Counting the Cost of a Boundary Dispute
A recent decision of the First-Tier Tribunal is a sobering reminder that disputes over the precise line of a boundary are slow, expensive, and far from certain in their outcome, and that the party who loses will usually be ordered to pay for both sides. Few disagreements turn neighbours into adversaries as quickly as an argument about where one property ends and the next begins. The strip of land at the heart of such a dispute is often small, sometimes only a few feet wide, yet the feelings it generates, and the costs it can run up, are anything but small. The recent case of Cunningham v Holehouse [2026] UKFTT 00771 (PC) illustrates the point with unusual clarity. It deserves to be read by anyone tempted to take a boundary disagreement to a formal determination, because it shows how a confident and apparently well documented case can still fail, and how much that failure can cost. A dispute over a strip of land The case concerned a narrow strip of land at the rear of a property n...
