To need to know etiquette ASAP?

[windyfence]

Sorry for the aibu post.
Quick question. Fence between us and neighbours has fallen down. We are not on great terms with them as they’re pretty antisocial, lots of noise and arguments.
He’s just shouted over the fence that he will pop in to talk re getting the fence fixed.
The fence is their fence. We have deeds to show this.
If he asks us to pay half then we don’t need to right?
We are in no financial position to replace a fence that isn’t ours.
They have a big dog that’s not particularly friendly that’s currently bounding round our garden.
What’s the etiquette please?

“got your phone number from number 12, please call me wrt fixing the fence”

"No need to call, just let us know when you need access to our garden and that will be fine. To clarify, it is your fence according to the deeds so there will be no need to discuss who pays as it will be you. Thanks, Neighbour at XX."

Call the dog warden to get the out of control dog.

Phone the council! Straight away and ask for advice!

Why do we need the council or the dog warden

Seriously just ring the guy and talk to him.

OP - does it say in your deeds that the boundary needs to have a fence? Or just designates responsibility for the boundary?

Actually I like the idea of texting rather than doing this by word of mouth - it gives something in writing

Plenty of good suggestions already, but the important thing's to point out (nicely) that it's his fence to fix

Dont give in if it's his fence ! To be fair to him he may not know , lots of people are clueless about stuff like that!

Why does he need to speak to us re getting his own fence fixed???

Probably access

I would think you batshit if you posted your deeds through my letterbox

If you're 100% sure it is his, like everyone has said you have no reason to pay.

Simply say...

Thanks for the text Neighbour X, Just a polite reminder that as per the deeds, the fence on side x of my garden belongs to you so I assume you've reached out to get a date sorted for you to access our property. Please let me or OH know so we can arrange to be home at the time. Regards, Name

Put my big girl pants on and went round.
He was asking if I knew who was responsible for each fence. I popped home and whipped out my copy of the deeds. All sorted, he’s dealing. He’s responsible for about 7 fence panels, all of which are almost falling down so he’s got an expensive job coming up.
Surprised by how nice he was!

Easy! And good result.

@oohnicevase agree with this, my old neighbour used to always fix the fence when it fell (retired and a bit precious about it) so assumed it was his, only to find it wasn't when it fell when new people moved in . We had it good for 3 years!!

Yes! Great result 😍

Great! Love it when you’re expecting other people to be awful and they turn out to be perfectly reasonable.

Perfect update

He was asking if I knew who was responsible for each fence

There you go!

Glad it is sorted.

Why do we have such anxiety about communicating?

I have such anxiety because he’s a very scary man 😂
Think big booming voice, lots of arguments in their house, music blaring most of the summer.
Glad it’s all sorted anyway!

Surprised by how nice he was!

Despite what MN would have you believe, most people are actually fairly rational and reasonable

Glad it's sorted for you.

Good for you. Face-to-face is always the way to go and avoids misunderstanding. I always find situations escalate more easily when communication is in minimal text-speak.

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship (or at least a 'hello' when you meet at the bins).

Excellent update, OP

Great result OP, I would have been a teensy bit trepidatious as well.

Interestingly I have read that legally the markings on deeds about who is responsible is more developed as a common agreement over time in row of houses/development rather than necessarily being legally enforceable.

Phone the council! Straight away and ask for advice!
FFS What do you expect the council to do?

They are responsible for schools, roads, bins etc. They're not your parents. It's not their job to deal with anything you don't want to!

Well done OP!

Glad it's sorted!!