Fence Ownership

[lee12345]

Hi,

Is there a rule of who owns what side of the fence in a terraced property?
We have just had the left side replaced & spilt costs with our neighbour, as we believed we were responsible for the left side & he wanted to replace the fence.
The right side has fallen down in recent bad weather & our right side neighbours believe we are responsible for this side, as they also have a fence on the right side of their house.
This means someone in the row of 4 terraced houses, would own 2 sides of the fence, is this correct?

We had to look through our legal pack from our sellers to find ours. Ours is the left.

Some people do own both sides. Look at your deeds, they probably show which side you own.

There's no one fits all rule for this, you need to check your deeds.

It should be somewhere in the deeds.

My understanding is that owners are normally responsible for the fence down the left hand side of their property and along the bottom of the garden. That is the arrangement we have always had in houses we have owned.

I live in a row of 3 houses, I'm in the middle. Both my neighbours are responsible for 3 fences i.e both sides and bottom of the garden. I'm responsible for just the bottom of the garden. They both moan about it.

@Topseyt

It should be somewhere in the deeds.

My understanding is that owners are normally responsible for the fence down the left hand side of their property and along the bottom of the garden. That is the arrangement we have always had in houses we have owned.

This isn't the case. Our last 2 houses we have owned the fences on the right.

In my current house I own the right hand side & the bottom fence.
In my last house, I owned the left hand side!
Both are on the deeds. There seems to be no hard and fast rule to it...

It's on your deeds, or possibly it's dotted which means shared

Op you need to look at your house deeds. Clearly no random on line can tell you what you do and do not own. There are many different options.

When we lived in a terrace both fences were dual responsibility

It’s in your deeds. But in practice the person who erected the fence and paid for it usually maintains it.

I have just checked the deeds & both sides of the bottom of my garden has a red line drawn, I assume this means I own all of this? Or that they could be jointly owned.

@lee12345

I have just checked the deeds & both sides of the bottom of my garden has a red line drawn, I assume this means I own all of this? Or that they could be jointly owned.

Sorry should have said both sides and the bottom of the gaffe

The red line is just to show your boundary of the land you own, not to do with the fences. Fences are normally marked with a T on deeds and plans.

The fences that are mine have a T on them

If the deeds say anything it will usually be marked with a T sign on the side of the fence the responsibility lays with.

Often they don't, then it's basically up to everyone to be neighbourly - or whoever feels strongest about the situation to pay for the fence replacement.

You need to look at the deeds for yours and your neighbours. Even if your deed doesn’t say you are responsible for it, it may well be shared if their deed also does not say they are responsible.

You need their deeds to be clear on ownership as well as yours. Any ambiguity and the rule is that it is shared.