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Property boundary maps

OS Partners sell large-scale maps to use for planning permission. For details on legal boundaries, contact HM Land Registry.

OS maps don't show legal property boundaries or ownership of physical features. Our remit is to survey and map the physical features on the ground at the time of survey, not to provide maps showing property boundaries.

To get maps of a house or other property for planning permission and/or submission to HM Land Registry, you can find and contact an OS Partner

If you want to record the exact boundary between your property and your neighbour, you should speak to your neighbour to agree this informally and agree who has responsibility for the fence/hedge/wall.

If this isn’t possible, you and your neighbour can create a boundary agreement to record:

  • The boundary between two properties.
  • Who’s responsible for maintaining a hedge, wall, tree or fence between two properties.

Or

If you disagree on where the boundary or responsibility lies, you can find further information on the Gov.uk website, which includes advice on contacting a chartered surveyor and/or obtaining legal help.

If you're trying to determine who owns an area of land or where a legal boundary exists, you'll need to contact HM Land Registry.

 

HM Land Registry's role in recording boundaries

HM Land Registry will show the extent of the land in a registered title by a red line on the title plan. Where a boundary of the land is not defined by a physical feature on the Ordnance Survey map, HM Land Registry indicates it on the title plan by a dotted line.

England and Wales operates a 'general boundaries' system of land registration. A title plan with 'general boundaries' shows the boundary of a property in relation to a given physical feature on the ground such as a wall or hedge as identified on the Ordnance Survey map at the time the survey was carried out.

The red edging on a HM Land Registry title plan is therefore not definitive as to the precise position of the boundaries. For this reason, official copies of title plans carry the following warning:

This title plan shows the general position of the boundaries: it does not show the exact line of the boundaries. Measurements scaled from this plan may not match measurements between the same points on the ground.

This is a clear statement that HM Land Registry is unable to tell you precisely where a property boundary is located.

 

Questions about land registration

For more information about HM Land Registry plans please see HM Land Registry's property boundaries page.

Property boundaries FAQs