Disputes in this area include competing ownership claims over the same parcel, boundary disagreements between neighboring properties, and discrepancies between a title deed and the actual registered survey or land registry record.
Resolving these often requires working directly with the land registry and, where the dispute doesn't resolve administratively, pursuing the matter through the courts.
Verifying a title deed's accuracy against the land registry before a transaction, and promptly registering any changes in ownership or boundaries, meaningfully reduces the risk of a dispute surfacing later. This verification is the same first step our real estate & property law practice applies to every transaction.
Where a dispute has already arisen, this practice assesses the strength of the underlying registration and ownership documentation to determine the best path to resolving it.
Land inherited by multiple heirs is often left informally divided for years — family members agreeing verbally on who gets which portion without ever formally registering that division through the land registry — an arrangement that works fine until one heir wants to sell, mortgage, or develop their portion and discovers there's no formal registration reflecting the agreed split.
We help families formalize inherited land divisions properly through registration, since an informal agreement, however genuinely understood and respected within the family, provides none of the legal protection a properly registered division does the moment a third party, a creditor, or a disagreeing family member is involved. The heirs' underlying shares are settled through our inheritance & estates practice.
Boundary disputes frequently arise because the original survey underlying a title deed was imprecise, outdated, or based on physical markers that have since shifted or disappeared entirely — meaning the paper record itself can be part of the problem rather than the solution, and comparing two neighboring title deeds against each other doesn't always resolve which boundary line is actually correct on the ground.
In these situations, we often recommend a fresh, independent survey conducted specifically to establish accurate boundaries, since a professionally surveyed and properly registered boundary line resolves the dispute in a way that arguing over decades-old paper records frequently cannot. Survey evidence is presented through our expert testimony framework where the dispute reaches court.
We can review the competing claims against the land registry and title documentation to assess the strength of your position and the appropriate next steps.
This typically involves comparing the registered surveys for both properties and, where needed, an independent survey to establish the accurate boundary.
This kind of discrepancy needs to be resolved with the land registry directly, and we can represent you through that process to correct the record.
Yes, ideally as soon as possible — an informal division offers no legal protection once a sale, mortgage, or disagreement involves a third party, so formal registration is worth doing even if the family agreement has worked fine so far.
Yes, this is common — original surveys can be imprecise or based on markers that have since shifted, and a fresh independent survey is often the most reliable way to actually resolve the disagreement.
This can create a genuine ownership dispute, since the sale isn't backed by a properly registered division — we can help assess the situation and the strongest path to resolving it.
Expert Riyadh