Can a garden fence be mine if the panel extends beyond the boundary?

[EllaSaturday]

I just looked at the sellers documentation from when we bought the house. In the 'ticklist' thingy they claimed that the fence on the left belongs to this house, all others are the respective neighbours responsibility.
Looking at redoing my garden, this would include replacing the left hand side fence.
However, the last panel extends beyond the rear boundary. If I want to replace it, I either replace the whole panel, part of which is not on my property. Or I saw the fence panel off where my property ends and leave the neighbours at the rear with a half-sawn panel!
I really wondered if the fence wasn't really belonging to the neighbours on the left as it runs beautifully across the whole boundary of their garden. But the fence posts are on my side of the fence and so are the horizontal supports. WHich suggests it is my panel.
I am getting a bit confused by it all... how do I find out if it's my fence. ANd if so, how do I replace a panel that extends beyond the rear boundary of my property?

[TheWildRumpyPumpus]

Can you not ask the neighbours?

Could be that they built their own fence as the one on your property was sub-standard or ugly (or just not there at all).

Who owns the boundary and who owns the fence are different matters.

[Collaborate]

Look at your deeds. They will tell you all you need to know.

No one owns the boundary. It's the hypothetical line between 2 parcels of land.

If the fence was built on your land, then it's your fence, whoever paid for it.

Any competent fencing specialist can trim the concrete base type fence panels to size.

[TheUnwillingNarcheska]

It sounds like because the fence continues beyond your property when the fences were put in they used a full panel rather than end the run within your boundary.

You can get a copy of your neighbours deeds via land registry website for a small fee to see what their deeds say with regard to the boundary.

Go round, in person, talk to the neighbour.

We have a jointly owned boundary fence, all the other boundaries to our property are brick walled. When 2 fence panels came down we talked to next door as they are surrounded by the fence on 3 sides so we were happy for them to choose what they wanted so as to fit in with their other fences.

[JustDerppingAround]

The fence may be yours, your neighbours or jointly owned. Your deeds should tell you. As mentioned by PP you can download them AND your neighbours to double check.

It's irrelevent which way the fence faces. Often the neighbour get the good side but its not nessecerily so.

I dont agree with the PP who said that if someone builds a fence on your property it's becomes yours. It doesn't as far as I am aware.

What type of fence is it. It's easy to shorten the length of most types of panels.

[Collaborate]

I dont agree with the PP who said that if someone builds a fence on your property it's becomes yours. It doesn't as far as I am aware.

The owner of land owns not just the land but also all buildings and fences fixed to it.

[JustDerppingAround]

Collaborate I'm not a lawyer or anything but the advice that's always on GardenLaw is that if someone builds a fence on YOUR land you can ask them to remove it or remove it yourself making sure you don't cause too much damage and return it too them.

It doesn't become your property.

I am happy to be corrected

[EllaSaturday]

I checked at the land registry and there is no mention of fences. All I have is a tickbox questionnaire in which the previous owners say we own the left hand side fence. This is the one where the fence panel goes beyond our back garden and becomes the fence between our 2 back neighbours.
I think all fences in this block were set up when the estate was built as they are all the same across all gardens as far as I can see. I just find it odd that a fence panel stretches past the end of our garden by over 2 ft. I will of course check with the neighbours, I wouldn't just cut through a panel and leave them with half a panel!

[JustDerppingAround]

What about the plans? Are there any 'T' markings on the boundary lines.
I don't think you should give too much credence to the tick box that the old owner filled out.


Have you spoken to your neighbour yet?

[LandRegRep1862]

Not sure if you are still following this thread OP but essentially it is best to take all available information, be it registered or not and then agree with your neighbour(s) as to next steps.

The particulars of sale ticked by your sellers will help as it at least gives you some idea of what happened previously. Bear in mind the neighbours seller may have done the same and said something different though, so you can see why pooling information and sharing understanding can be so important.

TheUnwillingNarcheska's approach resonates most with me re properties in England & Wales and much comes down to how neighbours view the fencing/boundaries and how their property may look if they end up with half a panel or fencing of different colours etc.

And finally, any logic you apply to why a whole panel was added when a part of one would have sufficed may not apply. The neighbour will hopefully be able to explain and together you can agree what happens next.