become your responsibility on taking over this property.

      I thought that too originally. My interpretation is that the red line skirts the edge of the tarmac (nearest the customer's wall) in photo #1 and #3 and splits the grass area in two along its length.

      The limitations of the red line are emphasised when the plan makes it look like the grass is equally divided in two along its length compared with the tarmac. Photo #1 and #3 makes it look more like 60/40 or 70/30 (notwithstanding any trick of the camera angle).

      After looking at the drawing further, I think that the plan is actually the setting out drawing for the site (showing drainage for the roads too by the look of it) so the red line may simply show the house plot at time of setting out (possibly the numbers circled?).

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    12 months ago

    My interpretation of the red line is that, on the left, it marks the edge of the carriageway and around the corner. Although possible I think this boundary line is uncommon especially as there is no pavement. It's possible that the Land Registry holds additional documents related to your property which might indicate where the boundary lies.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    12 months ago

    The Land Registry don't store documents. It's not their job. 

    They register ownership of properties but they make it very clear that the boundaries on their maps are not definitive.

    The local authority/council will have detailed maps of the streets and pavements to record the location of all the utilities. These maps will show where the council believes their own boundaries are, and would be a good place to look.

    Those red lines have no legal standing. The Land Registry says so. 

  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person
    12 months ago

    To me it makes no sense that a wall (which looks original to when the property was built) has been built so far inside what is supposedly the boundary of the property. The HFC cabinet is also part of the original franchise build, so will have been installed at least 30 years ago.