Two neighbouring owners can hold documents for their respective properties and still disagree about where one parcel ends. A line on a map may seem conclusive to a buyer, particularly when a private survey supports it. But the type of boundary and the process used to establish it matter.
Azzuri Limited v Pink Properties Limited [2018] KECA 392 (KLR), decided by the Court of Appeal on 14 June 2018, concerned neighbouring Chembe/Kibabamshe properties, a road reserve and disputed encroachment. It offers a practical warning against treating every mapped line as an already fixed legal boundary.
The dispute was not solved by producing rival surveys
The parties disagreed about the physical relationship between their parcels and the road reserve. The evidence included survey material, but the court also had to consider how that material had been produced and whether the statutory boundary procedure had been followed.
The judgment, paragraphs 1-6, describes the background. Paragraphs 21-25 explain the issues that proved decisive on appeal.
For a purchaser, this is the difference between asking someone to show a boundary and establishing the authority and evidential basis for the boundary they show. A confident site presentation does not remove that distinction.
General boundaries required the Land Registrar's process
The Court of Appeal addressed section 18 of the Land Registration Act and the role of the Land Registrar in a dispute concerning general boundaries. The route through a surveyor or County Commissioner was not a substitute for the registrar's statutory determination.
The court also explained the approximate nature of a Registry Index Map in this context. Physical features and the methods used in assessing the boundary mattered. A RIM should not simply be treated as a precise survey plan establishing every dimension on the ground.
The appellant had not proved the claimed encroachment to the required standard. Paragraph 26 dismissed the appeal with costs to the respondent. This left standing the trial result described in paragraph 6: dismissal of the appellant's suit and a partly allowed counterclaim, including a permanent injunction restraining interference with the respondent's land. That result must be connected to the evidence and procedural setting, not inflated into a rule that every survey is unreliable or that every possible future boundary issue between neighbours is closed.
A later costs ruling was not a reversal of the land decision
The same names appear in Azzuri Limited v Pink Properties Limited & another (2020), [2020] KEELC 1221 (KLR). That ruling concerned a reference from taxation of legal costs.
In paragraphs 16-20, the court found an error in principle in the taxation, set aside the taxing officer's orders and directed fresh taxation before another officer. It awarded the applicant the costs of that motion.
This was success on a costs question. It was not a new finding that the alleged encroachment had been proved. A parcel history that labels every later "application allowed" as a title victory will mislead its reader.
What to establish before relying on a boundary
Ask whether the parcel has general or fixed boundaries and which official documents establish that position. If a boundary is contested, obtain professional advice on the appropriate registrar-led process rather than assuming another private measurement settles the legal dispute.
Record the basis of any site inspection: who attended, which records were used, what physical markers were observed and which uncertainties remained. A surveyor's observations can be important without being the same thing as a statutory determination.
Where a road reserve or access route is involved, make that a separate question in the transaction file. Do not infer that apparent access on the day of a visit establishes the full legal position.
ArdhiScore helps expose the unanswered question
A source-linked ArdhiScore assessment can help distinguish available map evidence, reported disputes and official determinations. Here, the useful output would identify the unresolved boundary process rather than present a map as a guarantee.
Explore ArdhiScore screening and its limits, then arrange the registry and qualified survey enquiries your circumstances require. Screening does not fix a boundary, replace a survey professional or guarantee access rights.
This is educational analysis of the cited decisions, not legal advice or confirmation of current boundaries, access or ownership.