Neighbour and fence - help

[Thunderpants88]

My OH and I are in a disagreement about a fence.

Our neighbours moved in next door and have gone out of their way to ignore everyone else on the estate. Fine. Don’t even wave or acknowledge small children that say hi.

We have detached houses. A few months ago they took down all their hedges and trees (it is their right to do so) After the last storm the fence has come down on both sides of their property, the garden fence between our houses and the fence between their house and the neighbour on the other side.

I have asked the bank for the deeds of the house.

A while ago the neighbour (who has literally never spoken to us ever) came round asking to go 50/50 on the fence.

I am of the opinion no. If it is their fence then they pay. If it is our fence we will pay.

My husband thinks go halfers either way. I just don’t want to. If it was the same situation with my lovely neighbour on the other side I would but it’s annoying me that the first time they have ever spoken to us is to ask for money. My DH says “for a few hundred pounds be neighbourly” I think “they can’t even bother to wave at our 2 year old getting in a car. No I don’t feel like being out £100’s to “be nice” unless I have to. I also pointed out if it is our fence I would dream of going round and asking them for help the money. Our fence? Our problem to fix.

what does everyone else think?

Agree with this.

Also, once you’ve agreed to pay half, who’s to say they’re not going to choose the most expensive one?! I mean if they only have to pay half then they can, can’t they?
They're only asking for you to pay half because they presumably have the fence on the other side of them to either sort out or contribute towards but that’s not your problem.

I've always gone halves on fences with neighbours i have no clue who's is who's. But fencing is expensive and its just easier this way

Legal secretary here - it will say in your deeds whether the boundaries are “party” fences or not with your neighbour.

My advice would be check your deeds. When you bought the house a solicitor should have also disclosed this in their report letter to you.

It doesn’t matter whether your house is detached/freehold/leasehold etc.

If it's their fence they pay. To hell with them. I hate people who move in and chop all the trees down anyway.

Your deeds will show who is responsible for which boundary. I'd never pay half unless it was legally a shared fence.

I wouldn't allow their lack of communication to bother you. Some engage, some don't. I agree that if it's their fence they pay and if yours, you pay. As pp said, keep it simple. I'd be polite and explain the logic, that if anything happens to your fence on the other side, you will be paying solely for repair/replacement. That's how it works.

Without wishing to sound smart, I am so glad there are brick walls on both sides of my garden. I've no idea which side is mine!, but they've survived over 30 years now so who cares?

I don't know if it is more common in scotland but everyone I know has shared fences.

If it is their fence dont forget you can't fix anything to it or paint it or lean stuff up against it.

Stick to what the deeds say! Anything else is asking for trouble in the future, though I don’t think the neighbours' unfriendliness should be a factor in your decision.

More than likely the fence (or whatever marks the boundary) one side of your garden is your responsibility and the fence the other side isn’t. Suppose it turns out that the fence on the opposite side of your house / garden belongs to you, and needs replacing soon? Why would your DH want to end up paying for one and a half of the two fences? In that situation, you would have a perfect response - "sorry, the deeds show that the fence the other side of our garden is our responsibility so I’m sure you'll agree it wouldn't be fair for us to have to pay anything for this one too,"

We are in a London terrace and the deeds don’t state anything about the ownership of the fences so we always split it. Everyone in the road has checked this, so it’s not always a rule that one house has ownership of a certain side.

Ij oink this illustrates the exact issue,
Firstly the deeds are only to say about the first fence. Any subsequent owners can use it for an educated guess. Either or both owner can put their own fence up and ownership of either would never transfer to the neighbour automatically. This is what presumably applies in your case (quoted)
In legal terms it's similar to if I park my car on your drive, it's trespassing but it doesn't automatically become your car, even if I leave it for many years (although clearly that makes more sense for a fence than a car)

And secondly, no one is obliged to have a fence in the first place. So if your neighbour offers to put a fence up if you contribute half then that's a reasonable offer regardless of who owned any previous fences. You can accept or decline and they can still then go onto put a fence up or not.
Then you get to the above situation where the deeds don't match the current ownership.

