Fences and boundaries.

[hilary6039]

Hi, can anyone help with my dilemma? Our neighbour asked that when they renew the partioning wall between our houses, (we live on a hill, so we are above them) could they take our fence down and replace with new posts and panels. We agreed but said we didn't want to loose any height or width down the side of my back door. They agreed and work commenced.Quite a few things didn't go according to plan, they are not the same height and they also left us with a panel short, so we are not talking. We now want to put things right for us, so what I'm asking is, do we still own the fence? It is on my land. We want to make the fence higher so plan to take the smaller ones out, replace and put the smaller ones further down the garden.

So the fence is your side of the wall? And they don't even see it?

You'd have to check in your deeds wrt who's responsibility it is. If it's theirs but the fence in only on your side, on your land and they can't see it then I can't see how they'd object.

I think 'who owns the fence' and the bounday are tow different things. Whoever paid for the fence 'owns' it but it could be on theirs, yours or shared boundary...clear as mud eh?.

If the fence they bought is on your land then take it out and give it them back. If it's on a shared boundary I would say more tricky.

You could put your own higher fence up alongside of it

Wish I could draw a picture. The replacement wall is a supporting wall between our houses as we live on a hill. It's only about 3ft high. If our fence wasn't there, they would be a 3ft jump down to their back yard. There is no privacy without our fence, which they have replaced.

It was my fence since they took it down. No room for another fence, it's on my land and they have replaced with not the same height as our old one. The whole project was a disaster from start to finish. Hence they are not talking to us now.

Some of the things said so far are not correct

Whilst a fence can be owned by one neighbour and a boundary owned by the other, if the fence has been built by the neighbour on your land then you own it, they only retain ownership if it’s built on their land

Legally you are quite entitled therefore to remove it and replace with a fence on the boundary as this is your land

Also remember that you can install a 2 meter fence without planning permission and the 2 metres is measured from the height of your garden not your neighbours lower garden

Slightly disagree Schroedingerscatagain. If you purchase something and then install it on someone else's land, it doesn't automatically become theirs. The OP can remove this fence from their land, but it's not the OP's property, so ideally they should place the removed fence - undamaged -in the neighbour's garden.

Semantics, op asked if she could remove the fence which she can! And according to garden law.co.uk technically she owns it as it is classed as gifting the fence to ones neighbour if you erect it on their land