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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask our neighbours to put their fence posts on their side of the fence.

67 replies

ClaireyFairy82 · 04/02/2010 09:21

We live on a hill and it's often very windy. The fence between my neighbours property and ours was installed very badly before we even moved in so it was no surprise to us when it blew down at the beginning of November. In fact it was so windy that the fence post snapped.

We kept asking them to replace it as on the deeds it indicates that it is their fence and I was sure it would be more to their benefit than ours as they have three cats and a pet pig and we have a dog. It?s taken since them months to replace it but finally while I was out yesterday the new fence was erected. The original fence had posts in between the panels, so the new fence is of a much better quality. But to my surprise the fence posts are on my side, meaning that they have a lovely flush fence and we have the posts. I was always under the impression that the fence posts were put on the side of ownership, as they need to be on your land.

I don?t know what to do. Should I mention it to them? AIBU to want them to take the fence out again and install it with the posts on their side. Or should I just lump it?

OP posts:
EcoMouse · 04/02/2010 11:46

It also used to be customary to have a garden fence no higher than waist height. Another one which I wish hadn't been done away with.

My grandparents did have a secluded area within their garden but I remember many happy summer days outside, inclusive of exchanging pleasantaries with neighbours. Imagine!

I currently have a tiny back garden and spend the summer chasing the two square feet of sunlight around with the DC's paddling pool, thanks to the surrounding six foot fences.

(Off topic ramble )

OP, you have an absolute right to have their fence, posts and all, moved onto their land.

Crapweasel · 04/02/2010 11:49

Morloth

For the type of fence that the OP is talking about (I think) it's the difference between

this and

this.

(And it costs much more than a couple of hundred, believe me!)

I think the OP's only legal right is to ensure that the posts and the boards are on the neighbours' land not hers.

MissMarjoribanks · 04/02/2010 11:49

Please please don't phone the Council planning department. It will be the 11th time that day they have been asked that question and the 11th time that day the poor bugger on the end of the phone will have to go round in ever decreasing circles to get the message across that, really, its nothing to do with them and they can't advise you.

Pancakeflipper · 04/02/2010 11:51

Ours was waist height until nextdoor got chickens and they kept living in our garden. Great for egg hunting but their poo and young tots don't mix. And our cat wasn't impressed.

The neighbours got fed up of them paying for the upkeep of the hens but the eggs being laid in our garden and hidden under the bushes. So a big fence went up. And yes they paid and yes they got the pretty side.

EcoMouse · 04/02/2010 11:59

Custom v entitlement v legalities.

Legalities: no part of a neighbours fence should encroach on the neighbouring land.

Entitlement: if you've payed for it, essentially, you can do what you want with it. On your land only.

Custom: traditionally, people show(ed ) their neighbours the courtesy of offering up the 'good' side of the fence.

posieparker · 04/02/2010 12:00

I think the courtesy is putting up the fence, they could have just left it. Of course they should stick to their own land.

NeedaNewName · 04/02/2010 12:01

I don't think I'd care about a pretty side or post side, I would just appreciate that a new fence has gone up!

However I would be peeved if the new fence took up my garden and not theirs, and also if it was a huge 6 foot fence replacing instead of a reasonable height.

Put trellis up and grow something pretty. Really nto worth getting your knickers ina twist over.

ImSoNotTelling · 04/02/2010 12:03

It's not courtesy to put up a fence - that is normally a legal requirement and will be stipulated in the deeds.

So in all likelihood they couldn't have "just left it".

abride · 04/02/2010 12:03

We spent £££ on a new fence and asked the neighbours (tenants not owners) if they minded having the posts. Neither they nor the landlord did, so we have the nice flush side.

JustAnotherManicMummy · 04/02/2010 12:08

Don't get why it bothers you. It's a better fence than the one that was there when you moved in. It's cost you nothing.

Get over it. There are plenty worse things to worry about.

ExpectingtoBU · 04/02/2010 12:11

Bump

Tolalola · 04/02/2010 12:15

I was actually just looking at this the other day, as we're doing some fencing at the mo.

My DIY bible says that: "It is an unwritten law that a good neighbour erects a fence with the post and rails facing his or her own property, but there are no legal restrictions which force you to do so."

However, it also says that you need your neighbours permission if you want to work from both sides when you're fencing. So depends if the whole thing is on their side of the boundary, I guess. If the fence has gone over onto your property, then you could ask them to fix it, but I'd make bloody sure you know EXACTLY where the boundary runs before you accuse them of that.

