Boundary lines just an 'indication'

Boundary lines between properties and neighbouring properties or Dunedin City Council roads are not set in stone, and people need to be sure of the issue when they buy a house.

Dunedin City Council land information team leader Rob Garrett said the council maps on its website did not define the boundaries in any authoritative sense, but provided "an indication of the location and extent of properties".

They were updated every one or two months from Land Information New Zealand's (Linz) core record system.

But that system only received updated information when surveyors were called in to survey a property, and only in certain circumstances.

Mr Garrett said the most common circumstance of that happening was when a subdivision of land was entered into the system.

Where a house had stood for many years and had no extensions or other work requiring surveys, the true boundaries could become blurred.

"They are a grey area," he said.

The true boundary was often determined on "a whole lot of evidence", such as if there was a building or fence that had been on the site for a long time, and it was not unusual for disputes to come before courts, he said.

"It can be a bit subjective."

Variations from what was shown on the council website could occur for a variety of reasons, including if the boundary was not captured as survey-accurate by Linz.

Boundaries on the map may be accurately recorded but from less reliable, older data.

There may be non-surveyed boundaries, such as lease or "diagram on transfer" boundaries, an older system no longer allowed whereby subdivision boundaries were drawn without input from surveyors.

Several thousand of those existed in Dunedin.

 

Add a Comment

 

Advertisement