Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

If we put a 6ft fence up next to our neighbours .... Can they do anything?

182 replies

ButteredRadishes · 15/05/2025 08:07

We offered to replace the old fence that is shared to Ur back gardens. They've got a 3 ft wires fence, rotting poles, leaning etc. is "their fence" as far as I can see.

We want to replace it (at our cost), they verbally agreed but are now kicking off, saying it will block their light, they don't want a 6ft, they want 3 ft.

We want 6ft, because she curtain twitches at the back window.

Any way, if they don't want to get theirs actually replaced, can we just build a fence next to theirs on our property? Like an inch or so away from theirs?

As far as I cans we, they'll be miffed,but couldn't actually stop us, right?

OP posts:
Englishsummerblues · 15/05/2025 09:37

It seems a bit sad but obviously I’m not you

Missywelliot · 15/05/2025 09:40

I"ve had to do this. I've lost 30cm of my (small) garden as my neigbour wouldn't have a secure fence or lockable back gate on their side. They're a bunch of idiots and we never talk 😁.
I do worry how I will declare it when I can move house though. The original boundary is still 'marked' because the end fence panel is a ft longer.

HelplessSoul · 15/05/2025 09:40

OP

As long as you erect the fence on your land, who gives a fuck if they are kicking off.

It will be YOUR fence and their right to light will not be impacted. Tell them to measure the Sun. Its big.

What dickheads they are. Fucking light will be blocked....yeh right. Twats.

No wonder you want a 6ft fence to block out morons like that!! Crack on!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Gardening
SheilaFentiman · 15/05/2025 09:41

AndorTheRelentless · 15/05/2025 09:12

why have you quoted the OP?

Show quote history

If there’s one thing more tedious than quoting the whole OP, it’s quoting a whole post to complain about it.

SoManyTshirts · 15/05/2025 09:45

My garden faces NW and gets the sun in the afternoon. My neighbours are lovely and in 40 years of property ownership I’ve never fallen out with anyone.

if they built a six foot fence and blocked the late afternoon sun I do get at this time of year, I’d become the neighbour from hell very fast.

EndlesslyDecluttering · 15/05/2025 09:46

Won't it make too much shade in your garden? We have a very similar set-up re sun direction and we are the ones in your house, our former neighbours put up a 6' fence which means virtually nothing will grow for the first metre or so of our garden on that side - nothing to do with curtain twitching for us as we don't have any windows facing their house, they just liked privacy. When it came to us doing the other side of the garden we agreed 4'6" with those neighbours so we are private when sitting down but can see each others heads if we are walking up and down the garden.

rainbowstardrops · 15/05/2025 09:56

I’d say crack on! We put a 6ft fence up and then trellis on top because I was sick of the kids and adults next door looking over the pathetic 3ft fence that was there previously. Bloody lovely! Can still hear them though 😬
The other side are fairly new here and didn’t want the brambles that had encroached onto their side, so they ripped those out and put a high fence up. Again, bloody lovely. Go for it!

deydododatdodontdeydo · 15/05/2025 09:56

When we moved into our house the fence at the back was one of those mesh ones like on tennis courts with concrete posts.
Except it was almost non existent and the neighbours had no interesting in replacing it.
I mentioned that I was going to have a fence put up and they said fine.
But she still came round and had an angry rant at me "you think you're better than us, it's like the Berlin wall" 😅when she saw it.
It was 6ft so not excessive.
Just made me even more sure I had made the right choice in having it built.

godmum56 · 15/05/2025 10:01

SoManyTshirts · 15/05/2025 09:45

My garden faces NW and gets the sun in the afternoon. My neighbours are lovely and in 40 years of property ownership I’ve never fallen out with anyone.

if they built a six foot fence and blocked the late afternoon sun I do get at this time of year, I’d become the neighbour from hell very fast.

if you did this you would lay yourself open to abuse and harassment charges. Unless there is a covenant or local by law to say different (usually for road safety purposes) then a 6 foot fence on your own land is perfectly legal.

godmum56 · 15/05/2025 10:03

EndlesslyDecluttering · 15/05/2025 09:46

Won't it make too much shade in your garden? We have a very similar set-up re sun direction and we are the ones in your house, our former neighbours put up a 6' fence which means virtually nothing will grow for the first metre or so of our garden on that side - nothing to do with curtain twitching for us as we don't have any windows facing their house, they just liked privacy. When it came to us doing the other side of the garden we agreed 4'6" with those neighbours so we are private when sitting down but can see each others heads if we are walking up and down the garden.

