Investigation of Freehold Title — SQE1 practice question

A buyer is purchasing a Victorian terraced house with a narrow garden. Comparing the title plan with what he sees on the ground, he works out that the neighbour's newly built fence stands about half a metre inside the red edging on the plan. He wants his solicitor to write to the neighbour before exchange, asserting that the fence is in the wrong place and requiring it to be moved back to the line shown in red.

Can the buyer rely on the title plan to establish where the boundary lies?

Option A. Incorrect answer. Yes, because the red edging is a survey of the legal boundary prepared by the registrar.
Option B. Correct answer. No, because the red edging shows a general boundary only, for the purpose of identification.Correct
Option C. Incorrect answer. No, because a title plan is evidence of the extent of the land only once it has been enlarged.
Option D. Incorrect answer. No, because the fence has stood for long enough to have become the legal boundary.
Option E. Incorrect answer. Yes, because the plan is drawn to a scale which fixes the boundary to within half a metre.

Why

The correct answer is B. Section 60 of the Land Registration Act 2002 provides that the boundary shown by a registered title is a general boundary and does not determine the exact line unless it has been determined under the statutory procedure. Title plans are prepared from Ordnance Survey mapping to identify the land, not to survey the legal line, so a discrepancy of half a metre proves nothing at all. Where the line actually falls is a question of fact, answered from the conveyance which first divided the land, its plan and measurements, and the features on the ground. The solicitor should not write the letter: the sensible steps are an enquiry of the seller, and then a boundary agreement, an application to determine the exact boundary, or indemnity insurance.

A is incorrect because the registrar carries out no survey of boundaries; that is exactly what the general boundaries rule reflects. C is incorrect because enlarging a plan adds no precision that was never in it, and is expressly not a way of establishing the boundary. D is incorrect because a fence does not become the boundary merely by standing somewhere, and this one is new. E is incorrect because the point is the nature of the boundary shown, not the scale to which the plan is drawn.

Why