To hold off paying towards fence

[Lucky6266]

I live in private rent and next door is rented from council.
2 fence panels where already broken in back garden on the right hand side and the neighbour told me when I moved into here couple of months ago that she was waiting on the council to come out so I naturally thought that oh the council must be responsible as she rents from them.
They have been out and she came to tell me the council had said its probably 50 50 between you and your neighbour but to get done thru the council would be very expensive however her husband has gone ahead and replaced the 2 panels for just £32.
The lady isn't pressurising me for my half and suggested I ask my landlord.
My landlord has since said that my flat is leasehold and that he pays a service charge every month to the council which could mean they are responsible for the fence. He has emailed them and is waiting on a response. In the meantime do u think I should suck it up and pay the £16.

Find out who owns the fence first. The councils "probably" isn't enough

Yes. It's a lot less than you would have to pay to get someone else to do it, plus it's the decent thing to do.

Service charge is for the maintenance of the building to keep in wind and water tight and also for the upkeep of communal areas etc.... SC won’t cover fencing, it won’t even cover if a handle breaks on a window, as that’s classed as a fitting.

Normally with things like this it will be shared ownership thereisiron

When I lived in a housing association house the tenants were responsible for the fences between properties and the HA were responsible for the fences at the end of the gardens. If the fence was already broken when you moved in I don't see how it is your responsibility to pay for it at all?

Don't pay, it might not even be your fence!!

No you shouldn’t pay. The fence was damaged before you moved in so it’s up to the landlord to pay.

Should the landlord pay

I would for the sake of £16 and good neighbour relations

The landlord should pay. It's part of the cost of owning a rented out property.

To be honest I am fed up of landlords they just want tenants in then the rent every month. Any problem that crops up and they take forever to sort.
I personally think that he should just pay the £16 the council will take forever even if they are liable.

I’d have just given her £20 in the first place and thanked them for getting it sorted.

However, you’ve asked the landlord, he’s emailed the council, so you might as well see what happens now.

It’ll be good to know because fence panels do need replacing from time to time.

Ahem. Not all LL are like that.

I offered the money and she insisted I have a word with my landlord first

It is the landlord's responsibility but he is correct thst if the freeholder is the council and he psys a service charge to them they should pay. Under no circumstances are you responsible.

Under no circumstances should you pay.

Even if you owned the house outright, you had nothing to do with breaking the fence as it was already like that when you moved in. It's up to the landlord to arrange payment, whether that be paying out of his own pocket or via his service charge.