Who was unreasonable?

[LadyofTheManners]

I've rented our house since 2016
Next door is also rented by a different landlord, mostly to students until recently.
These students have been evil. Rude, loud, obnoxious and none seem to have even basic hygiene skills or respect.
When we moved in, the garden fence was leaning over and split the entire way along, there are 5 panels. This was down to a huge amount of bin bags full of crap that had accumulated.
When they moved out in 2017, we spoke to the landlord of that house and said he needed to fix the fence as it was damaged beyond repair. He refused saying he didn't care, if we were bothered we should do it. After we had to get environmental health in to get him to sort the rubbish, the fence collapsed entirely, and knowing he wouldn't do it at that point we sorted for security purposes as there were alot of burglaries at the time.
Next lot moved in, worse than the last, bringing a dog with them that they locked in the garden most of the time. Dog was not happy with this. Garden was full of dog shit they never cleared up. RSPCA didn't want to know. Dog got so stressed it twice put holes in two of the new fence panels running and biting at it. We couldn't go in our garden as it would run through and snap at us. Couldn't have windows open in summer due to the stench of shit and flies.
They then moved out and we again raised the fence issue with their landlord. Got nowhere.
We patched the holes up as to be frank financially we weren't in a good place.
Then a family moved in. They were quiet. So at least that was something.
One afternoon, the mum locked them all out and asked could she climb over fence. Instead of climbing over smaller bits, she tries to go over 6ft fence. She was 5ft. She fell straight through the fence, absolutely smashing it and herself, and my DH who tried to catch her, to bits (he still has a scar). She apologised but no fence fixing. Had enough of fence being missing, so again, we fixed that one and the other 2 the dog had wrecked.
We then had the high winds. The panels came a bit loose but could've been fixed except their son kicking a ball repeatedly at the join bit that was very clearly loose. I asked him several times to stop. He didn't. Fence fucked.
On principal, I've left it. In a few years we have fixed it 3 times and at no point did we break it.
They moved out and landlord back again. This time I said I really must insist he paid to fix it, even saying if he bought the panels we would fit them. He again fobbed me off.

New tenant moved in two days ago. Hadn't seen her as yet until today. I could hear someone calling over fence so went to look. She knew my name- god knows how. Introduced herself, then launches into demands that we fix the fence or else she will report us to the police, council and our landlord. She was really rude and acted like I was beneath her.
When she had quite finished I told her no, we had fixed it 3 times already when we had done no damage, so no, we would not be fixing fence. Told her to speak to her landlord as he knew we had already fixed it down to previous tenants
She stamped her feet at me and says she doesn't care, she demands we sort it.
Now, I'm aware boundary lines are a thing, but I feel in this case we have fixed and replaced and fixed and replaced and it's cost us a bomb already. It's not like a storm did it, it was directly caused by next door.
What do I do now? Their landlord only turns up when someone moves out and I've never been able to get a name or number for him.
She was absolutely abusive to us, called my garden a mess (it's not at all) and said over and again she will report us to council who will force us to replace it.
If she'd have offered to share costs I may have agreed but she was so off!
Where do we stand?

Wh owns the fence is on the original deeds - it will be marked usually by a T i think - so land registry or whoever has the originals (we hold ours even though it is also registered)

It is however Landlord responsibility if they are not maintaining then the council will get involved if there is any risk with the issue - e.g. drains effecting other properties etc but it would be the landlords responsibility anyway either hers or yours but not your responsibility

She is being a knob as she should have got Landlord to sort before she took over property

I actually feel sorry for her. If she thinks her landlord will do anything with regards his responsibilities then she will soon get a very big wake up call. From speaking to the dad of the last lot, there was a lot of issues with the house, and he did nothing. He only stopped renting to students as one of the second lot reported it as an unlicensed HMO who they got about two days notice he wanted them out.
I will email my landlord tomorrow but he doesn't have contact details of the other one as I asked him previously.

Money claim online small claim against NDN landlord who negligently let his tenants destroy the fence and didn't repair? Tot up what you have had to pay over the years to fix fences that you didn't break?

Doesnt cost much to issue a claim, might make the landlord take the issue more seriously.

Though back to basics it's YOUR landlord that should be dealing with these issues

Whichever landlord could put in a cheap unattractive fence but again at least it would be there!

