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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbour not happy with my fence?

203 replies

chcocooo · 12/06/2025 08:20

So basically after months of neighbours kids:

Playing-on my drive
Trespassing on my drive
Chucking footballs at my living room window.
Constantly standing by my living room window
Shouting and waking my toddlers up.

I finally got a fence installed on Monday which has solved all the issues.

But now my neighbour will apparently struggle to fit two cars on her drive as before the man and his partner would park close on the boundary and his door would open on my bit.
He has asked if I could move the fence further on my bit but it will impact my own ability to have 2 cars on my drive.

AIBU to decline this as it’s on my own drive?

OP posts:
ScrubbedCauliflower · 23/06/2025 07:51

Ohioszo · 23/06/2025 01:42

You need to follow the law on fences. Fences on the property line are owned by both neighbors. One neighbor can pay the total cost if they wish. Cities may require a minimum setback. I was told by my neighbor that he wanted stone in his backyard for parking. He took an old fence down. He took an invasive tree down. He did some other things for me afterward. Someone, the police say kids, through some of his stones at my garage windows and broke them. I have four neighbors abutting my property. Another one just ignores the property line, no trimming of bushes, no shared replacement of ancient fence. Then there is the shared driveway neighbor, who had to learn that a shared driveway does not mean shared property alongside it. No dog poop, no trimming. And his land is moving the driveway over because his hill is no longer held up by a wall. The fourth property, for some reason, every new owner thinks they own two feet of mine. Mowing it, signs put on it. DO NOT AGGRAVATE NEIGHBORS! They will acquiesce to legal decisions. Making trouble with the vehicles is generally against the law if there is something in the deed. But there are laws governing fences too. I think you were nit wise enough to deal with the kids, but, people with kids usually want fences. Tell the kids to stay off the lawn and set back the fence. In my opinion fences are not moveable. Good fences make good neighbors.

from the way you spell neighbour as neighbor and other words, it looks like you’re not in the same country where the OP is. I’m assuming you’re in the US where the laws are completely different. Fences on British property boundaries are often owned wholly by one party and legally the owner can put up a 6 foot fence with trellis on the top if they like without any consultation with the adjoining neighbour. The other neighbour can’t do anything about it, including tamper with it, paint it, damage it or even grow or lean anything up against the side that faces them without permission from the owner. Even if we don’t own a boundary we can put up a fence, wall etc on our own property as long as it or its foundations aren’t on the neighbours property.

GRex · 23/06/2025 07:53

Ohioszo · 23/06/2025 01:42

You need to follow the law on fences. Fences on the property line are owned by both neighbors. One neighbor can pay the total cost if they wish. Cities may require a minimum setback. I was told by my neighbor that he wanted stone in his backyard for parking. He took an old fence down. He took an invasive tree down. He did some other things for me afterward. Someone, the police say kids, through some of his stones at my garage windows and broke them. I have four neighbors abutting my property. Another one just ignores the property line, no trimming of bushes, no shared replacement of ancient fence. Then there is the shared driveway neighbor, who had to learn that a shared driveway does not mean shared property alongside it. No dog poop, no trimming. And his land is moving the driveway over because his hill is no longer held up by a wall. The fourth property, for some reason, every new owner thinks they own two feet of mine. Mowing it, signs put on it. DO NOT AGGRAVATE NEIGHBORS! They will acquiesce to legal decisions. Making trouble with the vehicles is generally against the law if there is something in the deed. But there are laws governing fences too. I think you were nit wise enough to deal with the kids, but, people with kids usually want fences. Tell the kids to stay off the lawn and set back the fence. In my opinion fences are not moveable. Good fences make good neighbors.

You don't understand the law, so probably better not to make pronouncements about it. In the vast majority of cases, the person who paod for and erected a fence, owns the fence. Lots of boundary lines state responsibility for maintaining the boundary, which might be one property, or might be shared. If you have an issue with your neighbour encroaching on your land, then get a solicitor to advise you on ownership and send them a letter. Or start your own thread.

Mmmmnope · 23/06/2025 20:40

Do not move your fence. Your neighbor has already shown you that they have little regard for you by how they have allowed their children to disturb you. Maybe they have a little bit of yard on the other side? They can park on that. If not, oh well. Had they been better neighbors, you wouldn't have needed to install a fence.
Do not move your fence.

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