Dispute with neighbours over fence

[Fencehelp]

Looking for some advice please.
We have a garden that is fenced on 3 sides. One side and the back side is ours to maintain. The other side is next door neighbours. Our old fence was in a terrible state since we moved in but we’ve only just gotten the funds to improve it. We had ours replaced and it happened that next doors had their side replaced as well. Both sets of next door neighbours are happy and so are we.

The issue is with the neighbour behind us. Their garden is separated from our garden by half of our fence and half of next doors fence. As we have had our fence replaced it does look a little odd for them as they can see old and new fence. Our contractor has tried to tidy it as best as he can but realistically until next door replace their back fence it’s not going to look right. Now the back neighbour keeps threatening the contractor telling him to put the old fence back. We have tried talking to that neighbour but he says his issue is with the contractor and doesn’t want speak to us.

any advice on how we should proceed? We are trying to keep things civil but I honestly don’t know what he wants us to do.

Nothing to do - there isn't a resolution anyway, you aren't having the old fences put back.
Sounds like the fence is done and the contractor is finished - up to them whether they engage with your neighbour.
And your neighbour wont talk to you about it, so presumably it isn't even impacting on you.

By law you do not need to put a fence up. If he doesn't like the mismatch he can put his own fence or shrubs in front of yours in his own property. The contractor needs to ignore him, so do you, if he continues with any threats you report him for harassment. Send him a copy of uk fence laws.

This.

Yes your neighbour must be aware that he/she has fences which don't alinge exactly with one neighbour, therefore he/she can't expect all the fences to look the same. We have this - shared back fence with two neighbours, who also both share their back fences with us and one other neighbour (different from each other). The middle back neighbour has put fences up inside the property which cover all the gardens that his garden adjoins which is half of our fence and half our neighbours. If your neighbour doesn't like the mixed fences, he needs to put his own fence inside his plot!

They need to just put up with it or put a uniform fence inside the new ones

I need a photo! 🙂

Confused, can't see why you have a shared back fence or how both you and your neighbour have put up new fences which don't match his. How can 3 properties share a fence.
In any case. Ignore the other neighbour. And I'm assuming you didn't take his fence down to put up new?

I have 5 houses on one side of my boundary. Both my back and front gardens are long and their gardens back on to the side of mine. Everyone has a different fence. I even paid for one of them as the owner was elderly and happy for me to replace the old one. Apart from that I wouldn’t dream of telling I didn’t like their fences

I never understand these types of disputes. If you dont want mismatched fence which is perfectly reasonable... then put a sodding fence the whole way round your garden just inside the boundary. If you choose not to then shut up and put up!

Thank you all for your advice. I didn’t think we had actually done anything wrong as the deeds do state it is our fence to maintain.

Drawing to hopefully make it clearer. The brown section is what we replaced. Neighbour 1 replaced their side. They had replaced their back fence previously.

our contractor did the following.

• Pulled the fence back in line so it was level, back neighbour was annoyed even though it was pulled back onto our property. But before this the fence was literally bowing down into his side.
• fence height is in alignment with all the other fences on the left of our house. Previously the old fence at the back was higher than standard for some reason as shown in the bubble section.

Back neighbour is complaining about the following

• fence heights being different
• fences looking different.

we have sent him a message again saying that the contractor is willing to put up a post (free of charge) to try and make it look nicer but that we won’t be putting back the old fence. we are going to be putting up a shed in that area which will offer us both more privacy otherwise he can either put up his own fence on his side of the property if he should wish.

haven’t had a response yet 🤞