What every property owner should know - a useful guide from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) on how to reinstate a boundary following flood damage and where you can go for advice.
Floods typically destroy established fences and boundary features. Post flood repairs and damage assessments can often highlight the difficulties of reinstating the line of the legal boundary. Establishing the boundary line of your property ownership is one of the first steps of making a property a home again as it helps to define a person's sense of place and belonging.
RICS has prepared a list of simple instructions to follow when the clean-up operation begins to assist in making the reinstatement dispute free.
RICS spokesperson Andrew Thompson "When you come back to your property after a major environmental event such as a flood things will look and feel very different. This sense of change will affect not only you but also your neighbour making the task of reinstatement of the legal boundary line difficult. The key to a swift return to normality will be communication between the parties and trust. Therefore do not rush or jump to assumptions on the boundary line when you return without talking with your neighbour. Domestic boundary disputes are emotionally intense and after the pain of a major flood the use of and sensible assistance of an expert surveyor can help avoid dispute. This will assist all parties to get back to normal relationships even when communication is already strained between the parties."
