Advice! Can’t afford repairs

[Justgonamless]

Help- we are skint- desperately trying to pay off 2 credit cards - 1 used to pay electrician and the other for a car. So not for exciting things like holidays.

My problem is our shared fence is broke - my neighbors want a new one (she rents) but I just haven’t got the money to go halves.
Also our felt on our garage (which backs onto another neighbors garden) needs replacing and she and badgering us to get it fixed. The back of our garage is the back garden wall.

I just don’t know what to do! I can’t take out another credit card when I applied to take some money out on the mortgage we were told NO not until our credit cards are paid off. Hopefully these will be gone by end of 2022.

Can I just tell my neighbors No that I haven’t got the money? Can they take me to court?

Unless your deeds say otherwise legally you do not have to have a fence at all. When she badgers you tell her straight that you cannot fix it

Or you could just tell her to f@ck off , then she will never want to talk to you again 😀. Job done.

Tenant needs her landlord to sort it as she's the one who wants it done.
I needed the brick wall on both sides replaced as it was in a dangerous state. It was unclear on the deeds who was responsible. Both neighbours cried poor. I paid for new fence, and I had the posts on their sides. It may be that it has been agreed your fence is a shared cost, but if you don't have the funds it's not urgent. Neither is your garage - why is the neighbour complaining? Is it unsightly? Tough. You are not obliged to fix it unless it's a danger.

@Justgonamless

I’ve checked our deeds and all fences are shared except the back one which we are all responsible for- weird isn’t it! It hasn’t fallen down but I don’t think it’ll last another winter.

I’m just worried that someone will send me to court as when you take out a mortgage is says in the paperwork that you are responsible for upkeep and maintenance. I honestly want to cry.
We are so frugal and I feel like we try so hard to keep everything afloat but then there’s always something that goes wrong 😭

We have been in a situation where our neighbours were pressurising us to replace a broken fence so I know what you mean about how you feel like you have to do it to their timescale. But the fact it - you don't, especially as it hasn't even fallen down yet. You are able to delay it until you can afford it so I would just be honest with them about how you can't afford it just now. They may decide to fix it now and you pay them when you can afford to but that is up to them. Equally they may agree to wait a few months. Either way, this is not something they can take you to court over so don't worry about that.

Patching tha garage should be easy look on Youtube, ask friends relatives etc for DIY help not money
Sons place needed new fence panels, we got the first 4 of Facebook Market place for free, pained and fitted, just found another 4 so going to fit them, soon, total cost a second hand can of fence paint stuff £2 for the local Car Boot sale.
It can be done dont loose hope but you are doing the right thing to keep an eye on spending