Fence ownership

[Ihatesandwiches]

How do i go about finding out who owns a garden fence, please? Fence is ready to fall down on my property!

Might be on your deeds or might not. Could be shared. Have you spoken to your neighbour?

will be on your deeds, you can download them for around £7/8 quid if you own the property

Check your deeds or plan at the land registry. There’s no guarantee it will be on there though. We paid £6 for ours and they told us nothing. We decided to just replace the fence on all three sides and our neighbours were happy enough since we footed the bill.

If you have an ex council property there’s a chance all three will be yours. When they started selling them off they made buyers responsible for fences if the houses either side were still owned by the council.

On your deeds, if they are your fences there will bea little red t on the map. If none, may be either shared or neighbours responsibility

Deeds specify who is responsible for maintaining a boundary; that is different from who owns a fence!

Where is the boundary, where is the fence in relation to the boundary. If it’s on your land it’s yours, is my understanding.

once you know which boundary is which you can tell whether the fence is inside your boundary or outside and therefore not yours - unless of course the fence is on the boundary.

But if the boundary is your responsibility you don't have to replace the fence - there isn't a legal obligation

once you know which boundary is which you can tell whether the fence is inside your boundary or outside and therefore not yours - unless of course the fence is on the boundary. But that depends on knowing where your boundary is. Land registry records do not give an accurate definition of the boundary except where the two owners have agreed a boundary and lodged it with land registry. I had to do some digging in to this when a neighbour claimed that a previous owner of my property had placed the fence 6 inches on to the neighbour's land, and they wanted it moved back.

Also, I understand there's no requirement to fence your property. So if your neighbour's fence falls down, you can't require them to repair it.