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Boundary disputes can range from minor to major and they may affect freehold or leasehold houses of varying sizes and types. Having an active boundary fight at your house can result in extra barriers that you’ll have to overcome when trying to sell the property, but getting a fast and competitive offer from a buyer is still feasible by following a few straightforward steps.
- What is a boundary dispute at a freehold or leasehold house?
- How a boundary dispute can complicate the sale of your house
- Your legal duty when selling your property with a boundary dispute
- Can you resolve a boundary dispute before selling your house?
- Options to find a buyer for your property with a boundary dispute
- Frequently asked questions about selling a house with a boundary dispute
What is a boundary dispute at a freehold or leasehold house?
For many leasehold and freehold houses in England and Wales, there might not be any formal record of the precise boundaries that define the property you own and what the neighbour owns, as the UK government’s website says.
The boundary of a property is used to try and establish the perimeters of a house, meaning the land on which it was constructed. It can also cover important aspects of property ownership that might be uncertain, such as which of two neighbours owns a fence, hedge, tree or wall that exists between two houses, and various other disputes related to the homes’ boundaries.
Although it can be hard to track down specific boundaries for properties in England and Wales, the title plan for most houses should give a general idea of the accepted boundaries. This can be useful in trying to fix any fights that might occur over the extent of the boundaries.
Unfortunately, boundary disputes can happen and they can range from minor to major. They occur when one neighbour disagrees with the other about a boundary that might have shifted over the years, or they think they own some of your land and you don’t agree, or one of almost countless other disputes that can occur over the boundaries between two homes.
Whatever your type of property – whether it’s a bungalow, two-storey house, detached home or any other variety – there are specific complications that can arise with trying to sell it, if you have a boundary dispute ongoing with a neighbour over any part of the property.
This guide will walk you through the potential negative issues that you could encounter with trying to sell a house that has a boundary dispute, as well as suggesting some actions that you could take in order to increase your chances of a buyer still making a speedy and fair offer.
How a boundary dispute can complicate the sale of your house
If you are planning on selling your house but there’s a current boundary dispute, it’s crucial to learn about how this type of fight might create complications in the selling process.
Boundary disputes can be a prominent concern for potential buyers, as the website for law firm BLB Solicitors explains. Someone interested in purchasing your home might worry about the time, stress and potential cost that could be involved with taking on the dispute as the next owner.
If the fight cannot be resolved before you attempt to sell the house, then you might have to accept missing out on those buyers who would consider such a dispute to be a dealbreaker.
As you’ll see in the next section of this guide, you must disclose a boundary dispute to potential buyers who show an interest in making an offer on your house. Be prepared that disclosing the information about a boundary fight could prompt some buyers to completely lose interest.
A later section of this guide will also explain your options for attempting to resolve a boundary dispute before trying to sell your house, but you should also know that this kind of effort can take a very long time, and it may therefore significantly delay the sale of your property – which is far from ideal for those owners who want to sell their home as quickly as they can.
Your legal duty when selling your property with a boundary dispute
When you have an active boundary dispute with a neighbour at your leasehold or freehold house, it might be tempting to try and keep this a secret from potential buyers, with the hope that you can quietly complete the sale of your house without alerting the neighbour.
Your goal with such an approach would be to avoid any situation where a problem neighbour makes the dispute known to any potential buyers that visit your property on viewings. Or you might be thinking about concealing this information from people interested in your home, because you believe that a boundary dispute could make it harder to sell the property.
Regardless of your intent, you must not withhold from prospective buyers the fact of an ongoing boundary dispute, because it’s your legal duty do disclose this information to them, as the website for the law firm Stephensons Solicitors notes.
As part of the home selling process you will be required to fill out a Property Information Form, also called a TA6 form, with which you are mandated to provide honest answers to a long list of questions about your property. One of the questions will be "Have there been any disputes or complaints regarding this property or a property nearby?" and you must answer truthfully.
If you know about a current boundary dispute with your property and you fail to inform a buyer, whether through the TA6 form or any other means, the buyer could sue you once they take ownership of the house and discover that the boundary dispute exists. This could result in you facing significant penalties, so it’s never advised to try and hide this situation from buyers.
