Should I have a copy of the Deeds? (Fence related)

[CimCardashian]

I have the Land Registry documents which have the most basic of diagrams for the boundary but no details of fence ownership.

I don’t have a copy of the deeds. Having had a quick google it seems like there’s no guarantee that fence ownership will be on there anyway.
Are they easy to get hold of?

We need a new fence and not sure which side belongs to who 🤷‍♀️
The ‘left’ side when looking into the garden is not always correct according to what I have read.

Talk with your neighbours and see if they'll go 50/50?

thanks @VeniVidiWeeWee I plan to do this once I get some quotes.

Just find out what everyone around thinks. All the neighbours here do the fence on the left thing but our deeds at least actually say something different. We're just going to go with the flow.

My deeds do say which fence I am responsible for, but they also point out that a fence does not have to be in place, I just have to mark the boundary in some way. I found this out when our neighbour took down the old fence on their side and just put up some chicken wire. I spoke to them to say they needed to put a fence up as the bottom of their garden opened onto an access road, so the fact it wasn't secure meant my garden wasn't either with this crappy bit of wire up. They said they didn't have to put a fence out so I got the deeds and found out they were right. Luckily they did eventually put a proper fence up, but it's never been maintained. So it might state on your deeds what you are responsible for.

My house is over 100 years old in case that makes any difference, I don't know if newer properties would be different.

Fences are a minefield and there is always so much misinformation on here about them.
Refreshing to finally read a thread with accurate information!

Unfortunately no, deeds and title plans wont always show fences or responsibility. Mine don't and my home is a reasonably new 20 years old.

Best bet is to speak to the neighbour, ask if they know who's responsible and if they mind if you replace the fence. You might even have a decent neighbour like mine who pushed half the cash in an envelope through the door when I replaced ours.

Always best to keep communication open. Remember whoever owns a boundary has no responsibility to fence it.

Many thanks everyone. My neighbour rents his house out so he’s not that bothered as he doesn’t have to live with it!
I have a feeling he might be willing to pay half. I would rather pay half than have nothing there at all.

Are they easy to get hold of?

Simple, from here:-

www.gov.uk/get-information-about-property-and-land/copies-of-deeds

Fences can be a real nightmare and there is no one fixed rule.

In some cases the title plan will indicate it with a 'T' mark but, as you've already said, not always.

In general, the presumption is that the owner of land will fence to the full extent of their property and that if the fence is supported by upright posts on one side only, there is a presumption that it belongs to the owner on with the posts on their side unless there is evidence to the contrary.

In other cases, people just decide to build the other way round so that the "nice" side is facing them rather than their neighbours so the presumption isn't always actually the truth - it's just a presumption.

In some, particularly ex-council, properties typically with eg concrete posts and wire as fences then the boundary does, generally speaking, run down the middle of the concrete posts.

So, there is a general presumption, but that is only in cases where there is nothing to indicate one way or another as to who owns the fence.

It may also be that although you might be responsible for the boundary, at some time in the past the other property has replaced the fence so it is actually theirs.

It's complicated.

Get the rest of the deeds, my house sale only came with the title plan which has the boundary drawn in red. We contacted land registry for the rest of the documents for the house which lists all the covenants (no pigs or livestock) and it details in writing who owns what fence.

On my extra documents it states that all boundaries are shared and that all fences and walls must be maintained.

The whole left hand side or who has the posts is completely unreliable as an indicator of ownership or responsibility. Where I lived before it was common for people to double the fence, ie to have all the garden fences matching when they had 3 different fence styles they would erect their own fence next to the neighbour's fence on all 3 sides. After a few years some of those original fences were removed and then the new fence became a new boundary line.

Get the rest of the documents relating to your property and go from there.