Mr & Mrs Howarth were returning from a wonderful holiday in the Greek islands. As they drove from the airport to their home in Esher they couldn’t wait to download their photos and email them to their daughter in Canada.
They wondered if the plants in the garden had gone berserk in their absence and whether the paper-boy had remembered not to deliver the papers. They turned into their road, a quiet respectable cul-de-sac (known to all as "the Close"), and suddenly the calmness and serenity generated by their holiday was stripped away by what they saw. Their neighbours, Mr & Mrs Daniels, had put a new fence up and it looked, even from a distance, as though it was on the Howarth’s property. Bushes and plants had been trampled on and the new fence looked ugly and intrusive in a colour that was garish and out of keeping with the Close.
Mr Howarth, his face now bright red, got out of his car, strode up to the Daniels’ front door and confronted Mr Daniels. A brief but acrimonious argument followed, resulting in threats of "See you in Court!" and "I’ll tear it down!".
Mr Howarth did not tear the fence down… instead he drank several shots of his most treasured malt whisky while Mrs Howarth unpacked. He then rang his solicitor and arranged to see him the very next morning.
Sitting opposite his solicitor he was dismayed to hear that boundary disputes are often terribly expensive for the parties involved and can end up in the County Court where a Judge has got to try and define the boundary and apportion the costs of the case. His solicitor advised the Howarths to instruct a chartered surveyor, specialising in boundary demarcation, to measure-up the property and prepare a boundary report.
One week later the chartered surveyor turned up and, during coffee, explained again to the Howarths that boundary demarcation is not an exact science; the deeds may be inconclusive, the original boundary features may never have been in the right place from the start and the Land Registry plans are only approximate. Gloom descended over the Howarths as it sunk in that the chartered surveyor might not be able to resolve the matter in the way that they wanted. The surveyor explained that, once he had completed his measurements, it might be possible to approach Mr and Mrs Daniels and see if there was any room for compromise. This could only be done if the Howarth’s solicitor was happy for the surveyor to make this attempt. The Howarth’s phoned the solicitor who was only too pleased for the surveyor to try to resolve the matter whilst retaining expert status in case the compromise approach did not work.
Three hours later the surveyor had completed the electronic measurements and downloaded the results onto a laptop computer. The results were, as suspected, rather vague. It appeared that the Howarths were right in some places and wrong in others. The differences were matters of just centimetres. Having explained this state of affairs to Mr and Mrs Howarth, the surveyor knocked on Mr and Mrs Daniels’ door and asked if he could have half-an-hour of their time. Although guarded at first, the Daniels soon warmed to the open and frank manner of the surveyor and were relieved to hear that some sort of compromise was possible. It transpired that they had instructed some fencing contractors to put the fence up while they went out for the day and when they returned they were horrified to find that the fence seemed to be slightly out of line, was a very raw colour and that the Howarths’ plants had been trampled on. Before they could explain to their neighbours, Mr Howarth had marched round and confronted Mr Daniels and things had gone from bad to worse.
After several to-and-fro sessions, the surveyor, using patience and persistence in accordance with what had been taught on an RICS "Neighbourhood Disputes" seminar, was able to broker a compromise whereby the fence could stay where it was, the Daniels would have it painted in a colour to be selected by the Howarths and the trampled plants would be replaced and paid for by Mr and Mrs Daniels. The surveyor even got the two sets of previously warring neighbours to shake hands.
Chartered surveyors, trained in the intricacies of boundary demarcation and using patience and understanding, can often solve disputes at an early stage, at a fraction of the cost of going to Court. Being non-confrontational and independent, chartered surveyors regularly break the deadlock in such disputes. They know that a problem discussed over a cup of tea (or four!) is nearly always one that can be solved.
