Neighbours fence has fallen into my garden. Can I replace on my side of the boundary?

[asomodai]

Hello everyone.

We have been doing some work in the garden. A fence that is maintained by a neighbour had been sagging on our shed, we moved our shed and sure enough the fence has collapsed and is completely rotted.

Can I put up a fence on my side of the boundary line and can I clear away/dispose the rotted fence that fell onto my property?

For reference, the owners of the house are not the easiest to get along with .

Cheers!

If it's their fence legally you can't dispose of it without asking them.

Yes, you can put a fence on your land, as long as wholly on your side and not touching their fence. Or in this case what would be their fence.

On gov.org there is a very informative section on fences and the law.

I moved house because of a fence. They can cause a lot of trouble so tread carefully!

You can of course put a fence up on your land. But be careful. You may inadvertently move the boundary and reduce your plot size.

You must return the broken fence to the neighbours as it’s their property. If you are doing works do you already have a skip? If so you could offer to just put it in there for them to save them effort.

You can absolutely build a new fence on your side of the boundary - the fence posts should be on your land, so you can either build it with the posts on your side and the nice side of the fence facing your neighbours, or you can build the fence a bit further onto your side so that you get the nice side and the posts still face away from you.

Don't throw the rotten fence out, they sound like the types to complain.
Chucking back over the boundary will also wind them up.
Pop a note thru their door and ask where they want it put. It's not your job (or expense) to dispose of it

The nice side comment above is wrong. If you look at the law, on gov.org, you will see that you can put whatever side you like facing the neighbours.

Yes. If you pay, you get the nice side.

To save land usage, there are fencing systems where the panels slot into the posts. Look at Jackson’s for ideas.