Can you resolve a boundary dispute before selling your house?
When you’re preparing to sell your leasehold or freehold house, you should take some time to think about whether you’d like to try and fix the boundary fight before looking for a buyer.
If you would like to attempt resolving the boundary dispute before selling your house, there are a few options that you could pursue, as the website for Quittance Legal Services details.
The most direct, and hopefully simplest, way to try and fix the fight would be by informally approaching your neighbour to discuss whether there’s the possibility to reach a solution. This could involve the two of you reaching a formal written agreement on defining the boundaries of your properties, and that they would commit to following with whoever buys your house.
If such talks fail to produce a resolution to the boundary dispute, or your neighbour outright refuses to engage in such negotiations, you could consider legal action to reach a conclusion. The goal of litigation would be a court order that would define the boundary being disputed.
But proceeding with legal action can be a very lengthy and costly process, and there’s also no guarantee that you will succeed in getting an order that benefits your point of view – your neighbour could end up with an order stating their view of the boundary is the correct one. It’s an expensive and slow gamble, particularly if you’re trying to sell your home swiftly.
For those property owners who would like to proceed immediately with trying to find a buyer for their house and not resolve the boundary dispute first, you also have options. Do not worry that the boundary dispute will make selling your home impossible, because that is not the case.
The next section of this guide will elaborate on quick home buyers, but they could be one solution because these are companies that can complete the purchase of most properties within a handful of weeks. They are also skilled at buying so-called problem homes such as houses that have active boundary disputes, and the honest companies will never charge sellers any fees.
Options to find a buyer for your property with a boundary dispute
At the time that you’re ready to sell your freehold or leasehold house with a boundary dispute, you will need to select from one of four approaches for finding a buyer – selling at an auction, selling to a quick home buyer, selling with an estate agent or selling on your own.
There are pros and cons linked with each of the methods, for example you could be waiting more than an entire year when attempting to sell your property without any third party help. But if you sell your home to an honest no-fee home buying company like LDN Properties then you won’t have to pay any commission, which will help to reduce your overall selling expenses.
To find the best method for your unique situation, you should write down your top aims with selling, such as your preferred sale price, the amount of time that you are willing to wait to find a buyer, and how much commission, if any, you can accept paying. Then compare these details against the specifics of the options below to discover which one best matches your needs.
Selling at an auction
The first way to sell your property with a boundary dispute is through an auction, where you’ll choose a reserve price – which is the lowest value at which you agree to sell your home – and then people will place bids at that amount and then at increasing price levels. The highest price bid at the time the auction ends is the winner and the buyer of your property.
There is a lot of waiting involved with selling any type of home at an auction, including a delay of many weeks or longer between when you decide to list your property for sale and when the auction takes place. And if your home sells at the auction, the winning top bidder then has an average of 28 days to finalise their paperwork and complete their other required tasks. If you are looking for the fastest approach for selling a home, you should consider other methods.
Auctioneers will however help reduce the stress of selling somewhat, because they’ll take care of most of the work involved, starting with producing and advertising a listing that features photographs of the interior and exterior of your home, along with descriptions of its main elements, and then hosting the auction and overseeing the completion of a successful sale.
But auctioneers will also charge commission for putting in all of this effort, and usually they charge this at a rate of around 2.5 percent of your home’s final sale price in the auction. This will boost your selling expenses, because the fee will be subtracted from the eventual sale proceeds.
Just remember that a qualifying bid on your home is considered a legally binding agreement for you to sell your home to that bidder, and they could sue you to enforce the sale if you try to walk away from it. That’s why it’s important for you to calculate a reserve price for your property that would not only pay the auctioneer’s fees but also ideally leave you with a decent profit.
You might be able to negotiate certain aspects of the selling process with some auctioneers, for example having them set a shorter deadline for the buyer to complete their tasks or having the winning high bidder pay some of your selling fees, so it’s worth asking about this possibility. Just beware that some companies might charge even higher fees or set even longer deadlines.
