Contractor broke our fence

[sosew]

Long story short our garden is quite long, we maintain the fence all along its borders and it backs off onto about six other gardens (as our house sits between neighbours).

One of the neighbours, A, has had a contractor in to take out some trees. In some great act of stupidity he has brought a tree down destroying several panels of our fence. This happened whilst we were away. He has replaced the whole of the fence which bordered our neighbours and one additional panel which ran next to another neighbour,B. The fence is completely different in colour and style to our fence which he destroyed.

The contractor agreed to replace all of the panels bordering neighbour A, because he was their client and didn't want a mismatched fence. B doesn't care as it's hidden by their shed.

Am I being unreasonable to expect a like for like replacement ? Although even if it's a like for like it will still be a different colour for several years before the Wood ages. Any smart ideas ?

Who actually owns that side of the fence ?

You or your neighbor ?

Just paint it the same colour as your and do an extra coat and it will be fine

We own the fence. Our fence isn't painted - it's weathered treated wood, if we painted the whole lot we would be painting 200m worth of fence.

If the contractor has damaged a fence I would expect like for like replacement, this is what they have insurance for

That’s shoddy job the contractor has done with both tree and fence.
YANBU to want it replaced with the same fence

Absolutely he should replace it with something you are (acting reasonably) happy with. If you want it to be matching that’s completely reasonable.

Have yoy considered speaking to your home insurance, with all the contractor's contact details.

Hopefully they can pursue his insurance company for the new fence.

Like for like replacement

@AlwaysCheddar

Like for like replacement

Sounds like it is like for like just not matching

Like for like would be the same height, type of material etc not identical

Agree with the above. Like for like. Go through insurance.

Is it even physically possible to get a ‘weathered‘ fence panel bought new that will match the rest of the fence? You may be asking the impossible?

I don’t know if his insurance would pay out for ‘matching items’. Mine wouldn’t. But then mine isn’t TPL insurance. Perhaps someone with it may know the answer.

Who owns the fence? If it’s you then the replacement panels should be in keeping with the rest if yours and not cheap replacements.

If it’s the neighbour who owns them you can understand why he wanted ones that perhaps match his side fence or whatever better. So arranged for them.

The minute you go to your insurer you have a claim racked up against you and your premium will increase next year. Even if you don’t get money out of them or they are reimbursed. Think carefully before involving them. However if you have separate legal cover that may be the way to go. Again depending on who owns the fence and whether it is possible to buy a panel the same as your weathered one or not.