There are loads of plants that will be happy in dry or damp shade. Google is your friend

EndlesslyDecluttering · 15/05/2025 10:05

godmum56 · 15/05/2025 10:03

There are loads of plants that will be happy in dry or damp shade. Google is your friend

Show quote history

Thanks for that helpful information, I am a very experienced gardener and have tried all sorts but have serious difficulty getting much to grow in this part of the garden.

Needtosoundoffandbreathe · 15/05/2025 10:06

2dogsandabudgie · 15/05/2025 08:16

I would check on your house deeds to see if they definitely own that fence, if they don't they can't do anything about you replacing it. If it is definitely theres then just put a 6ft fence along side it.

The deeds (title register and title plan) very often have no information about boundary structures. The alternative to a tall fence on your own land is to plant a dense hedge. Your neighbours might just have cottoned on to the fact that if it's entirely on your land they won't have to contribute. Just do what you want on your land within the planning rules. Much simpler. But bear in might putting your fence in might affect the supports of the existing fence.

Original poster
ButteredRadishes · 15/05/2025 10:06

SoManyTshirts · 15/05/2025 09:45

My garden faces NW and gets the sun in the afternoon. My neighbours are lovely and in 40 years of property ownership I’ve never fallen out with anyone.

if they built a six foot fence and blocked the late afternoon sun I do get at this time of year, I’d become the neighbour from hell very fast.

.. it won't block the sun - if anything it will make our side darker.. see my diagram! Their house blocks the sun in the morning and it gets fell sun in the afternoon.

OP posts:
Original poster
ButteredRadishes · 15/05/2025 10:07

Needtosoundoffandbreathe · 15/05/2025 10:06

The deeds (title register and title plan) very often have no information about boundary structures. The alternative to a tall fence on your own land is to plant a dense hedge. Your neighbours might just have cottoned on to the fact that if it's entirely on your land they won't have to contribute. Just do what you want on your land within the planning rules. Much simpler. But bear in might putting your fence in might affect the supports of the existing fence.

Show quote history

they were never expected to contribute - I made it clear to them we would pay for everything, even after they offered.

OP posts:
Original poster
ButteredRadishes · 15/05/2025 10:09

EndlesslyDecluttering · 15/05/2025 09:46

Won't it make too much shade in your garden? We have a very similar set-up re sun direction and we are the ones in your house, our former neighbours put up a 6' fence which means virtually nothing will grow for the first metre or so of our garden on that side - nothing to do with curtain twitching for us as we don't have any windows facing their house, they just liked privacy. When it came to us doing the other side of the garden we agreed 4'6" with those neighbours so we are private when sitting down but can see each others heads if we are walking up and down the garden.

we have very little shade in our garden in the afternoon (only comes from one small tree) - so it will be lovely LOL

We will move our veggies to other side of garden, and we will actually be leaving the strip along the fence to grow wild for the bees etc

OP posts:
Original poster
ButteredRadishes · 15/05/2025 10:11

GOODCAT · 15/05/2025 09:06

We had a neighbour do this to us. The fence was only 6 inches from our window. It blocks the light. We also don't have any other window in that room, so it isn't great. I wouldn't have minded plants but no it has to be a fence. We don't speak. Less of a problem next to the garden but they didn't put one there! Instead they rely on our hedge but lean over and cut it back when they don't like the height even though it is lower than the fence they used to block our window up.

Worth seeing if you can compromise so say 5 ft with higher planting behind as that is much less intrusive.

how is 5ft fence with a 1ft+ plant rising above it blocking less light than a 6ft fence??

