Garden Fence woes

[Motnight]

Our neighbour's fence separating our gardens has needed replacing for at least 10 years. We have been really patient with them, offering them half of the money etc even though it is definitely their fence to replace and we have gradually lost around 18 inches of the width of the garden as the fence has fallen inwards.

The neighbours told us last summer that they would replace the fence within the next few weeks, and we cut back our bushes as much as we could to help with the work. It was then cancelled by the neighbours as they had run out of money. Again we offered to pay half, but it wasn't accepted.

Nothing more happened until now. We got a text on Monday saying that the fence was being replaced. Really short notice but absolutely fine. We texted back saying thanks for letting us know, could care be taken with our plants.

Some workmen then turned up, tore down the fence, butchering our plants in the process, and left after 2 hours. We texted them yesterday saying our plants have been destroyed, it's really disappointing, but had no reply to that. We've just received another text however from our neighbour saying that the guys were cowboys and have run off with her money. She is going to carry on with the work but we have to bear with her as she can't afford it at the moment.

Our gardens are both uninhabitable. They are quite small London gardens so there is absolutely no privacy. There's no fence. Some of the plants and bushes have literally been hacked at the base. They will die. Her garden to be fair is even worse, as all the panels are in it.

I don't know how reasonable it is for us to carry on bearing with her and for how long.

To add to it all I don't think that the neighbours like us, but not sure why. They are always quite short with us and look like they would rather do anything else than say hello! We don't want to start any wars with them, but they have effectively caused our garden to become unusable .

Any advice please?

@IheartJKR

If it’s on the deeds that it is their fence then they do have a duty responsibility to try to provide said fence. I didn’t say it was the law, but it’s not an unreasonable expectation for op to have. However if they can’t / won’t then at this point it’s best op gets the fence herself.

@Bluntness100. You are incredibly self important and consistently rude on threads at other people expense.
It’s a bullying behaviour and I don’t think you’re a very pleasant person.

And I’m good with that because I’m not the one hurling abuse at randoms on line because they disagreed with me.

Factually you are wrong. They do not need to provide a fence. End of.

@donquixotedelamancha

How does no fence mean that your garden is uninhabitable and unusable

OP is from London. If the fence is down her neighbours might speak to her or anything.

Love that! 😂

I think it’s pretty obvious the neighbor is broke and can’t afford a new fence, so I’d just talk to them and offer to pay for a new one.

OP what you should have done is either:

1. found someone to do the fence, and got her to agree in writing to pay half of it even though it is her fence. Then chase her for the money

OR

1. Put a fence right up next to hers inside your own boundary.

I live in London too, and this is how people deal with neighbours who won't put up a replacement fence.

Goodness! Just to be clear, I have already agreed that we will pay for a fence. We are going to leave it for a, few weeks, mostly because the guy who is likely to be doing the work for us is busy.

I completely understand that there's no legal requirement for our neighbours to replace the fence.

I am quite a nice person (to those of you who have suggested that I'm not!) and I would be mortified if my actions had negatively impacted on my neighbours. The privacy reason for wanting a fence is fairly common surely or fences just wouldn't exist, there would just be bits of string separating garden boundaries. It's not just a London thing!

I completely agree that the neighbours are in an awful situation, but we are too. Established bushes and plants have been destroyed in our garden, including 3 rose bushes that made me happy every time I saw them in bloom. The cowboy fencers just hacked away at them, and yes it has upset me.

So thank you to everyone who posted helpful info.

Why would they have at bushes when removing fence panels?

*hack

@3Britnee

Why would they have at bushes when removing fence panels?

3Britnee, I don't know, but that is what they did.

I have similar issues with a neighbour...the fence has rotted and my dog would escape. I build another fence inside theirs by inches, to prevent boundary claim issues. This also means you can paint and decorate it according to your taste and preference.

If you want a proper fence I’d just pay for it yourself, after checking that’s ok with them of course. Our neighbour decided to replace theirs with a chain link fence when his broke, so although there’s a boundary fence there, it’s totally see through and we have no privacy on that side. We’re going to have to put screening up on our side. Nothing we can do other than that as it’s his boundary.

Just to be clear, I have already agreed that we will pay for a fence.

Agreed with who? Don't agree it with neighbour!

This is such a non problem. I don't understand why you've made so much of this.

"it is definitely their fence to replace". Well yes, if their fence is falling down, it's their fence to repair or remove or replace, or anything else they want to do with it. You aren't entitled to your neighbour providing a fence at the boundary.

The problem you have is that you want a fence.

The neighbour either agrees to split the cost on a new fence for both of you, or you just crack on and get the fence you want on your side of the boundary (giving your neighbour notice that you intend to move anything overhanging the boundary). That's it.

You have been behaving as though you are completely dependent on what they choose/can afford to do. You aren't. They haven't made your garden unusable -you have. You clearly care about having a fence but haven't taken any meaningful action toward this. Unless you count relying on a neighbour to do it for you!

@Psychonabike

This is such a non problem. I don't understand why you've made so much of this.

"it is definitely their fence to replace". Well yes, if their fence is falling down, it's their fence to repair or remove or replace, or anything else they want to do with it. You aren't entitled to your neighbour providing a fence at the boundary.

The problem you have is that you want a fence.

The neighbour either agrees to split the cost on a new fence for both of you, or you just crack on and get the fence you want on your side of the boundary (giving your neighbour notice that you intend to move anything overhanging the boundary). That's it.

You have been behaving as though you are completely dependent on what they choose/can afford to do. You aren't. They haven't made your garden unusable -you have. You clearly care about having a fence but haven't taken any meaningful action toward this. Unless you count relying on a neighbour to do it for you!