Tell herself next door to fill her boots.. she will be wasting her time and everyone elses but not yours!

Speak to your landlord, let them know whats going on - as a former (accidental) landlord, I'd far rather know about these issues than not, and if repairs need doing, Id want to know and get them sorted rather than have tenants ignore issues that might well get worse!

OP I wish I had tenants like you.
As someone previously said it either belongs to the LL next door or to your LL. Either way it is not your responsibility.
My tenants would be in the phone threatening to withhold rent unless i got the fence fixed by now.
As for the other tenant, tell her to fuck off as some people only understand language like that.

Let her report to the council. They will then get involved and tell the landlord to repair the fence if it is his. She will possibly also open up a can of worms for the owner if his house is not up to scratch for renting

Thanks for everyone's helpful responses.
I have phoned and left a message for my landlord as I agree it's better coming from me than her.
I also put two notes through, in envelopes one for her and one to pass on to her landlord
In gets I made it clear that I will not tolerate abusive behaviour towards me, my family, or guests as and when I have them in my home. I said she had no right to demand we do anything and I had already told her landlord the fence would need to be fixed by him as the damage wa Adobe by his tenants. I told her from now due to her harassing and unnecessary behaviour and threats if any discussion on boundary issues needed addressing she and the other tenants should do so in writing as we will not enter into any verbal in person discussion after the incident yesterday.

I then in the landlord one pinpointed incidents with dates and reminded him this had been raised with him previously. I set out costs with links to the B&Q website of how much it has cost us this far and said that if he doesn't respond within 30 days in writing we will seek compensation and repayment via small claims. I also told him that in our view the behaviour of his tenant is untenable and if we behaved in that way we would expect our tenancy agreement to be withdrawn. We said it caused a great deal of upset and that we now feel we cannot use our garden due to her behaviour.

I also spoke to their other neighbors who are lovely who have also already had a run in with her as they asked her to put new panels on the side where they ripped up established trees and shrubs without permission leaving us all exposed. She also told her it's a conservation area and any such work she should have sought permission for. She said she was very uppity with them too so they are also going to pop a letter through the door saying the same to both as we have.

I hope the letter will be enough for her to realise we aren't going to be treated in that way and hopefully she may move out of she knows everyone wants her gone already. Our street is pretty cool and we know quite a number of our neighbors so know we have backing over her anyway as we are quiet and friendly and have helped out quite a few of the older ones during lockdown.

But yeah, what a strange way to introduce yourself! I agree the fence needs doing but Christ to think as a grown adult you can demand and stamp your foot, hell no!

*in hers not in gets

Little bit of an update as spoke to landlord this morning

It's not our boundary.

He actually apologised because he thought when I said we'd fixed the fence he thought I meant fixed not replaced and he actually apologised and said he backs us 100% and will be making attempts to track their landlord down and will demand we are refunded in full bit also compensated for the fuck around.

He laughed about her threats regards police and said he knows we are brilliant tenants and "you'll be there long after she's gone, especially when her landlord finds out what she's dropped him in".

So I've put another note through, taking every bone in my body not to be smug or sarcastic.

The email I found for the business registered at the address told me they aren't the owners or agent but they know the contact details of those who are and have forwarded my email, and would strongly advise them to respond as per my 30 days or court threat.
So, looks like we will be entitled to a nice little sum of money (and I could definitely do with it being self employed and living off savings at the moment)

You need to check the deeds to see who is responsible for the fence. It's not necessarily the one on your rhs. Even if it is though, there is no legal responsibility to get it repaired. Basically you can just leave it whether it's yours or not.

Yes we did check with our landlord and it is indeed their boundary responsibility and not ours so when their landlord has ignored my requests when I've been able to collar him (so the three times he has ever been to the house to my knowledge since 2016) he has been in the wrong throughout and lied that it wasn't his fence.
I've now tracked an email down via the business that is registered as being operated from the house, they were very quick to say they would pass it to the owner and agents, and I followed up with thanks and said they needed to also tell him we have since Saturday found out he owes us for works done and maintenance, plus the replacement panels and posts. Our landlord told us to add on costs for fitting too as it wasn't our responsibility and the guy has acted an arse.