OP posts:
Original poster
ButteredRadishes · 15/05/2025 10:14

Englishsummerblues · 15/05/2025 09:37

It seems a bit sad but obviously I’m not you

what seems a bit sad?

Do you like having your neighbour watch you in the garden from behind net curtain, moving them aside to have a better view?

OP posts:
EndlesslyDecluttering · 15/05/2025 10:15

ButteredRadishes · 15/05/2025 10:09

we have very little shade in our garden in the afternoon (only comes from one small tree) - so it will be lovely LOL

We will move our veggies to other side of garden, and we will actually be leaving the strip along the fence to grow wild for the bees etc

Show quote history

Yes, that's what we've ended up doing. But overall we have too much shade (NDN have tall trees too). But I've got an allotment so my veggies do just fine there.

lechatnoir · 15/05/2025 10:24

I would hate to be sat in my garden staring at my neighbour so would be quickly replacing a 3ft fence with a 6ft fence one. If you erect the fence on your boundary there's nothing they can do although for the sake of good relations you might want to try and get them on board or try and encourage them to replace the old fence with something higher.

Genevieva · 15/05/2025 10:30

Anything up to 2 metres is fine. You can grow taller plants if they are not an evergreen hedge. So you could plant a deciduous tree above that height.

Alternatively, espalier trees and hedges take up very little space. You could get espalier pyracantha, with pretty autumn berries for a lot of privacy. Or grow an espalier apple against a 2m fence or have a 6ft fence with 2ft trellis on top and grow a clematis.

LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway · 15/05/2025 10:34

HelplessSoul · 15/05/2025 09:40

OP

As long as you erect the fence on your land, who gives a fuck if they are kicking off.

It will be YOUR fence and their right to light will not be impacted. Tell them to measure the Sun. Its big.

What dickheads they are. Fucking light will be blocked....yeh right. Twats.

No wonder you want a 6ft fence to block out morons like that!! Crack on!

This. ^ We had a 3 ft high fence in our back garden (and attached to it was a little 3 ft high gate that lead into next door's back garden!) when we moved in some 12 years ago. A middle aged man lived next door/private let/private landlord at the time, and this fence and gate had been there for 20+ years. Previous neighbour put a low fence (with a gate into the neighbour's garden!) as they lived next door to their mother.

It was our border, and when we moved in, we put a 6 ft fence up (took the gate out too,) and didn't even ask the neighbour/or the private landlord who owned the house next door. It was our property, and the fence and the gate was ours.

Neighbour said nothing. Neither did the private landlord. Fence is still there. (The house next door was sold off and is now privately owned, and the current neighbour seems happy with the 6 foot high fence.) Why on earth would anyone want a 3 foot high fence between them and their neighbour(s) in the back garden? Bit weird! Confused

@ButteredRadishes Just put your (6 ft high) fence up. Don't be bullied.

.

autumn1610 · 15/05/2025 10:38

Put the fence up! I know exactly how you feel and I am so happy I did it. Spent the summer of covid with my neighbours (we moved in a few months before) talking to us and generally just looking what we were doing that whole summer. Within a few weeks we just knew we were not going to have another summer feeling like we can’t just relax. Luckily the hedge was ours so just told them it was coming out and we were going to match the fence on our other side. My only issue now is my neighbours on the other side have decking and when they stand can see over the fence (the gardens are dropped down from the house)

Apollo365 · 15/05/2025 10:40

We did this as our neighbour’s were nosey bastards 🤣
they also kicked off but now it’s up have agreed it looks so much better

BigHaircut · 15/05/2025 10:44

Do it!! I totally empathise with you.

If you grow any plants on it just be sure to keep them clipped back so they don't go over and your neighbour can't complain. I have plants on my fence, I keep them cut back but she still leans over and hacks at them, she says they are intruding. They aren't, I'm a keen gardener and know what I'm doing. It's just her way of getting back at me because she doesn't like the (perfectly legal) fence, it drives me nuts.

EmeraldShamrock000 · 15/05/2025 10:45

Just check with the planning department.
I'd hate a 3ft fence.

My wall is 7ft, the other houses have the original 5ft walls and they are too low.