So many snarky replies on this thread. I wonder how many of you would actually be happy to have a broken down fence encroaching on your garden, and then have no fence at all and your lovely plants ruined? Would you really say ‘Oh well!’ I doubt it. You have my sympathies, OP; we lived with a portion of fence missing for 18 months; it was very uncomfortable. We had replaced many metres of fencing while renovating and neighbour removed a stretch of old fence that they were responsible for, ( yes, you can be responsible for a fence) , probably hoping we would replace it. We had already overspent so we waited. 18 months later they replaced it. Sadly I think your best option is to put up your own, if you can .

@Psychonabike

This is such a non problem. I don't understand why you've made so much of this.

"it is definitely their fence to replace". Well yes, if their fence is falling down, it's their fence to repair or remove or replace, or anything else they want to do with it. You aren't entitled to your neighbour providing a fence at the boundary.

The problem you have is that you want a fence.

The neighbour either agrees to split the cost on a new fence for both of you, or you just crack on and get the fence you want on your side of the boundary (giving your neighbour notice that you intend to move anything overhanging the boundary). That's it.

You have been behaving as though you are completely dependent on what they choose/can afford to do. You aren't. They haven't made your garden unusable -you have. You clearly care about having a fence but haven't taken any meaningful action toward this. Unless you count relying on a neighbour to do it for you!

If you read the thread, Psychonabike you will see that we have decided to build a fence on our boundary.

Oh, and we are many miles from London.

I'm sorry OP, it must have been upsetting to have your well established plants destroyed.

Whilst your neighbour should replace the fence (good manners, if not a legal responsibility), I think you are being v wise just getting it sorted yourself. I hope that you get a lovely summer in your garden.

@IheartJKR

If it’s on the deeds that it is their fence then they do have a duty responsibility to try to provide said fence. I didn’t say it was the law, but it’s not an unreasonable expectation for op to have. However if they can’t / won’t then at this point it’s best op gets the fence herself.

@Bluntness100. You are incredibly self important and consistently rude on threads at other people expense.
It’s a bullying behaviour and I don’t think you’re a very pleasant person.

Well said 👏🏼 @IheartJKR

Our neighbour, due to the way or gardens are laid out has responsibility for both on the left and right at the back of her house.

She was really pissed to find this out after she sent a very rude and snarky letter to me and the other neighbour demanding the fences be fixed after a storm. (The letter included costs and details of the fencing style & colours she liked and stated she categorically wouldn't accept a like for like of the cheap shiplap that was there before)

When we send back a copy of the LR confirmation showing the fences were her responsibility, but we would all happily go in a third, she said she would refuse to pay a single penny, on principle as it was not fair as the fences she wanted were so expensive and she had always been told the fences were not her responsibility, so she didnt care what the LR said the estate agent was right.

If we are out in the garden she will come out and passively aggressively sigh, mention how sad it is that we all don't have privacy.

Though she did call back into the house the other day after the we were ignoring her sighing and huffing - that she's playing the long game and waiting until one of us sells up because we will have to put up fences as the current layout will put off potential purchasers off.

You shouldn’t have to do this but I’d have got the neighbours consent to get a new fence on the boundary, organised one and paid for it ages ago. Frustrating, but what can you do?

@donquixotedelamancha

How does no fence mean that your garden is uninhabitable and unusable

OP is from London. If the fence is down her neighbours might speak to her or anything.

snarky

@IheartJKR

If it’s on the deeds that it is their fence then they do have a duty responsibility to try to provide said fence. I didn’t say it was the law, but it’s not an unreasonable expectation for op to have. However if they can’t / won’t then at this point it’s best op gets the fence herself.

@Bluntness100. You are incredibly self important and consistently rude on threads at other people expense.
It’s a bullying behaviour and I don’t think you’re a very pleasant person.

It’s not bullying it’s just being blunt....completely different

Can I also point you to GardenLaw forum which covers positive covenants with regard to maintaining a fence. My own deeds have this, we have to keep in good order all fences and walls erected by the builder when the estate was built.

However, even with that set in stone once houses get sold on it can be a difficult thing to enforce as pointed out by this solicitor

www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1727

Where I lived previously everybody had their own fences, ie a fence against a fence. No gaps. Your fence belongs to you, you can paint it, stain it, grow things up it and attach things to it. It also meant that all 3 sides of your garden fencing matched and your neighbours all had the same thing too.

It’s not bullying to tell someone they are wrong. It is bullying to tell someone you’ve never met they are an unpleasant person, rude, self important and to hurl abuse at them.

I have come back to update because 2 new people are now working in our neighbour's garden pulling down the remaining fence post in preparation for putting up a new fence 😂🤣

It is a complete surprise as yesterday our neighbour told us we had to bear with her re a new timeline.

I'm hoping that this is the beginning of our fence woes ending.

To everyone who posted info and advice, thank you. To those of you who decided to be really quite unpleasant for no reason at all, interestingly I do recognise some of you from your other posts and I know that this is the way you operate, not sure why, but crack on, it must be something that you feel you need to do.

Oh, that's good news! Glad to hear it's being sorted at last.

@Motnight If it's any consolation, most if not all of your shrubs and plants will regrow anyway. It is really upsetting to see years of growth lost like that, especially when people have been rough and careless with them so they look very tatty, but I am sure they will grow back. I've cut many shrubs back to the bone - to basic stumps in fact - and they have always tried their hardest to keep going. Obviously it'll set them back, but it's better than their being lost forever.

Watering in dry spells and some feeds, job's a good 'un.