My first post here, I'm just after some advice please as we are at the start of a potential boundary dispute with our neighbours.
We have lived here since June 2011 and the fence that currently runs between us and neighbour has always been there and is exactly like when be bought the house, neighbours have never said a word about it! The wood has gotten quite rotten so we are looking to replace the fence panels (concrete posts all ok so they are staying, so just new gravel boards and wooden fence panels) so my husband went round yesterday to say the fence was being done in a few weeks. The neighbours have come back with they won't allow us to do the fence as its on their land, they want the fence moving into the middle of the properties (currently they have a slightly smaller gate and access than we do).
We were so taken aback, we said well this is how it was when we bought it so thats how its staying which they are not happy with at all and as stated above said they won't allow it to be done as its on their land. I said if this fence has been in since the houses were built in 2006 then they should have done something about it then, not 17years later they gave some story about they did speak to the people that lived here before but they were all new neighbours and had paid £1500 for a fence with concrete posts and had 2 young children so didn't want to cause trouble and just left it. I said well if the fence was put in wrong it wouldn't be the customer paying for it it would have been the fence company! Since the conversation I've been and looked and measured at the other side of our property and we have a smaller gate and access than our other neighbours do so maybe thats how its meant to be a slightly larger gate to right side and slightly smaller to left side.
I've looked on our deeds ect and they are so small and don't have exact measurements on so hard to tell however it does look like is goes down the middle but how can you tell inches on a document where the houses are about 3cm long!
Hope you are still with me, sorry for waffling on but suppose my question is, what would you do, are we in the wrong to say that fence has been there undisputed since we bought the house over 12 years ago so thats where its staying?