Q&As

Is it possible to register ownership of the subsoil beneath a public highway?

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Published by a LexisNexis Property expert

Published on: 19 March 2019

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If a property boundary cannot be identified from its title, then, depending on the nature of the boundary, there are well-established legal presumptions which can be used to establish the line of the boundary. All these presumptions are capable of being rebutted.

Where land is bounded by a highway, the presumption is that the boundary is drawn down the middle of the highway. This is the usque ad medium filum rule which assumes, in the absence of anything to the contrary, that the owners of land adjoining the highway own the subsoil as far as the middle of the road (subject to the rights of passage over the surface and the rights

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Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

register definition

What does register mean?

the formal records kept by a magistrates' court;

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