Selling to a quick home buyer
Selling with an estate agent
A third option for selling your house that has a boundary dispute is using an estate agent. They will handle most of the important tasks involved with trying to find a buyer, such as creating and marketing a listing, organising any viewings to give prospective buyers a tour of your property, and fielding offers from buyers, hopefully taking a serious offer through to exchanging contracts.
For doing all of this work, the typical estate agent will charge sellers commission within a range of 1.15 percent to 1.40 percent of a property’s final sale price. This will raise your net selling expenses because the commission will be subtracted immediately from the sale proceeds. If you’re looking to cut costs when selling then you should review some of the other methods.
Selling with an estate agent can also be a very slow process, and you should not be surprised if your home remains unsold for many months, or even more than a full year.
And even in a situation where you’re able to get a serious offer from a buyer, they could decide to cancel the offer and abandon the purchase without facing any penalties, so long as contracts have not yet been exchanged. If this occurs, you’ll have to begin again with trying to find another buyer for your house, which could add many more months to the total timeline.
Selling on your own
A fourth approach for selling a leasehold or freehold house that has a boundary dispute would be doing so without any assistance – this means you will have the sole responsibility for creating a listing, advertising it, scheduling viewings and hearing offers from potential buyers.
The only clear advantage of selling this way is that you won’t have to pay any commission to a third party such as an auctioneer or an estate agent. But the cost saving you might make avoiding those fees could be eliminated by your other expenses with selling the property.
This can also be a time-consuming and stressful way to sell a house, and if you have zero experience with selling properties then it might take you more than a full year to find a buyer. That’s why you should only really consider this method if you have sold a home with a boundary dispute before, or have an experienced friend or family member who can help for free.
If you are determined to avoid fees when selling but would like a stress-free and much faster alternative, you should get in touch with LDN Properties or another quick home buying company. They will commit to not charging you any commission when purchasing your property, and they’ll have the added benefit of being able to complete the entire process within a few short weeks, and that covers the key steps of exchanging contracts and paying you the proceeds. It’s a much speedier and less stressful option than trying to sell on your own.
Top queries and answers about selling a house with a boundary dispute
Homeowners thinking of selling quickly can have some questions to be answered, ranging from the types of property that can be sold through to selling without a garden. Here are some of the key questions we’re sometimes asked about selling a house with a boundary dispute:
Your top questions when selling a house with a boundary dispute
Boundaries for properties in England and Wales are not always clearly defined, but knowing the legal perimeters of the land on which your house was built is important for any disputes you might have with a neighbour over a fence, hedge, tree or wall, or work you’d like to do on the land. If this kind of fight is ongoing and unresolved, you have a boundary dispute.
Yes, a boundary dispute by itself should not prevent you legally from being able to look for buyers for your leasehold or freehold house. However, there are certain obstacles to selling that can be created as a result of a boundary dispute, and you might find that these either reduce which selling options are available or will otherwise complicate the process of finding a buyer.
If there’s an ongoing boundary dispute at your property, some potential buyers might lose interest in making an offer on the home. They could be worried about purchasing a house and having to deal with the boundary fight as the next owner, and their concerns about the money, stress and time that they may involve could be enough to be a dealbreaker for them.
Yes, you are legally required to tell possible buyers about boundary disputes as part of your TA6 form, also known as a Property Information Form, where you’ll have to answer many questions about a wide range of issues at your property. A buyer could sue you if you fail to tell them about a boundary dispute and then they discover it once they own the home.
You can try to resolve boundary disputes before attempting to seek a buyer for your leasehold or freehold home, and the best way to start is by approaching your neighbour informally and seeing if you can reach a resolution. If you are unable to reach an agreement but you want to resolve the fight before selling, you might have to consider pursuing legal action.
Depending on the method that you use to find a buyer, you might not have to pay any fees. If you sell your property to a no-fee quick property buying company like LDN Properties, or you sell without getting any third party help, then you won’t pay any commission. But estate agents and auctioneers will charge you fees that will be deducted from the final sale proceeds.
If you choose to sell your house using an estate agent, an auctioneer or selling without any assistance then you can expect the process to take at least several months, and possibly longer. But if you contact LDN Properties or another quick home buying company, you should be able to complete the process of selling your house within a handful of weeks.
