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Original poster

Fussy, unpleasant neighbours - we have painted our side of the dividing fence with wood preservative....

28 replies

PhoenixRising · 21/04/2010 13:32

...but it turns out that the fence is 'theirs' (I'm not very up on the deeds etc) and they are peturbed that we have done this. They can't see the wood preservative on their side of 'their' fence as it borders our property and faces onto our garden.

Can they sue us or something? (they are that petty that they would consider it if they had legal grounds). What could they sue us for - wilfully maintaining their fence at our cost

OP posts:
Itsjustafleshwound · 21/04/2010 13:37

What are they complaining about?? Surely, there would have to be some damage to sue??

GypsyMoth · 21/04/2010 13:38

is it coloured preservative??

there does seem to be yearly threads about this kind of thing!!

leave em to it....they wont sue....surely!

prh47bridge · 21/04/2010 13:51

If the fence is theirs they are liable for all maintenance costs. You should have told them what needed doing and given them the chance to do it themselves. If they failed to do it, you would then have been able to carry out the maintenance yourself and reclaim the costs from them.

In order for them to successfully sue you they will need to show that your actions have resulted in some kind of loss, e.g. by damaging the fence or forcing them to repaint their side of the fence to cover the preservative stains. They would only be able to claim the amount of money it costs to put things right.

KiddingAnxiously · 21/04/2010 14:15

How funny! (not for you obviously) Where do these people come from?

How did they know you had painted it?

Original poster
PhoenixRising · 21/04/2010 15:44

I don't think you can see it from their side - they only know about it because the chap who did the fence for us gave them a quote to paint their side.

It is a stained preservative - if they decide to be petty and say that the paint has leached through (I don't believe it has), and therefore they have to do theirs and we are liable for their costs, I won't like it but it won't cost much and I can live with it (shrugs). The guy concerned charges £130 per day plus cost of preservative and its only 2.5 days work.

The neighbour is one of these 'distressed of tunbridge wells' types - I think her main problem is the principle that we should have asked her first. I have explained to her that we did it unwittingly - ignorant of the fact that it was her fence, apologised for this and assured her that in future we will ask. Silly cow though!

OP posts:
ConnorTraceptive · 21/04/2010 15:49

Wow i never knew you had to ask permission to paint your side of the fence! We're about to do ours but because we're on a corner plot we share a fence with 7 houses in 3 different streets. Do I actually have to find out which fence is who's and ask? What if only 4 agree!

prh47bridge · 21/04/2010 17:44

The normal practise is that the fence belongs to you if the fence posts are on your side. That isn't 100% reliable but works in most cases. If you want to be sure you need to check the deeds.

If the fence is shared you are in the clear. If it belongs to your neighbour you should get their permission to paint it. If your neighbour refuses permission you can always put up another fence just inside the boundary and paint that instead.

Original poster
PhoenixRising · 21/04/2010 18:26

Neighbours husband has left a message on answerphone whilst I was out (and after i had spoken to her) asking me to ring back. Have delegated that to dh! It clearly isn't over for them - poor dears, they obviously don't have much going on in their lives!

OP posts:
Original poster
PhoenixRising · 21/04/2010 18:28

Tempted to throw a large party at the weekend to give them something to get their teeth stuck into!

OP posts:
MaureenMLove · 21/04/2010 18:33

How petty! I painted the fence no belonging to us last year and didn't give it a second thought that I should be asking the neighbour.

In fact, the neighbour actually offered to put the dog inside for a couple of hours, if it was easier to paint them out of the posts!

BigBadMummy · 21/04/2010 18:37

Tell them to put it in writing via their solicitors.

What a load of balls.

Yes it might be a legality but really... who asks permission to do it?

What are they going to sue you for? Pain and suffering?

Idiots! (Them not you obviously)

ANTagony · 21/04/2010 18:42

I'm allergic to various paints and chemicals - some like fence preservative take time to dry and make me headachy, sneezy and sometimes sick for a few days. Just a thought but there may be good reason that they didn't want it doing. A simple apology note before allowing it to build into a major issue wouldn't be a bad thing to do.

Its not me by the way my fences are chicken wire!

KiddingAnxiously · 22/04/2010 19:20

Go on what did the message say???

Still can't get over this.....

