Asking neighbours not to grow plants on our fence

My Dad has nightmare neighbours so much so he made fencing and put it on his land. The original fence posts are still in situ so you can see the new fencing is not directly on the boundary. Neighbours sometimes lean various things on his fencing so my Dad just pushes it off.

"well pruned"
My neighbours both had high hedging in their gardens which has actually rubbed holes into the top of their fences. In both cases the hedges had been planted and left to grow by previous owners and removed by the current owners, Holly in one case, laurel in the other. Fortunately in both cases, they own both the hedges and the fences so no clash but I could see that if the fence had belonged to one neighbour and the hedge to another, it could have caused problems. I do think that sometimes its a good idea to remind some neighbours that they just can't do what they like, especially if there have been previous issues.

Understand you point they wouldn’t contribute half but you’ll look extremely petty if you do

Interesting, ours have been there for 5 years and done no damage at all and are well pruned. We also have a good relationship with neighbours (he is a landscape gardener) and we don't sweat the small stuff. Quite a few on here are catastrophising.

Try to focus on a positive OP - assuming it's a decent fence, you'll orobably be ok with a few tomatoes. If it's just annoying you a bit, maybe focuson something else as wecan sometimes lose perspective (we're all guilty of that i'm sure). Good luck.

did you fasten trellis or plant supports to the fence you did not own?

As I said, this isn’t what I’d do. I’d just talk to them and not push things (unless, I guess, this is part of a much, much bigger issue) because life is too short and neighbor disputes have the potential to make selling very difficult.

But if you want to go the legal route, whether that’s suing for damages (and nailing or screwing into the fence does count as damage, as does making it impossible for you to maintain your fence properly and the lower lifespan associated with a wooden fence that’s been screwed into and can’t be regularly protected) or asking for an injunction, you will be more successful if you can show that you have tried to resolve things before you go to court.

Sorryusually only one house is responsible but if you know for certain it is a shared responsibility OP that does seem unfair that you had to pay for a new wall on your own.

Tomatoes will be over by autumn and come out and do not usually cause any damage against a fence (we have several).

In the many different houses I’ve lived in I have never heard of this attitude tosaying the fence facing your garden thatis the responsibility of the neighbours is not to be touched by any plant material. We have always justgrown what we want and let our neighbours do the same. What a very unneighbourly attitude.

Usually just one

I can’t find the post I wanted to respond to, but it was the person who has BBQs with their neighbours and can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to be friends with them.

Well bully for you. One quick scroll through MN would show you that some people have utter arseholes for neighbours. Mine have mentally tortured me for years. I will dance on their graves and celebrate when the fuckers die.

OP - tell them to stop growing stuff up your fence.

you are lucky. your claiming of the fence by using it without permission could have indicated that you owned it unless there was proof elsewhere eg "T" markings on the deeds.

Many years ago I used my side of next doors fence to pin up a backdrop for some photography. A purely temporary arrangement. It was 3 mapping pins holding up a light cotton sheet. I'd already had "words" with this neighbour over another matter. She told me it was HER fence and I had no right to be "using " it. I said "well I will need to see some proof of that. Have you got the receipts? Knowing that she wouldn't as the fence was old and shabby. Of course she couldn't produce any receipts so I continued to use it several times more just to wind her up. Many years later she had the cheek to ask me to go halves with her for a new fence but that's another story of her cheek and entitlement.

I think I'd be a bit possessive of a fence that cost me a lot of money. I'd have no problem with a flower bed with tall delphiniums and the like disguising it. I would have a problem if they nailed a structure to my brand-new fence. They can still grow their toms but up a tepee-type arrangement of bamboo sticks. They need telling now, firmly and politely, your fondness for your new purchase.

@crunchiest is not dictating that the neighbours have a bare empty fence. They can grow what they like as long as they don't attach anything to the fence. Fences are not cheap and OP has forkecd out hundreds of £'s if not more to install a new fence and retaining wall. It is her property and she has every right to protect it. Neighbour CF should be told to.remove anything they have attached and repair any holes etc. How would they have managed if the fence had not been replaced?

Any kind of greenery or post touching a fence will trap damp and encourage rot - that’s a simple fact.

Ignore comments saying you're being ridiculous etc. They should have at least asked as it's your property (fence). The law is very clear on this matter; it's your fence. anything anyone else attaches to your fence constitutes criminal damage. If they want to attach things to a fence, they can install their own fence parallel to yours.

It doesn't stop cats getting into my garden. Most of my neighbours have something growing on their fences.

you are completely wrong. It absolutely is the decision of the owner of the fence or wall as to what their neighbours are allowed to do with it. if you fail to control your laurels and they damage the fence, you will be responsible for paying for repair/replacement. How do people not know this stuff?

yup same here. Most of the fencing to my garden is owned by my neighbours.

If the retaining wall is built on your property, they have no right to to physically touch any part of it. As a previous poster pointed out, they can add what they like within their own property line, such as an inexpensive trellis for their plantings. They are lucky that you paid all of the major expense for the retaining wall and attached fencing. They would only need to purchase and install inexpensive light trellis panels for their plantings on their property.

Did you rebuild so that it is entirely on your side of the property line?

I agree it's completely unreasonable for them to refuse to pay a legal shared expense, and then grow vines on the expensively replacement that they did not pay for, which is highly likely to cause damage over time. As mentioned, they should install their own trellis panels which are very inexpensive since they are not structural as your retaining wall is. They can damage and replace their own trellis as they please.

You are being very very kind, almost overly reasonable to wait and ask them not to repeat this next year vs asking them to remove everything immediately. I hope this doesn't set a precedent for them to keep on taking advantage.

YANBU at all. I would worry that you will need to be very very firm, and and repeat yourself multiple times for such CF's to stop taking advantage.

Lovely that they are growing veg. Also nice to look at greenery against fence rather than wooden fence sheets.

Maybe try to focus on something else. I get that it's annoying to have had the cost, but it's not up to yiu what they do on their side.

We planted large laurels against our fence.

Are there really people this petty amoung us..

This is why i left the crumbling old fence up between my neighbour and I and put my new fence a foot on my property
i don’t understand why people dont do this when they are paying for it all?

I'm amazed the cats can't walk on plants hanging over the fence I would think it would make it easier as the top is less narrow when covered in plants..