Neighbour & potential Fence wars !!!

[supermario10]

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone can help or offer some advice on a potential neighbour dispute / fence issue . We bought some land at the back of our house from a neighbour to increase our garden size and over the past year or so have been landscaping our whole garden. Part of this landscaping including erecting (and paying for) a fence on the new boundary where we bought the land. We agreed with the seller that we'd pay for and maintain the fence..anyway around 8 months ago the house was sold and new neighbour moved in. We haven't met them as they are on another street and new fence makes it private. Anyway today got back from the school run went out in the garden and new neighbour was painting his side of the fence. BUT the dark green paint has dripped down the back onto my side of the fence and looks awful. I'm gutted. He's also screwed a bird box into it (only noticed that when I looked over today. Can't tell if that's off the panel or the post yet though). We treated the panels as wanted natural wood look. What can I do? I obviously , clearly don't want a neighbour dispute but at the same time I feel really annoyed that someone did this without thinking to ask first. I'm sure I'll get a few 'get a grip ' comments and yes I understand 'first world problems' and all that but we spent a lot of time, effort and not to mention money on it. Really hope someone can help or advise what they would do in this situation. Maybe it's because we back onto them so don't really have contact with them in the same way as if they were next door.

I literally don't care or have ever met a person IRL that cares about fencing.

@AllThingsServeTheBeam lucky you.

Most neighbours don't actually care if you ask them first and say what colour you are going to do it.

@BulletTrain

Righto Perhaps all the many, many people you have met who simultaneously paint their fences yet don't care about fences have shared ones.

Wouldn't have a clue. As I doubt any of them care enough to ask. I assume the fence between us and next door is mine as it matches the rest of our garden. But who knows! Until it falls down I couldn't care less. We both have pots attached to it as well! Shock bloody horror!

They need to make good. They have been inconsiderate. I think the easiest compromise is that you accept green fence and they paint it all. I know its not what you want but it's going to be impossible to get back to what you want. You don't want to get into a legal battle to get them to pay up.

Start with, you need to make good our side of the fence cleaning it, then switch to OK paint it green.

Unfortunately neighbour relationship is about compromise. I think they are entitled to paint their side of the fence as long as they don't get paint on your side. Not sure.

Jesus, sorry for my many typos, never by an none Apple phone!!!

@RedWingBoots

I literally don't care or have ever met a person IRL that cares about fencing.

@AllThingsServeTheBeam lucky you.

Most neighbours don't actually care if you ask them first and say what colour you are going to do it.

Know one has ever asked me either so I think I'll carry on. No intentions of moving so your fences are safe!

@MRex

My houses' deeds showed which were my boundary fences (side + shared for one, side + back for the other). Were the deeds of each house updated to show that you now have the boundary, or might the deeds say something different? Is the fence right on the boundary, or within your side?

Of course it's annoying regardless. I'd go round there with the wood treatment tin and say the nailholes for the birdbox have to be done, and explain the drip damage on your side that needs to be put right. Let them try to fix it first, for the sake of relations.

The fence is the OP's property as she replaced it. All conversations were with the previous owner so the new owner can't just come in and claim that fence,

@ZenNudist

They need to make good. They have been inconsiderate. I think the easiest compromise is that you accept green fence and they paint it all. I know its not what you want but it's going to be impossible to get back to what you want. You don't want to get into a legal battle to get them to pay up.

Start with, you need to make good our side of the fence cleaning it, then switch to OK paint it green.

Unfortunately neighbour relationship is about compromise. I think they are entitled to paint their side of the fence as long as they don't get paint on your side. Not sure.

No, they're not. The OP doesn't just own one side of the fence she owns both

@Nanny0gg Yep. They are entitled to put up their own fence on their side of the boundary and paint that green if they so wish!

Of course @Nanny0gg, but if the deeds show that boundary as his responsibility then you can see how the confusion might have arisen where he checks deeds, says "ah good, my fence" and then paints. So you might tread a little more softly with "I see why you would think, however..." rather than showing the deeds to explain it isn't his fence.

It depends on whether the deeds say she owns the whole of that fence. That's why I said not sure.

With neighbour disputes you can be legally in the right but very difficult to force without diplomacy and compromise. Unless of course you are rich and don't mind pissing them off.

@RedHelenB, we did, but because we aren’t assholes, we agreed to let it stand for aesthetic reasons and to save them having to fork out more money to have it re-laid (the contractors basically laid the contrasting edging between our fence posts).
I’m sure they will do the right thing if and when they move - they are lovely neighbours!

@PigketJohn I don't drive 😉

It depends on whether the deeds say she owns the whole of that fence. That's why I said not sure

Deeds will show responsibility for the boundary.

The fence belongs to whoever bought and paid for it.

Fence ownership and boundary responsibility are two different things entirely.

AllThingsServeTheBeam fences and plants might mean nothing to you but they may mean things to their owners. The people who moved into the house whose garden is at the end of my parent's garden decided to rip out my parent's rear fence.

