Boundary Issue

[BlueJuice]

Hi All i hope you can advise me.
About 14 years ago my brother and i we given a piece of land. This was then equally divided in two halves. My brother decided he wanted to build on his half of the land. Fours years ago he sold his house, to my new neighbor.
I have now decided it is time that i build a house on my half of the land. Naturally there have been a few issues with the new neighbor which have almost been resolved.
However during these issues it turns out that a piece of the building is actually on my land. Now the question is this:
a) is there a statute of limitations ie i would have had to raise any objections within 10 years of the building being build?
b) am i now entitled to some sort of compensation? Either monetary or to have a piece of land of equal size.
Any advise would be great
Many thanks
Mat

[buildersmate]

OK, I have experience of a very similar issue. I'll describe this first.
Land purchased was unregistered at LR in 2002. So first registration on transfer applied. LR butted the red line they show on the title plan against the neighbouring property that had been registered some 20 years earlier, using a very sketchy plan from deeds going back a century. There is no disagreement between neighbours about where physical boundary lies, and there are no obvious features on the ground to more precisely align the legal boundary to physical boundary. As you may know, LR do not warrant that boundaries on plans can be scaled from, they are called General Boundaries, unless a different surveying process is used to agree Exact Boundaries. New owner builds house and garage, with garage about one metre from agreed physical boundary. 7 years later LR write to say that using their aerial mapping techniques, garage shows as projecting into other plot by a triangle on a corner, about one metre by three metres.

LR seems to refuse to comment on the accuracy of their aerial scaling techniques but it seems likely they can now map accurately to within 0.5m, whereas in the past it was probably 2 metres accuracy. They do not seem to get alarmed unless a permanent structure straddles the boundary - which of course they track from updated aerial photos.

Ways of Resolution: there is no statute of period of limitation for this. It it will always cause a problem if your neighbour attempts to sell (because buying conveyancer will find it), and it will probably hinder you selling for the same reason.
You hold the whip hand, so you might wish to propose a solution.
In my opinion, (but this does not constitute advice), options are:
A deed of rectification where you just agree the legal boundary is in the wrong place, and agree to change it. No money changes hands but there is an LR fee.
A transfer of a piece of land of a described shape and size clearing the problem area of encroachment, for a consideration of £1 upwards. You could name your price, but don't get greedy.
A transfer of a larger piece of land whereby you give him the problem area in exchange for land of similar area somewhere else in his garden.
If you want to maintain relations, I'd go for the latter. It was no-one's fault, a bit like my case study above.

[Old_Geezer]

Interesting answer. I may start a thread about a similar problem someone I know has. I thought there was a 10 year limit.

[BlueJuice]

Thank you Buildersmate. I appreciate your feedback. I also though that there was not statue of 10 years. i dont want to be greedy or anything. i just want it settled like you say.I would like some more feedback from any one else.

[buildersmate]

OG
You may be thinking 10 years because you know about adverse possession. This is not about physical possession on the ground. There is not a disagreement between owners about physical position on the ground. This is about the LR saying their mapping techniques show there is a discrepancy between their analysis based on OS, and what is on the ground.