Neighbour dispute after painting my side of fence

[chl0e123]

Hi I just wanted to get some opinions on this, firstly I feel awful for not knocking at my neighbours to ask if they mind me painting my side of the fence, I just assumed it would be ok, i not long moved in our house so assumed the fence was put up by previous owner an never been painted, but all the other fences around the garden are brown so I spent all day very careful to just do my side, it did not sleep through and was perfect, but my neighbour knocked not very happy said I should have asked, and wants us to paint it to match her side? The thing is it's much darker and I'm not sure it would work if we did, abviously appologised for the assumption of me thinking I can do it, and rang my landlord who said I can paint it or they will just put another fence up covering it anyway, so not sure what to do but I rly don't want an orange fence on my side an I Dnt want to fall out with my neighbour either ?

OP it partly depends on exactly whose fence it is, usually each side belongs to one particular house. So if it's their fence then it's actually illegal to paint and/or attach anything to it without prior permission, it's no different than if you suddenly spray-painted their car, and counts as a form of damage. If it's your fence i.e. the one your house is responsible for, then technically you can do what you want but as most fences have slats through which things seep then it's still a bit rude as paint will have run on the other side and made it look horrible. It sounds as if you think that hasn't happened, so maybe they think it's their fence and your landlord the opposite, so need to get them to work out between them who is responsible for which fence asap. It may also be that your landlord is ignorant of the law and thinks that because the fence is on the property boundary that they have a right to do things to it, which they don't.

Do they want you to paint it because it seeped through?
The owner of the fence usually puts it up with the back of the fence on their side, but not everyone knows this. Which side do you have?

No it hasn't seeped through their side is fine.

She knows I painted it because it's in the front garden, so she had to walk past to see it, and said she wanted it her colour on both sides, I just assumed the previous owner never got round to painting it because it was bare, and needed treating, I find it quite silly myself, my other neighbours have passed and commented how nice it looks, the fence is jointly between our lands on a wall, that decides the house, you would think she would be grateful we looking after it by treating it 🤷🏻‍♀️ she said she was going to to give us the code for the colour paint she wants it doing and asked us to re paint it 🙄 I'm actually considering replacing all my other fences to match to please her, but my partner not happy with her approach and mannerisms when we been nice about it, and he wants to put up our own fence beside it do we can paint it to match our fences 🙈

Who’s boundary is it?

Why are you doing this anyway if you are renting the property?

Renting for now want to test the house before buying, which we are not in a position to atm until next year, but regardless I still want a nice home and look after properties we live in, I am very house proud and enjoy my gardening, it was just odd the fence to my left dull grey wood never been treated thought such a shame, and Iv made it look rly nice now, just wish I had of asked instead of assuming it would be ok 🤷🏻‍♀️ Dnt want to upset my neighbour but seriously I haven't been able to eat all day after the way she approached us, quite feisty, I just don't know what to do can't please everyone, was kinda hoping she may think about it given time an apologise for how she spoke to us, we are good reasonable people, and meant no harm, only good, and even agreed to painting it back but it's just annoyed my partner because I was out there all day carefully doing it, and he wants to put our own fence up now incase it ever gets damaged etc is she going to be knocking over it 🤷🏻‍♀️

@chl0e123 ,not the most helpful of replies so far .

You can download copies of a title plan and register entry for about £6 here
eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/QuickEnquiryInit.do

they will sometimes ( not always ) show who owns which fence/wall ,sometimes with T marks on the plan . If they don't show this for the property you are in they may show on the entries for your neighbour .

Is your landlord offering to put another fence up ? Seems odd ?

You may want to post on legal www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_matters

PS it's not exactly the same as spray painting your neighbours car in my book ,

rang my landlord who said I can paint it

If it isn't your fence, you can't paint it without permission of the owner.

Thank you very much for the info, yes the landlord agreed to put a fence up I think because she removed his to put her own up, but if I'm not allowed to paint it with it being her property then we can install another fence against it to be able to paint it the colour we want. And there would b nothing she can do, what if I want a solar panel light in my fence? I don't want to be having to knock to ask her permission it's just silly feel like it's not my home then, but thank you anyway I will see what tomorrow brings, and hopefully this should be resolved.

And yes I will do that Bob thanks I just like to deal with things civil and calmly Cnt b doing with bitterness over something silly, mayb she expected us to react in a different way 🤷🏻‍♀️ so came across very stern, giving us a telling off 🙈