Fence issue with neighbour

[Silosy]

I’m not really sure what to do about this. A neighbour’s garden backs onto the side of ours meaning they have two fence panels between us. The fence panels are ancient and falling apart, partly because they let their grandchildren hoof footballs against it in the summer, but they don’t seem to want to replace them. The responsibility for the fence is theirs.

They claim their fence is broken because of a large tree we have in the corner of our garden against their boundary. This is not the case - the fence footings are secure and stable, it’s purely that the fence panels are knackered. A piece of their fence actually fell off into our garden the other day so I texted her to let her know and she replied that it was behind their shed so she couldn’t see it and that appeared to be the end of the conversation. I’m going to drop the broken bit back over later.

We get on ok with them though don’t really see them but they have griped about our tree in the past as she doesn’t like clearing up leaves and birds roosting. We’ve always maintained the tree so it’s not any more of a nuisance than possible but ultimately they’d probably like it felled which isn’t going to happen.

He has tried to repair the fence a few times but frankly it looks awful on our side and it comes out of the posts in every high wind. I think they are refusing to replace it out of passive-aggression because they know it looks much worse our side than theirs and they think we’re to blame.

So, I’m tempted to just bite the bullet and replace the fence ourselves but put the nice side on our side which I suspect will annoy her. The other issue is that if they continue to let the kids bang footballs against the fence we paid for, it will annoy me.

We’ve tried putting bamboo screening up but there’s not really anywhere secure to hold it in place.

Any suggestions?

@Silosy I think offering to pay half would be reasonable provided they commit to no more footballs being kicked against the fence.

Again…what’s in it for the neighbours and why would they say yes to this when it means they lose all control and the right to have a say about THEIR OWN fence? Shouldn’t OP be making them an offer that makes it easy for them to say yes, not no?

Here for a photo as I can't get my head round there being no space for a fence.

Why would they do that though? They aren’t interested in having a new fence and they are interested in footballs being kicked against it.

That’s not true so I wouldn’t offer that advice as following it will get you in hot water legally.

If the fence is on their property ie their side of the boundary, which it will be if it’s their fence and their responsibility to fix (as opposed to a party fence where both houses have joint responsibility) then you’ve just replaced their fence. You haven’t bought their fence from them. If they agree to let you pay to repair their fence then it’s still their fence.

^^

You're mixing up the boundary responsibility with the actual fence. The boundary may belong to the neighbours but the fence itself definitely belongs to whoever paid for it.

The neighbours don't need to have any fence at all if they don't want to

Not if the fence is on next door’s property

Posted too soon. Whoever paid for the fence is irrelevant. If there isn’t a formal ownership agreement in place to transfer ownership of the fence then it’s still neighbour’s fence.

You know you can check all this quite easily.

Gosh. I hadn’t realised this had suddenly been resurrected.

I will not be providing a diagram or a photo because it’s not hard for anyone with half a brain to imagine the layout and I don’t hold with this ridiculous demand that anyone with any parking or boundary issues is required to draw a picture.

I didn’t initially think there was room for another fence on our side because of the tree and the uneven ground level. It’s possible this might not be the case but we’d need to investigate. The narrow post solution might be a way forward. The only potential issue is that if we put a fence our side then they decide they don’t need to replace theirs and their grandkids kick footballs against our fence.

There have also been a couple of incidents recently which have led me to decide I’m not going to be offering them any money or replacing the fence myself.

@Silosy had you explained why you felt there was no room for a fence then I wouldn't have had the temerity to ask for a photo or diagram .
I didn’t initially think there was room for another fence on our side because of the tree and the uneven ground level.
gives clarification and I thank you .
sounds like partly no space because presumably the tree is on the boundary and partly difficulty of levelling uneven ground .
Interesting .

Apologies, I thought you were doing the usual ‘diagram!’ demand.

Yes, that’s exactly it - the tree is very big and right on the boundary meaning the ground levels are different on both sides.

@Silosy I will not be providing a diagram or a photo because it’s not hard for anyone with half a brain to imagine the layout and I don’t hold with this ridiculous demand that anyone with any parking or boundary issues is required to draw a picture.

OR maybe you did not explain yourself well, imagine that. There is no room for a fence makes no sense. If you have no room for a fence, then you'll just have to put up with whatever your neighbours do with their one, as yes indeed they appear to have 'room for a fence' 🤔and you don't.

@elfendom the OP has given more detail now and I can sort of see the problem .
And they did say ,in their second post ,We can’t put up our own fence due to layout..
So I guess more to it than space .

What was your actual purpose in posting apart from being chippy about my non-compliance with the diagram demand?