Asking neighbours not to grow plants on our fence

You’re as mad as a box of frogs OP. You want to dictate they have to have a bare empty fence in their garden?!!?

If they actually don't fix anything your fence it's ok.

You asked them to contribute financially to a fence which is entirely on your land?

I’m absolutely delighted my neighbour has planted things that trail over my side-stops other people’s cats walking along it then crapping in my garden! I’ve now allowed mine to do the same over the fence which is officially ours, now none can walk along and I am finally free of the little blighters! So grateful to my neighbour for this natural cat-preventing hack 🙏🏻

Life is too short, OP.
Find something that makes you happy and concentrate on that instead.

It sounds like you’ve been entirely reasonable.

Tomato plants do not ‘climb’ a fence like an ivy would. They will be attaching them to a trellis on the fence. They have to be teased around a planting frame. Now if it was something like ivy I really think you might have a point.

I don’t think there is much you can do about it. As you said with the cost of replacing the fence, it was a bit of a grey area and you chose to do it rather than negotiate with the neighbours.

I don’t think you can disregard this grey area, pay for the fence and claim ownership of their side of it. What next - are you going to tell them what colour to paint it?

How are the plants attached to it? Just leaning? Or have they drilled into the posts and made wire trellis?

You can't expect them to stop growing anything along that side of their garden. Tomato plants won't damage the fence. I have never lived anywhere where fences were jointly owned. Usually it's that for example the left side fence is the responsibility of each household. You wanted a new fence and now you have the one you chose, it doesn't matter what the other side of it looks like.

Can you spray some weedkiller from your side of the fence that kills their plants? I bloody would!

I don’t under stand your approach here. What would a letter do? As the poster said, who gives a shit about a strongly worded letter from a neighbour (or to be honest, a solicitor)

and what would the small claim be for? The fence isn’t even damaged. What you’d need is a court order or injunction to stop them growing shit up you’re fence and forget the cost of the fence, you’d be lucky to get change from £30k

There's no need to use solicitors. Just write a letter pointing out that attaching to the fence will shorten its lifespan. Also point out that you will be wanting to paint it with preserver most years and doing so will require the removal of their plants anyway. Keep copies of all correspondence.

If it becomes necessary, sue in small claims, for which you don't need a solicitor anyway.

The problem with suing is that it's a dispute you need to declare when you sell and that can cost a lot more than solicitors fees if it puts off buyers.

OP I think it's annoying and will mean the fence will not last as long. But I would probably just tell them you need them to take everything off every August to paint it with preserver and ask they use hooks over the top of the fence instead of nails and screws. If they use nails and screws, take them out each year and patch. Hopefully they will get bored of putting them back in.

What does the deeds say about ownership? We are responsible for one side not the other.

Legally, they may. But legal risk is not the only consideration here! As others have said, being prescriptive and petty about this issue risks damaging neighbourly relations very quickly, which is nearly always unwise.

@crunchiestyou said legally, responsibility was a grey area. Did you seek legal advice, or are you lawyers with capacity to research these matters? If the arguments were more in favour of paying for the boundary fence being your responsibility, I wouldn’t even have asked them to contribute TBH.

At least it's not Ivy! We replaced fences ten years ago, then neighbour decided ivy would be a fantastic idea. Had to replace them yet again but I forced them to pay for it due to the ivy.

Fuck that - get your stuff off my fence!

Your have a legal right to maintain your property which includes your fence. They have to allow you access to paint etc. In my last house we got fed up with this and erected a trellis with space for a slim man to get between. We grew roses up our trellis. Our present lovely neighbours give us a pot of paint and we paint the back of the fence. We chose the colour and cut back our plants. Its debatable that plants may weatherproof the fence or not but they certaintly cant put a nail into the panels.

We've had this, we had to replace our boundary fence on the right hand side of our garden even though the deeds showed that it was the neighbours responsibility. We just got sick of looking at a rotting fence. Cost us nearly £6k and I did have words when they started nailing trellis to attach plants to it. If they thought we were replacing it again, they had another thing coming.

People can quote the law but honestly- unless you are planning to sue them or privately prosecute them it’s not going to help. Neighbourly relations are important and disputes escalate very quickly- honestly some would see you as being the cause of this one- so I would leave well alone

Why do you care if they grow a few tomatoes ? Chill. There is more to life than this

When you say leaning poles, you mean the bamboo stick things?

Retaining wall?

do you mean boundary wall?

Sometimes, it’s just nice to be nice. Especially when, honestly, it’s no skin off your nose. Who in their right mind would think of spraying weed killer onto a neighbour’s tomato plants because they are being ‘supported’ by a boundary fence? Better to live your life happy, spread happiness where you can and avoid insane rabbit holes.