legends · 4 min read ·
Boundary Correction
A land registry correction removes an unregistered hut from one title and gives its nine steps to the neighbour.
**Shire Land Registry — Notice of Correction (Title No. WK412098)**
**Property:** Plot 7, Ashby Lane (land and buildings) · **Date of notice:** 3 October
*The Registrar has corrected the boundary plan for Title No. WK412098 following a resurvey. The corrected plan removes an unregistered structure from the land. The title is amended accordingly.*
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**Surveyor's field notes (T. Greaves, 1 October)**
Plot 7 measured. Boundaries at north, east, and south confirmed. West boundary: fence line cannot be located. Stake marks present but unmatched to deed.
Structure visible from road: single storey, flat roof, no windows on road side. Not shown on the registered plan.
Owner (Mr. Idris) states the structure has always been there. He says it was built before the terrace, and that he has never been inside, and that he was told not to go in by his father.
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**Surveyor's field notes (T. Greaves, 2 October)**
Entered Plot 7 via rear gate, with owner's consent. Structure is a small brick hut, approximately 2.4 m square. Door on the west face, painted over. Keyhole filled with mortar.
Measured the interior from outside. Internal dimensions do not match external. Interior is shorter by approximately 1.1 m, but the door opens onto a space that has been measured at 3.2 m deep from the inside.
*Note to file: I did not open the door. I did measure the step in front of it. There are nine steps down, shallow, worn in the centre, leading to a doorway that is not in the brickwork.*
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**Registrar's correction (3 October)**
Structure identified as unregistered. Removed from title plan. Land to the west of the boundary line reassigned to adjoining property, 1 Ashby Lane (Mrs. Pell).
The correction has been filed. The structure is no longer part of Plot 7.
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**Objection (Mrs. Pell, 1 Ashby Lane, 8 October)**
*I've had a letter from the Registry saying I own a brick hut at the back of my garden that I've never seen. My neighbour says it's been on his land for forty years. I don't know who to believe.*
*Last night I went out to the bottom of the garden with a torch. The hut is there. It has no door on my side, only the blank wall with the mortar in the keyhole. But there's a smell coming from it, of wet clay and cold stone, and somewhere under the ground a noise like someone knocking softly, from the inside, on a floor that's further down than the foundations go.*
*I'm writing to object. I don't want it. Please take it back.*
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**Surveyor's field notes (T. Greaves, 12 October, return visit)**
Mrs. Pell's garden is 6 m shorter than it was on the 2nd. The western fence has been moved inward, and the original stake marks are now inside the hut's footprint.
Entered the hut's footprint from Mrs. Pell's side. The ground is soft. The nine steps are visible again, now at the back of her garden, leading down into a dark square. I could hear water moving at the bottom. Something was lying in it, very still, facing up.
I left before I could see what it was. Mrs. Pell says she has seen it every night, and that it has her face, and that it has been pressing its palm against the underside of the lawn for the last week, asking to be let up.
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**Registrar's notice (15 October)**
The boundary plan for Plot 7 and 1 Ashby Lane has been corrected a second time. The brick hut is now shown as belonging to neither property.
The Registrar has been advised that the structure has no registered owner, and that the land beneath it is not recorded on any survey. It is requested that no one enter the area until the matter is resolved.
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**Final correction notice (Shire Land Registry, 27 October)**
Title No. WK412098 has been amended. The boundary plan now shows a single property, Plot 7 and 1 Ashby Lane combined, with an additional unregistered area at the rear. The area is described as *nine steps, private, not for entry*.
Mr. Idris and Mrs. Pell are both recorded as joint owners. Neither has been able to sell.
*Surveyor's note, appended by T. Greaves: The plan is correct, and the stakes match it. Mr. Idris sold his share in January. The buyer's first survey found the brick hut filled with sand, and in the sand a sealed tin of tea, dated 1931, which the buyer kept on a shelf in the kitchen.*