It’s a neighbour/fence gate one!!!
I seriously hate to be this person but, possible fence issue with neighbour.
Going to start off by saying, lovely neighbours. They have been there for around 12 months. They are renting their house, we own ours. They are an African family so there is a bit of a language barrier between us, but we have a chat with them when we see them.
We have a walled garden with a fence separating us. The fence, if you are going by the left side ownership rule, is our fence. So hence yes, if it needed replacing we would be the ones to pay for it. For complete info here, we sort of know the owners but they were a complete nightmare and we were glad to see them rent their house out. We do know the agency it is rented through.
It is a feather edge fence. About ten years old and we’ve recently restained and protected it on our side. The owners of the house also used to paint the fence every couple of years to maintain it. In fact pretty chuffed with it as it looked utterly naff before on our side and we’d considered replacing, but honestly we just have stretched funds at the moment - wedding to pay for so a fence is the last thing I’ll be paying for!! It’s just an ok fence - newish housing estate so literally standard quality.
For a while their garden was quite unkempt so I’m really glad to see they have put work into it. Neighbour has however planted grape vines along the fence border on their side. Initially they were on canes, but it now appears they have tucked them behind the fence supports with the intention of literally growing them onto the fence. They are also growing them along the railings of their decking area - which obviously literally isn’t my problem. And my god, they aren’t half growing quickly. We’ve gone from little weedy things to quite thick vines in a couple of months. I’m conscious if they do fruit, they are going to be pretty heavy.
Ive said to DP they need to add trellis to keep them off the actual fence so it can get air to it and so they are not supported by only the fence - I’ve also said im fairly sure they can’t do that in a rented house with risk of damage to fence - I rented a house years ago and had to get clearance from the owner to stain the fence in even a natural wood colour, purely to protect it as I wasn’t sure how long I’d be there. DP says I’m being dramatic but that if it causes damage we will ask them to replace. I can’t see a renter replacing our fence if I’m being honest and I’d prefer to not have this situation to deal with. It’s a bloody long fence too so costly to replace - trust me - we got quotes.
I’ve also said with them growing vines along it, they are therefore very unlikely to paint or maintain their side of it, which I would at least hope they would do.
On a further note, I cannot confirm or deny they have permission from agency. I’m going to assume they haven’t for now. I have not called the agency - frankly because I didn’t want to get them into trouble with them otherwise.
So here we go - would you speak to neighbour? As said, we really like them, but we feel awful literally asking them to remove their plants. And am I being dramatic and is the fence going to be ok after all?
Side note here - is this old age now to get worried about your fence?! 🤣