I always work on the basis that I am happy to share the cost ot a dividing fence, regardless of the legalities of who is legally responsible.

I pay for my share of repairs/ replacement and I maintain my side of the fence as regards painting it.
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My problem atm is that at my current home the fence, originally erected by previous tenants at the property next door, which is council owned, is in a really bad state of disrepair and neither the current tenants or the council - their landlords- give a damn. So I will probably end up footing the bill to replace the fence because I do care.

So personally I think OP is being very unreasonable not agreeing to 50 50 as as that is the civilised arrangement.

@Thunderpants88 you haven't mentioned who owns the boundary. Is it their boundary and therefore their responsibility, your boundary therefore your responsibility or a shared boundary if shared then you should pay half.

I’m not sure I have requested the deeds. Where we live we can’t just download them from gov.uk we have to apply for them and wait a day.

their garden and ours (if there was no fence there) would just be a straight line where theirs ends and ours starts. That is where the fence is.

until we see the deeds I don’t know who is responsible.

other posters are right about them not engaging with us or the children. That shouldn’t be a factor. We will benefit from the fence if it is theirs I just don’t want the complication of it blowing down again and having to go 50/50 again. If they had left the flipping hedge that had been there for 30 years the fence would not have blown down in the first place. It survived storm Darragh with no issues not a small storm and it’s been flattened

I think DH might think again when he sees the quote. "A few hundred quid" you've gotta be joking. Is it just one panel? Expect a few grand, more like.

100% whoever the land registry plans say is responsible for the fence, they pay. Typically, if you're responsible for the right side, neighbours on the left are responsible for the left side (their right side). So would you pay 100% for your side and split 50/50 for your neighbour's side?

" Typically, if you're responsible for the right side, neighbours on the left are responsible for the left side (their right side)."

I'd say ignore this, as conventions about left right and good sided are often completely wrong..

Some deeds may be marked with a t to show who is responsible but others will say nothing at all.

You sound annoyed about the hedge rather than really concerned about the fence. As the old saying goes good fences make good neighbours.

Even if made of wood properly installed fences should last 10:years plus. If you use concrete posts and woos fence panels then long term replacement will be easy.

I would check the deed but if it is at all unclear then it would be better to go halves as you can then attach things to your side paint it etc plus you should get a say about the height, type of fence etc.

A few years ago fences would be 100 pound a panel but I suspect it could get double that now

So you don't live in the UK? That is fairly crucial at the rules may well be different and Mumsnetters are advising on UK law.

We don’t live in mainland uk

In that case, all of the stuff about not waving to children is irrelevant.

You need to see what the deeds to both house actually say. Yes the person who owns the fence should pay in full, assuming that one person household DOES own the fence. I had this with a back neighbour - he insisted that he owned his right fence and so I needed to pay for the back fence. However on my deeds, I own MY right fence as well. The back was on no-one's deeds. Eventually we did go halves because that was fair, but there's no point having the conversation until you've looked at the deeds. There's no point arguing that they should pay "if it's their fence" or you should pay "if it's your fence" just check the deeds! If it's NOT on anyone's deeds then going 50/50 is probably fairest!

I doubt it will be a few hundred.
Probably many muliples of that.
What length are we talking about?
Do some checking and tell your husband, he may be shocked.
Decent fencing is not cheap.

Your deeds will tell you definitely, but usually you are responsible for the panels on the left side of your property, as you look down the garden. If it's the other side, there's no way I'd offer to pay.

This is complete bunkum.

There is no such thing as owning a boundary. The boundary is an imaginary line separating two properties. There is no obligation to have a fence on a boundary unless you are restraining livestock. If the OP wants a fence she can put one up. Otherwise the neighbour can do it.

This is absolutely not true. Please read 'rules on fences' on gov.uk.