I feel silly saying that this situation is stressing me out- but it really is.
We live in a semi detached house and have neighbours (The ones we are attached to ) who we get on absolutely fine with them and so are keen to maintain good relations.
We are responsible for the fence between our house and theirs, this has been confirmed by the solicitor who dealt with our house purchase, and this fact is clearly marked on the land registry plans. The fence is in a pretty poor state of repair, we have been here now a couple of years but due to other financial commitments only just getting round to sorting it out.
Last year we did get a quote for a new fence at that point and we went to speak to the neighbours about our plans to have a new one (Mainly because we didn’t know if the fencers would need to access their garden at any point) however we ended up not getting it done in the end because I unexpectedly had to have a big car repair done (typical). We also spoke to them about it out of politeness because we are aware that they have plants growing up our fence. Lots of them. The fence is in such a bad state of repair I am convinced that it is being held up by their and other plants I don’t know the names of. In fact, this year is the first year that they have made any real effort to keep their back garden tidy, but the plants are still there, they are completely grown into our fence. At that point, the neighbours said to us that they had no issues with us getting a new fence but they didn’t want their plants getting “ruined” ( I did internally eye roll at this because let’s put it this way, they can’t care about these things that much judging by the state of their front garden and their huge conifers but that is another story! ). But then as I mentioned I had to get some work done to my car and so once again we couldn’t get the fence done.
We are now, however, finally in a position to have a new fence and have got a quote and found somebody we want to do it. The fencing company guy came around to quote us yesterday and we mentioned the neighbours plants to him, and he said “ well of course they are going to come down when we take the fence down, so if you do book me to do the job then I would go and speak to the neighbours and tell them what date the work is being done and advise them that if they want to save any of their plants then they are best to take them down off the fence themselves before I come round and tear the fence down!”
I cannot emphasise enough how bad this fence is lol and the fact is, THEIR plants /weeds are probably what is holding it up. We spend a lot of weekends in the spring and summer trying to tidy our garden up, and carrying out the pointless job of trimming off all the plants from their side which have grown through the fence as it looks so horrible.
I literally don’t know how to tackle this. He’s getting in touch with us in the next few days to book a date in for the fence to be done, and then we will go round and speak to the neighbours. I’m terrified about them suing us for criminal damage or something, if any of their plants do get ruined in the process, but at the same time the responsibility for the boundary is ours, and I don’t think we are doing anything wrong by wanting to have a new fence. I’ve also been reading that they are not even allowed to grow their plants up our fence in the first place, even so the last thing they want to do is fall out with them. Unfortunately because of the way the garden is , we are not able to have a new fence erected alongside the current one to avoid this issue.
What should I do? Just go and politely tell them on the date the fence is being done and leave it at that? Mention to them that they need to take some plants off the fence prior to the date of fitting so that they don’t get ruined? I hate any kind of potential conflict like this!