Fences and hedges

[Beckyt80]

Just looking for some wisdom / knowledge.
We have taken some leylandi out of our garden and now there is currently a 20ft gap between our garden and the neighbours. The rest of the 90ft boundary is not clearly defined apart from a green wire in some places. We have lots of overgrown vegetation (previously vacant house) in our garden that goes up to their lawn where we think the unofficial boundary is. Obviously having a massive gap is not ideal. It is the neighbours boundary so we had a conversation about us getting a fence. They would like to put in a hedge on the boundary which is fine by us so we have said we will look to put up a fence stepped in from the boundary in our garden. Is that an ok thing to do? We are on good terms with the neighbours but fear this is going to cause annoyance....... how do you think it is best to handle it? Are we approaching it the right way? We really don’t want to annoy the neighbours........

So you mean completely on your property instead of along the boundary? Why would you? You'll lose garden by doing that and potentially muddy the waters as to where the boundary is. There are usually features the boundary runs between so it shouldn't be too difficult to work it out together with the land registry title plan.

Just realised I misread your post OP. Why would you incur extra cost by having a hedge and a fence? The hedge roots might push the fence out of alignment and think about how you would cut the hedge back on your side and maintain your fence with the hedge there. Who would pay for what? Have you had that conversation?

Not sure I fully understand, but the boundary fence needs to be on the boundary. If you want to put an additional fence 20 feet in from your side of the boundary (but why would you do this?) you can, but make sure that you can access the 20 foot strip as you'll need to maintain it.

The OP wants to have the new 20ft long hedge along the boundary then their own fence inside the boundary, not 20ft inside!

So we most missed the hedge bit?

I would still put the fence on the boundary - the hedge that they want needs to be grown on their side, and planted sufficiently away from the fence line to allow it mature without encroaching on your property.

Do not plant the hedge on the boundary line.

I'd rather have a hedge than a fence tbh, although it can be more work to maintain.

Thanks for your responses..... sorry for the confusion! It is the neighbours boundary and they would like to put a hedge along it to mark it. We cannot appose this as we both know that it is their boundary to maintain. We are fine with this. We however are keen to have a fence (along the whole 90ft length) and would propose putting it a couple of inches in from the boundary.
For us we would prefer a fence for a few reasons: ease of maintenance, containment of footballs 😀, a bit more privacy initially, less movement of foxes between the gardens, and I guess also, so we actually clearly know what garden is ours!
Ultimately if we lose a couple of inches of garden we feel it is worth it.

No reason why you can't put an additional fence on your side of the boundary. We have double fence in ours as my neighbour (whose boundary it is) has an open slatted fence and my husband wanted more privacy so we put a close boarded one on our side.

You do know foxes can climb fences? They scaled the six foot ones in the back garden of our old house.

I'd suggest a wire fence on steel stakes along the boundary. The hedge can grow through it but the posts will be there when the hedge is next cut down. By which time it might be six feet wide and no use as a boundary marker.

Usually boundaries between adjoining gardens are straight and you can run the wire between the posts at each end and pull it taut to straighten it.