Fizzylemonade · 23/04/2010 22:26

The law is that if a fence belongs to one person they are entitled to paint BOTH sides whatever colour they like, bright pink, sunshine yellow, black.

If the fence belongs to someone else you have no legal right to touch it, grow anything up it, attach anything to it.

These are the type of disputes that lead to neighbours from hell and retaliation and if you ever want to sell your house then a neighbour dispute can stop you doing it because why would someone buy a house next to a mad old loon?

You might want to look at www.gardenlaw.co.uk website and their forums on fences, boundaries, trees etc for how it all goes horribly wrong

If it was me, I would apologise, buy a bunch of flowers and hope that is the end of it.

The rule of "the nice side goes to the neighbour" doesn't really apply anymore.

Original poster
PhoenixRising · 26/04/2010 23:03

That's interesting fizzylemonade - because it would seem that the neighbours rights to paint our side of their fence (if they chose to) would take precedence over our right not to have them come uninvited onto our land? (and then would have to be situated in our garden in order to paint the fence).

As it happens it has all blown over - neighbours husband was in role of a peace maker when dh spoke to him, and keen to forget it and move on (thank goodness). This fits with our perception that it is the lady of the household who is a bit unhinged (she has complained before about us having a climbing frame in our garden etc!) - she must lead her poor husband a dogs life

OP posts:
Anaar · 11/10/2021 21:21

Hi guys, seriously need advice. Our very nasty neighbour had planning permission to put a 2.4m fence between the patios. He has started doing the fence and to our surprise attached a black thick plastic sheet to the posts facing our side and proper timber fence on his side. We objected to council saying that on the plan it was timber fence. Guess what - council said it was not a breach because plan shows fence facing him and not us. Is that true? How spiteful

HirplesWithHaggis · 11/10/2021 21:25

You'd be better to start your own new thread, rather than tacking on to such an old one. :)

Djifunrsn · 11/10/2021 21:25

What sort of a bored weirdo gets upset when a neighbour stains the fence their side, having a professional do it even. Jesus fucking Christ. This woman needs to get a grip and try out the real world.

madroid · 11/10/2021 21:28

I don't think anyone can come on your property no matter what fences they own. It's trespass without the owner's permission.

Tailendofsummer · 11/10/2021 22:01

Since the Op is from 11 years ago, I'd like to think a grudge is not still borne.

vivainsomnia · 12/10/2021 08:37

Sorry OP but I think you are taking a bit of a high moral attitude about it.

Ultimately you altered something that doesn't belong to you without permission.

Yes, it's no big deal, yes, they don't see it, but it doesn't take away that you were in the wrong in the first place.

Maybe your laissez-faire attitude is what led her to acting 'unhinged'.

BingBongToTheMoon · 12/10/2021 09:04

@vivainsomnia

Sorry OP but I think you are taking a bit of a high moral attitude about it.

Ultimately you altered something that doesn't belong to you without permission.

Yes, it's no big deal, yes, they don't see it, but it doesn't take away that you were in the wrong in the first place.

Maybe your laissez-faire attitude is what led her to acting 'unhinged'.

This was posted in 2010!
Brahumbug · 07/11/2021 06:29

Zombie! Otherwise known as 'The Walking Thread'😁

Sunflowergirl1 · 07/11/2021 08:27

Our neighbour fortunately asked us before they did. They wanted green and it is currently brown as DH does both sides. We said no as it always leaches through and hence why we always do both sides, although it is more cosmetic as the wood is tantalised.

Sorry for hijacking... @prh47bridge. The fence we have on our other side is interesting with same situation about painting it. The fence shouldn't be ours as the rule on our estate is the fence to the right is the house owners to maintain. However, the one on the other side, the house was empty years ago and then the new owners didn't want to pay to put up a fence! Added to that, the space in between the previous owner had paved up to their boundary so no space to put posts in!

In the end the then owner had a fence put in. The posts are on our side, but the panels sit slightly over their boundary (mid air really) as they are slats. The fence was installed in 1993 and now needs some maintenance. The debate is "who pays". Posts our side and slats their side. Prob easiest is go halves but the niggling bit in me is also worried about the boundary as it is prob not clear cut who owns what now?

Sunflowergirl1 · 07/11/2021 08:28

Sorry, the then owner of our house had the fence put in. Posts on his land

We still know him and have all the records