Cannot determine who is responsible for fences?

[BetteDavis01]

We are currently in the process if purchasing a house, 1930s semi. The garden has three fences, left side, right side and back fence. The sellers had to fill out a form regarding the boundaries and they said they were responsible for left hand side, neighbour responsible for right side but they said they didn't know who was responsible for the back fence. They have lived there for over 20 yrs.

We thought it was odd that our solicitor was just going to go on what the sellers were saying ( they may be incorrect) so we asked them
to check the title deeds (?) and they said they didn't mention who was responsible for the fences.

So, is this a standard thing that people have to deal with? I'm nervous about buying a property and not knowing 'officially' what I am responsible for?

Can anyone please advise me. Thank you.

It should be on the deeds . What does the rear fence back on to? Is it another house or is it open land? Could you possibly ask the prospective new neighbours? Someone must know, surely!

The house back onto another house's rear garden.

if it's a 1930's house, then the old fences will have the posts and arris rails on the owners side. If the house you're looking at has a new fence, look at the neighbours' for clues.

The other answer is that if it isn't in the deeds (and even if it is), no-one can be forced to maintain a fence if they don't feel like it. So if you want the bottom fence mended, and the other house doesn't want to, you will have to do it yourself.

If it's not on the deeds, you can phone the Land Registry to find out if it's on the neighbour's deeds. If it's not on the neighbour's deeds, Land Registry will advise that the fence is a joint responsibility, but as PigletJohn says, if the neighbour's don't want to maintain it, they probably won't.