My dad was so upset. He came in one day to find workmen had ripped out his fence and with it all of the plants and climbers he'd spent twenty years caring for. He knew exactly when he got each plant. Many were gifts from his (now deceased) sisters and friends. He is 80 and the garden, particularly through lockdowns, has kept his spirits up. And now someone much like you, who couldn't give a fuck about anyone else's property, has come along and destroyed it.

If the fence doesn't belong to you, then you have no right to do anything with it. That includes painting it or attaching objects to it.

@Waspie

AllThingsServeTheBeam fences and plants might mean nothing to you but they may mean things to their owners. The people who moved into the house whose garden is at the end of my parent's garden decided to rip out my parent's rear fence.

My dad was so upset. He came in one day to find workmen had ripped out his fence and with it all of the plants and climbers he'd spent twenty years caring for. He knew exactly when he got each plant. Many were gifts from his (now deceased) sisters and friends. He is 80 and the garden, particularly through lockdowns, has kept his spirits up. And now someone much like you, who couldn't give a fuck about anyone else's property, has come along and destroyed it.

If the fence doesn't belong to you, then you have no right to do anything with it. That includes painting it or attaching objects to it.

Maybe read my posts?

@AllThingsServeTheBeam

Can't you sand the bits that have dribbled and re-stain your side?

It is only on MN I have ever heard of people having problems with neighbours painting fences. I've never asked permission and my neighbours have never asked mine! Or as kids growing up! I honestly didn't think it was a thing until MN.

My neighbours paint dribbled through onto our side and I just wiped it off. If it had dried I would have just sanded it or painted over it!

Exactly. It's a mumsnet thing. In real life you paint the side of the fence that faces your garden so all 3 sides are the same, without consulting the neighbours.

My mum's neighbours both ripped out her low fences and replaced them with 6ft ones. As she is responsible for maintaining the boundary she has been told by a retired boundary solicitor that they have effectively been gifted to her.

Dh and I had a hedge at the bottom of our garden which had been cut very thinly by the neighbours meaning our dog could leave the property.
When we finally managed to sort it properly the hedge was dying so we cut it right down but some stumps were on the boundary line so we put the fence on our side to stay within the boundary.
Neighbours asked if they could grow sweet peas up it which we agreed to. The fuckers put some kind of heavy climbing plant up it instead which after 2 years has caused the fence yo lean into their garden.
I said this would happen at the time and was pissed off with it.
I'm thinking of putting a small fence back on the boundary line and cutting it off.

If it's not your fence then leave it the fuck alone.

Exactly. It's a mumsnet thing. In real life you paint the side of the fence that faces your garden so all 3 sides are the same, without consulting the neighbours

You really don't. Unless you always paint things that don't belong to you?

Exactly. It's a mumsnet thing. In real life you paint the side of the fence that faces your garden so all 3 sides are the same, without consulting the neighbours.

Maybe check the law before you act on that belief! Might save you some grief, and money.

When I painted my garden fence, I knew my neighbour owned the one on the right so I asked before I painted my side as it's not my fence. If they'd said no, I wouldn't have done it. Surely that's normal.

@AdobeWanKenobi

Exactly. It's a mumsnet thing. In real life you paint the side of the fence that faces your garden so all 3 sides are the same, without consulting the neighbours

You really don't. Unless you always paint things that don't belong to you?

You really do though. This thread has made me ask, my mum, nan, boss, best friend and partners boss. Not once has anyone of them asked to paint a fence!!

Have I misread but OP erected that fence on her side of the boundary - so NDN shouldn't be using it - he can erect a fence on his side of the boundary & do what he likes with it. ( I may have misread)

@BasiliskStare

Have I misread but OP erected that fence on her side of the boundary - so NDN shouldn't be using it - he can erect a fence on his side of the boundary & do what he likes with it. ( I may have misread)

You haven't misread. Op said the fence is on the land she bought from the previous owner. She also physically bought the panels herself which I'm pretty sure makes them as much her property as a shed would be (and you wouldn't paint the back of a shed, unless you're a certain type of person like the neighbours of a PP's dad).

@RedHelenB there is a website called garden law. It use to be more active than it is now but people still use it to post about boundaries, fences, walls, trees, etc disputes with their neighbours.

So just because you personally don't know it is a problem, doesn't mean it isn't one.

Incidentally where I grew up neighbours use to agree fences etc between them so there were no disputes. I still have a couple of family members living in that area and they never have fence disputes. With myself and family members who have issues with neighbours in recent years I know exactly what their problems are as unfortunately they have made it clear.

[quote RedWingBoots]@RedHelenB there is a website called garden law. It use to be more active than it is now but people still use it to post about boundaries, fences, walls, trees, etc disputes with their neighbours.

So just because you personally don't know it is a problem, doesn't mean it isn't one.

Incidentally where I grew up neighbours use to agree fences etc between them so there were no disputes. I still have a couple of family members living in that area and they never have fence disputes. With myself and family members who have issues with neighbours in recent years I know exactly what their problems are as unfortunately they have made it clear.[/quote]
Maybe, just maybe it isn't as active as it once was is because people have got bigger things to worry about than paint on a fence!