What Is A Boundary Line?

[jjbinks 0]

Hi all,

Just asking what is a boundary line, because I saw a layout drawing which shows the boundary line further away from the house's rear fence. Thx.

--------- Boundary line

---------|Rear fence

(2M rear setback)

---------|Rear wall

[yoongf 11]

boundary line indicates the border of YOUR land.

Sometimes.. it is not possible to put the fence on the boundary line. for example.. there is a shared drain with the neighbour behind.

[jjbinks 0]

boundary line indicates the border of YOUR land.

Sometimes.. it is not possible to put the fence on the boundary line. for example.. there is a shared drain with the neighbour behind.

Thanks yoongf. I need to do some checking, if not the land is wasted. Will update later.

[Lauer 15]

Thanks yoongf. I need to do some checking, if not the land is wasted. Will update later.

This is a subject that an owner could encounter when rebuilding a landed, especially where it is located in older landed housing estate. So, I would add my thoughts here; other please comment if there is anything incorrect written.

I would think that, where an existing house is constructed with the boundary line beyond the rear fence, the owner should attempt to repossess the land between the rear fence and the boundary line. Otherwise, after a number of years this area could well be possessed by your back neighbor without having to pay a compensation (if my understanding of the relevant law is correct).

In this situation (although without the benefit of the measurements), the owner has two options:

- Appy to extend the rear fence to the boundary line. In this case, the open public drain would of course come inside his landed area (it has been in this first place), so his side walls flanking the nighbors' would have side gates allowing PUB access, which is a PUB requirement. (However, I have seen houses where these side walls are without the side gates and I don't know if the owners sealed the walls after a PUB inspection.)

I would think that conceptually it is still possible to extend the back wall when the public drain is also shared with the back neighbor, assuming that the land is continuous without a drop.

There is a bylaw controlling where the rear wall and the rear fence should be constructed in this case, in term of the distance from the public drain.

- Apply to reroute the drain to connect with the house's RWDP (Rain Water Down Pipe). To illustrate, assuming that the water in the public drain runs from left to right of the landed, the public drain that ends at the left neighbor's boundary wall is connected to the RWDP. So, effectively the existing public drain is eliminated. However, by doing so, the owner bears the risk of a choke that would require the opening up to access the concealed RWDP, for PUB to clear the choke.

Therefore, this approach is considered only if the house is the corner unit where the public drain originates.

Your architect would be able to advise in more details these options.

Cheers!

[jjbinks 0]

Thanks for your advice Lauer!

[3Cube 9]

Thanks for your advice Lauer!

In case of intermediate terrace (ie left & right of house with party wall sharing with neigbhour) & assume this to be a 3 storey.

Your building front will need set back 7.5 meters from boundary & the rear will be 3 meters (2 meters of 2 storey).

If it's a semi D with one side party wall then the side with the garden or turfing will need setback of 2 meters.

From this you will be able to get an idea of your possible built in area

[jjbinks 0]

Thanks to all for your advice. I've checked with the architect and builder, the boundary line is indeed part of the property. The reason why the owners didn't build a wall/fence on the boundary line was due to it being at the bottom of a slope. so I guess to save money (levelling it up with earth), they just left the fence as is (just at the top edge of the slope).