It's a good old fashioned British fence maintenance dispute.

[DeborahAnnabelToo]

Neighbours have allowed absolutely massive shrub and climbing ivy to become so overgrown that it's forced the fence between us to tilt at an angle. Last week it tilted back into their side and has now fully collapsed. They're asking us to share the cost of replacing the fence which was severely weakened by the triffid which they never pruned and was overhanging almost half of our tiny garden. We've said no. AIBU?

P.s am trying to locate deeds to find out about boundary maintenance but even if it's shared I don't want to pay for something which was entirely caused by their lack of maintenance.

Get your title plan and confirm. If its their responsibility I'd offer nothing and say you think it was made worse by their plants and if they want it to last longer next time they maybe should think about how to rejig their garden. If it's yours or shared, suck it up. You can still make the comments about the plants

If it is their responsibility don't contribute.

If it is your responsibility you don't have to have a fence in situ (unless specifically mentioned in your title deeds) you simply have to maintain the fence.

If it is your responsibility and they're offering to go half it might be wise to take it!

Nobody can tell you whether you're unreasonable or not, until you've found your deeds.

deeds can be downloaded online for c. £3 each (yours and theirs)
you need to look at the fence and decide whether it is really the shrub etc. or whether the wood has rotted - if it has then (if relevant) contribute as it is replacement time - if not, then you need to have a tough discussion regarding their shrub having killed it = their responsibility to replace it

Ok I've found the deeds. It's a party fence. However their shrub and ivy have hugely contributed if not caused the deterioration of it so still not inclined to pay.

So they're right that you should share the cost but I'd be tempted to go for 'Happy to go halves but only once the shrub and ivy is removed/chopped back and if you're ok to keep on top of it in the future.'

If the plants overhung half your garden, why didn’t you cut them back, as you should? You didn’t maintain your garden. Half and half seems reasonable to me if it’s a shared fence, and your lack of action also in part caused the damage.

YANBU my fence has been ruined by next door's climbers. I'm not paying to repair it - in any case there would be no point as any new/repaired fence would be destroyed by the plants again.

Do you usually get on well with your neighbours? If so, I'd be inclined to pay half in order to keep the peace. If they attempt to grow, and then neglect, further plants then make sure you voice your concerns and make it clear you won't pay for further damage they cause.

Have you told them before about their plants?

Have you clipped back any overhanging branches etc?

If it was overhanging you’re garden, you should have cut it and returned the cuttings to them. I think you were also at fault here. Did you never talk to them about the plant and the damage it was causing?

Tbh I really wouldn’t get into a dispute if you can avoid it. Unless it’s thousands I’d contribute to keep the peace. We had a long running debate with a neighbour about a fence and in the end I proved it was our boundary, thus our responsibility so all was sorted but it was time consuming and expensive and remember you’ll have to declare any dispute if you sell.

It wouldn't matter if you had cut it back, the weight from their side would still have forced the fence to collapse. My neighbour lets stuff grow up ours, and no amount of cutting from our side will stop it leaning into my garden. A good storm takes it down eventually - and it ends up o our lawn.

We can't find out who it belongs to so share the cost with her but it is annoying that every so often we have to pay for something we haven't broken. She is currently wrecking the trellis with ivy which means the fence panels below will be next to go.

If it is theirs I would be inclined to tell them you won't pay as it is their fault it broke. If it is yours I would tell them it is their fault and ask them how they would like to go about fixing it. If they won't pay for it then you may have to share the cost. If they don't remove the greenery it will happen again.

If it's the joint boundary feature you are jointly responsible for the cost of repair and replacement, so YABU to refuse. I would stipulate that you agree to the 50% share in cost, providing they remove vegetation.

We have the same issue here. Seems the previous owners of our house actually took to building a separate fence behind the ivy covered fence of the neighbour at the bottom of our garden as they got nowhere asking them to remove it. Spent half a day last summer cutting it all off our fence (it clearly needs replaced when we saw under it, it's even eaten through the posts!) but there is little point replacing it unless the other neighbour get rid of the ivy as it'll just begin all over again. Awaiting the inevitable collapse of ours also and the arguments which will inevitably follow 🙄. Suspect we'll end up replacing our fence in the end and just resigning ourselves to it being eaten, feel your pain it's very frustrating.