AIBU stacking weight against an old fence

[BettyBoh]

AIBU for suggesting weight stacked against an old fence was a bit of a stupid thing to do?

Fence to the right of our garden is quite old. It belongs to the neighbour. Whilst the house was rented out my husband did very minor repairs just to stop panels falling. He loved moaning about it and he thought he’d saved the world just by drilling a bit of wood to a post. No fancy repairs - he has very low standards.

new neighbours moved in a year ago. They are nice and I’m sure would sort it out if asked, but there hasn’t been a need as it’s stayed upright. They are probably not aware of the repairs he has done as it’s only visible from our side.

unbeknownst to me, he had stacked some weight against one panel. It fell over to their side today. its clear that weight should not have been stacked against an old fence.

he point blank refuses to acknowledge that he should’ve used his brain and not stacked considerable weight against an old fence. All he cares about is going on and on about the repairs he has done previously.

he has form for inability to take responsibility but this is another level. I think that RSD is also playing a part because deep down he knows it was stupid to stack weight. (RSD linked to severe ADHD, some of you will know what I mean and others won’t).

nobody is disputing that the fence is old. But he thinks I am unreasonable for suggesting that it was stupid of him to stack weight against it. He believes the fence fell all by itself. He said all this whilst removing a heavy duty builders wheelbarrow and 2 sandpits which had been stacked against it 🤣

Well if you put a heavy weight against an aging panel fence it's likely to knock it down.

I'm not sure why there is any dispute about it. He leaned something against a fence which then fell down. His responsibility entirely. He can argue that he didn't think it would fall down, but it did. I don't think there is any point in arguing that he should have KNOWN this. He obviously thought it would stand the weight but it didn't. End of.

Is fence designed to hold weight stacked against it ?

Not really. Although some might claim that a fence has to be able to take the force of a strong wind, which can be considerable over a 6ft panel, but is probably more evenly distributed.

Summary. Trying to press gang something old and dilapidated into a job it is not designed to do, the outcome is unlikely to be positive.

You gain extra points if you pointed this out prior to the fence collapse. It's always easy to be the wise and clever one after the event.

Edit : At some point in their lives most people will probably do something that with the benefit of hindsight was not such a good idea.

He needs to take responsibility and pay for the repair as he broke it. Tell him to grow up.

This is one of those long marriages where you hate each other now, isn’t it?

It was lucky that the fence along with the other heavy objects did not fall on someone in the neighbours garden. It could have seriously injured someone.