The Land Survey Act [Chapter 20:12] – Arbitration – A Few Things to Know

Since 30th April 1933 there has been a Surveyor-General’s office in Zimbabwe. One of the fascinating things concerning the Land Survey Act [Chapter 20:12] (the Act) is that it provides arbitration as a means of resolving beacon and boundary disputes.

Section 21 of the Act is an important provision of the Act as it spells out the rules for arbitrators in deciding what the true and correct beacons or boundaries common to two contiguous pieces of land are. Where the Surveyor – General appoints an arbitrator or a panel of arbitrators to determine any dispute under the Act, the arbitrator(s) is bound by section 21 of the Act to take into consideration the particulars of each case, and generally be guided by the following principles:

• (a) the original beacons of a piece of land, as erected or adopted at the original survey thereof, if any, shall be deemed to define the true boundaries of such land as granted or transferred, notwithstanding that such beacons may not correspond with the original diagram or may not include the extent of land which the title deed of such land purports to convey;
• (b) when well-ascertained beacons have, for an uninterrupted period of not less than thirty years, been recognized by the parties to the dispute, or their predecessors in title, as the true and correct beacons, such beacons shall be taken to be the original beacons: Provided that no land which is clearly not included nor intended to be included in the title deed of a piece of land may be included in a new diagram of that piece of land, notwithstanding that it may have been used or occupied for the period of prescription by the owner of such piece of land, or his predecessors in title, to the exclusion of others;
• (c) if any land included within the original beacons and boundaries of a grant has afterwards been included within the beacons and boundaries of a later grant, the right to the overlap conferred by the older grant shall, subject to paragraph (b), prevail.