RedbinDippers · 04/02/2010 12:53

How did they manage to get insurance to pay for their new fence, that's usually excluded?

WorzselMummage · 04/02/2010 13:01

Blimy, If i was the one paying 1.5k to have a fence built then i'd damn well want to be looking at at the pretty side of it myself !

Op if you want a pretty fence then build you own !

wedgiesaurus · 04/02/2010 13:11

Just on a slightly different note - our counci has recently 'modernised' a full nearby council estate (including new fences). The houses which were bought under right to buy obviously have had no work done one them. However where a rented house is next to a bought house, when they have replaced the fences they have in every instance possible put the ugly side of the fence on the bought house side.

5Foot5 · 04/02/2010 13:15

When we moved in to our house it was a new development and all the gardens have fences around. It was explained to us that each house was responsible for one of their boundary fences - the one with the posts on your side. Which means we get two nice "flat" fences and one with the posts showing.

I think this is common practice.

However, don't see how you can object now the fence has gone up without causing bad feeling.

Some people suggested growing things up the posts. Trouble with that is that since it is not your fence then you have no say if they subsequently decide to change it / replace it whatever and your lovingly nurtured rambling rose would be a thing of the past

Morloth · 04/02/2010 13:20

Crapweasel meh, I still don't get it. What is so visually displeasing about the poles?

I can honestly say I have never thought anything other than "fence" when looking at one.

People care about fence sides, this is my lesson for today!

trixymalixy · 04/02/2010 13:28

Given that they have installed the fence at great expense to their insurance company i think you'd be on a hiding to nothing asking them to then pay to have it removed and then reinstalled with the "pretty" side facing you!!!!!!!!!

I had no idea there was common courtesy to do with fences. Our neighbour's fence posts face us and when we had our fence installed the company just installed it with the "pretty" side facing us without any input from us. it would never have occured to me to do anything other than that though.

ImSoNotTelling · 04/02/2010 13:42

I am a bit that all the fence companies are doing it, as if they are all doing it the wrong way then that's that, another custom and courtesy bites the dust.

taxmoppet · 04/02/2010 14:22

Can't believe they didn't talk to you beforehand to check that you were ok with them going into your garden to install it - would have thought that that was just common courtesy.

might be worth mentioning it to them along the lines of 'wondering if there was any reason why when they put the fence back up they put it the other way round from before?'

Think the fence post position thing is one that whilst lots of people do know, lots don't. And OK so maybe your neighbours don't know or wanted the nice side of the fence or their contractors just did it without asking. But what you don't want to happen down the line is for you to suddenly be landed with the liability for the fence because the fence posts are now on your side because a new neighbour has come along and 'knows' (or worse, their insurance company says) that the fence is the responsibility of the person who has the fence posts...

girlywhirly · 04/02/2010 14:48

Interestingly to us, when our neighbours had a new fence, we gained a few inches of garden from them. When the guys put up a string to make sure the fence would run in a straight line, they discovered that the old fence wasn't straight and had to put in a few new holes. Yes the posts and arris rails are on our side, but it really doesn't matter to me. Just glad to have a decent fence there, after posts rotting and panel after panel falling down in high winds flattening our shrubs. And the fencers even left a gap for the hedgehogs to crawl under, as their gate frame is fixed to our wall. (I asked if they would!)

pranma · 04/02/2010 18:33

Why not put up some trellis tacking it to the posts and grow something pretty up it.

lal123 · 04/02/2010 18:38

So - you pester them to replace the fence, they go to the hassle and bother of doing it (using THEIR insurance) and you're moaning about getting the post side?????? If it bothered you that much why didn't you get the fence put up in the first place??

LIZS · 04/02/2010 18:52

It is a better quality fence but asthetically less pleasing to you . Our deeds require that we maintain (all 3 rear) boundaries, no fence specified. Can you be sure it was correctly sited previously ? Are the posts intruding into your property - if they are on the boundary then you cannot complain really.

Dirtgirl · 04/02/2010 18:58

I'm a bit at the contractors doing it that way tbh, they should really know better. It is standard practice that the owner of the fence gets the post side.

I'm with Taxmoppet, be careful in future it doesn't mean people assume it is your fence.

OP I'd be annoyed too, but not sure it is really worth getting them to change it. Would be tempted to mention their mistake though, even if you do it in a non confrontational way and blame it on the landscapers. I'd want it to be noted that I'd noticed IYSWIM.