Another Application of Doctrine of Encroachment

In Lee Bing Cheung v Secretary for Justice [2013] HCA 1092/2010, the Plaintiff claimed against the Defendant for declaratory reliefs and damages in respects of the Government Land on the ground of (a) adverse possession, (b) encroachment for the benefit of the Government qua landlord (i.e. doctrine of encroachment), and/or (c) proprietary estoppel.

Extrinsic Evidence must be Probative

In Ali v Lane & Anr [2006] EWCA Civ 1532, the parties came up with three possible lines and asked the Court to decide which was the right one. The Court chose one, in large part in reliance on evidence which was external to the actual conveyancing documents.

Interpretation of Conveyance Described by Small Scale Plan

In Cameron v Boggiano & Anor [2012] EWCA Civ 157, the property purchased by the claimant in the terms of the contract was a unit/building at No 7 Choumert Mews coloured pink and the adjoining courtyard area in front of it coloured blue on a plan. The plan was in the form of a magnification of a former Ordnance Survey map and based on and scaled up from the Land Registry File Plan.  The plan was not stated to be ‘for identification purposes only’ and on it, the coloured areas were two simple squares.  

Law of Boundary Agreement

At Common Law, boundaries may be fixed by an agreement made between two or adjacent owners where their boundaries are not clearly defined or have become lost or confused (Halsbury’s Law (England) Vol 4(1) para 903)

The pre-requisite of a boundary agreement is that the boundaries are not defined, or have become lost, or confused, or in the context of the conveyance of land where the information contained in the conveyance is unclear or ambiguous.

Video about Land Boundary Survey in the New Territories

In order to raise public awareness of security of property rights, the Land Registry and Radio Television Hong Kong jointly produced a TV series entitled “Stories of Our Land” in 2008-09.