Party walls and boundaries
A hedge is being treated as the boundary and it was not measured. Why can the survey not award that hedge to either house?
The survey cannot award the hedge to either house because a hedge is not a measured legal boundary and this one was not measured. People may treat the hedge as the line, but title is a documents question. The visit can describe a hedge on the ground. It cannot decide which owner it belongs to, where the legal line sits inside it, or that the growth and the boundary are the same thing. No award of the hedge was made.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Hedges thicken, lean and get replanted, so the green face you see can drift from the line on a plan. Measuring a stem on the day still would not transfer ownership, and the surveyor did not even do that measurement. Land Registry records and the deeds are the route to the boundary, and they are separate from a home survey. Treating the hedge as the boundary in conversation does not make the report a judgment. The survey leaves the hedge unawarded.
Ask the solicitor to compare the title plan with the hedge and to raise any mismatch in the usual enquiries. Do not ask the survey to pick a side. A lender may want the boundary papers clear, which is a legal task. The report’s refusal to award the hedge is the correct limit. Any later measured survey of the line, if you commission one, is a different instruction.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Where is the hedge described, and against which plan?
- What measurement of the hedge was not done?
- Which sentence refuses to award it to either house?
What are the typical next steps?
- Leave the hedge unawarded in the survey.
- Ask the solicitor to compare the title plan with the ground.
- Do not treat garden conversation as a boundary award.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Does maintaining the hedge award it to that house?
No. Cutting a hedge does not decide who owns it, and this survey did not measure it or award it. Maintenance can be a practical habit while the legal line sits somewhere else. Ask the solicitor to use the title documents. The report only records a hedge that was not measured and was not given to either house.
Can a fence post inside the hedge settle the line?
A post inside the hedge is another feature on the ground, not a title award. The survey did not measure the hedge and did not decide the boundary. Posts can be put in the wrong place. The solicitor compares the plan and the deeds. This visit has not awarded the hedge, the post, or the gap between them.