When neighbours fall out over the boundary line between their properties, things can escalate out of all proportion, as a recent case shows. In it a legal argument over a two-foot strip of land has left a mother and son facing massive costs after the Court of Appeal ruled against them.
The dispute arose because their neighbour wanted to put up a fence on what he considered to be the dividing line between the two properties. Were the fence to be built, they would no longer have room to open the car doors when they parked beside their house.
The neighbours disagreed as to which ‘line’ on the property plan was the correct boundary. In a complex ruling, the court, ruled that the fence could be built because the neighbour had acquired title to the land by adverse possession (‘squatter’s rights’).