Establishing The Boundaries Of Your Plot #Ask The Architect

Here's an interesting one. How do you establish the boundaries of a plot?

A quick tip is that the red line or thick line on your Title Deed often relates to markers on an Ordinance Survey plan. These are typically visible on site. You need to be aware that in our experience Ordinance Survey Plans can be inaccurate ie I have at times seen them being out by 700mm. It's quite excessive isn't it?

Solicitors always panic about getting the correct title plan shown however the reality is the 1:1250 scale on a Title Plan really is not sufficient to accurately locate a boundary on site particularly if the site is in the middle of a field.

What prompted this post was simply that I have returned from a site where a field was being carved into 3 plots all of equal width. Or so we thought. The 1st plot is built and the boundary line is established and correct to the title, however when we measure our Client's title it would appear that the plot owner immediately adjacent has positioned his timber post 800mm into our site. I have measured this several times in both directions across the site and checked the overall outline dimensions of all 3 plots and there is no doubt about it, the adjacent plot is incorrectly defined. So what to do now?

Well as an Architect I often need to remember that I am dealing with my Client's future neighbours therefor a polite call asking for a brief meeting on site and mentioning (without being inflamatory) where I thought the problem lay is sufficient to get all parties out to site to discuss.

Remember if you are scaling from a 1:1250 Title Plan it is very easy to be 100mm out. Always seek professional advice.