Your fence doesn't match your title deed: Land Code Section 69 bis and the boundary re-survey process

What happens when the fence line on a Koh Phangan plot doesn't match the boundary shown on the title deed — a common gap given decades-old surveys, hillside subdivisions and markers that have shifted or gone missing? Land Code Section 69 bis gives any titled landowner a formal administrative route to have the Land Office re-survey and, where justified, correct the record — without starting a civil lawsuit.

Two routes into a re-survey

• Owner-initiated application — under Section 69 bis, any rights-holder can apply at any time, submitting the title deed to the Land Office and requesting examination and verification of the boundary.
• Locality-wide verification campaign — separately, when a Provincial Governor decides an area needs its boundaries re-checked against the cadastral map, the Land Office must give affected rights-holders at least 15 days' written notice in advance, plus a notice posted on the land itself and a follow-up notice of the actual survey date and time.

When possession and the map disagree

If the on-the-ground survey shows the actual possessed area or boundary doesn't match what the title deed's map records, the land officer has the power to correct the map or the recorded area to match the real survey — but only once the owner of the adjoining land certifies the new boundary line. The one exception the law carves out: officers won't make the correction if the mismatch looks like collusion between neighbours to quietly expand a plot beyond what was legally acquired.

The 30-day neighbour-notice window

To get that certification, the Land Office sends the adjoining owner written notice asking them to confirm the boundary within 30 days. If there's no response in that window, and the applicant confirms no encroachment is involved, the correction can proceed without the neighbour's sign-off. This is the practical reason it matters to keep your registered address current with the Land Office and to actually open notices addressed to you as a landowner — a missed 30-day window can mean a boundary gets finalised without your input.

If a neighbour objects

Where a neighbour disputes the proposed line, land officers investigate and typically try to negotiate a compromise using the available survey evidence. If the parties still can't agree, both sides are formally notified of a 90-day window to take the dispute to court. If neither side files suit within that period, the boundary-correction application is treated as abandoned — the existing title deed stands unchanged, and the disputed line simply isn't resolved administratively.

This sits alongside, but is distinct from, the other title-deed mechanisms already covered on this site: a Section 83 caveat is a private claimant's temporary hold on a pending transaction, not a boundary tool; adverse possession is about a stranger acquiring ownership through 10 years of open possession, not correcting a survey error between neighbours; and a way of necessity or registered servitude addresses access rights, not boundary lines. For a buyer, the practical takeaway sits inside standard due diligence: when walking a plot with a licensed surveyor, a mismatch between the concrete boundary markers and the deed's cadastral plan is exactly the kind of issue a Section 69 bis application exists to fix — ideally resolved by the seller before you buy, not inherited as your problem after.