Fence regulations/neighbour complaint

[StaceyF90]

Please excuse my awful drawing! We want to move our fence from the side of our house (red bar) to the front (dashed red bar)

The hedge is over 2m so fence (1.8m) won't be seen from the road.

Our neighbours (who complain about anything and everything) are saying we can't move it as we cant have a fence over 1m meeting the road. We have an end detached house so have a wrap around garden, fences current position meets the road but technically it is at the side of the house not the front. The new position does not meet the road as there is a hedge in the way.

I've phoned and emailed the council and they either don't respond or tell me to check the website. Anyone have experience with this? Should we just move it?

tell your neighbour to contact the council if they have a problem with you moving a fence no one can see but you.

neigbhours will have the same issue with council as you’ve had

This seems to be a reasonable summary, your neighbour may be right.
prettys.co.uk/newsletters/issues-consider-if-you-are-replacing-your-front-garden-fence-wall-or-gates

How do the neighbors know you’re intending to move the fence? What’s it got to do with them?

I would say that would be classed as a side fence as you are not changing the boundary at the front of the house (hedge) it will be shorter than front hedge and it doesn't meet a road either, so per the website, should be fine

It always used to be be 1m if parallel with a road and 2m anywhere else.

If you live in a house built after 1974?you may have even these rights removed and need to check conditions on original planning permission.

Obviously this doesn't take account of any restrictions there may be on your deeds. Completely separate to planning.

Why have you even discussed this with a neighbour who finds fault with everything?

I’d just do it, I can’t see the problem.

The hedge is between the fence and the road though, so it’s not directly adjacent.

They may be right if it affects sight-lines onto the road. Norm is 4ft at front.

It won’t if the hedge is higher that’s between the fence and the road.

It explains 'adjacent' in the article. The hedge isn't relevant.

Tell them you’ve asked the council and they haven’t written back with any concerns.

Just do it then its sits in their hands to contact the council ect if they are really that bothered. It's very unlikely you would be forced to remove it. From what has been posted it looks fine to me.

Why does the neighbour care? Where are they on your diagram?

I’d just do it, if I were you. I cannot imagine what the objection could reasonably be.

If the council won't explain it properly then go ahead with your plan, however do have a backup plan in case neighbourcomplains successfully. Could the very last panel that touches the hedge be okay at a reduced height but the remainder at 1.8m?

The article seems similar to ones I've read before. It includes that side fences, which are adjacent to the road, are subject to the same restrictions but we currently have one of those as well - or rather, that's how I've understood it.
We asked our surveyor to check this when we were looking to buy the house and he said it was fine

It was built 1989 so before deeds had to be scanned. We got told after we purchased the house earlier this year there are no deeds.
It's been 6 months and the title deeds haven't even been updated yet, bit of a shambles really.
I've gone through our purchase documents are there is nothing on there about heights just owners of the fences

We didn't discuss it with them. They are nosy and look our their windows a lot when we (or others) are outside.
We had a contractor around to replace the back fence and ask him to quote for the front one too. They either heard or saw us.
When the contractor left they came over about it.

The council won’t object as you are not obstructing or restricting driver visibility.
That said, will the fence look out of place?
You could put it in with the final panel angling down from full height to 1m.
An alternative, install a hedge as they have no height restriction (at least for your requirements).
Hedges are more environmentally friendly also.

I think your neighbour is correct (had a planning module on my degree many years ago). It's about 'building lines', ie the front line of the house. If the fence is in front of the 'building line' then you need planning permission for a full height fence.

This sounds like a good reply to me.

I think the adjacent to the highway is really incase you block sight lines of drivers, this looks totally fine to me and I think you could bring it to the end of the drive, especially if it’s still behind the hedge. I think the chance of them complaining to the council and the council taking it forward is tiny, but maybe have at the back of your mind the cost to move it back, if it’s affordable go for it. Alternatively you could just seek planning permission for peace of mind.

Moving the fence may prompt your neighbour to report you. Then your hedge might also be considered too tall if it obstructs the sight lines. Not necessarily in your deeds but due to safety, so the council can require you to act.

I thought this too!

@StaceyF90 Having no updated title after six months is fairly normal right now, given Covid delays, it took a year for ours to be updated last year…

But the deeds bit isn’t. Deeds from 1989 might not have been digitised yet, but they should be digitised as part of the next sale (ie, when you bought). Ours was the same, for where we bought and sold. The ones we sold were from 1890; and had faded a lot, so it was our responsibility to obtain new copies which met the quality standards for being scanned and digitised, and these were then provided to the new owner. If we couldn’t do that, they’d have been advised not to proceed, not least because they wouldn’t have a clue what the deeds allowed them to do. I believe if they’d wanted to go ahead anyway, we could have agreed an indemnity insurance for a while, but we didn’t explore that.

Have you got no deeds at all? Are you expecting any?

It will be on local council planning area. Where we are in Scotland, our fence is 2m facing the road but has always been there so we can replace with same height. If it was hedging and we wanted to replace with a 1m fence we'd have to get planning permission