Fencing question

[Thegrassroots26]

Live in a semidetached property, with a neighbour to the right and to the left a commercial business.

All the fencing is getting rather tired and ropey looking and there’s a lot of it. Not sure how long I’ll be here so might be we sell before anything has to be replaced but am I right in thinking that if we were to replace the fencing between me and my neighbour it would be both of us equally who would be responsible for cost? Also with commercial business on the other side - half each?

Nope - depends on who owns the boundary. Here we own the left side and the bottom but the right belongs to our neighbours. So you need to check your deeds as you are highly likely to be fully responsible for at least one of those boundaries.

No, more usual for you to be fully responsible for one side. For instance my garden we are responsible for the left (facing away from the house) and right hand neighbour responsible for the right.
I think it should indicate on the deeds but I'm a bit wooly on that.
We moved in recently and replaced the whole left fence - left hand neighbours delighted! Right side is a wall and unlikely to need anything for years and years, looks completely solid.

Normally, it will say in the deeds which fence you are responsible for. For my house, it’s the RH fence as you look at the house from the street. And don’t go by fence posts, either - the fence post should be on the boundary, then you can put the fence whichever side suits you. Because of the position of NDN’s shed, our fence has the posts on their side.

Should be written into the deeds and if you are lucky, the other party will agree to have it done but life has a habit of not turning out that way.
In our previous house we replaced our fence (the long side) but the neighbour at the back and the other side were not interested. Instead we did it ourselves and put the posts just inside the boundary.

do not assume.
Check your deeds, there should be written reference to who is responsible for it/ The writing may also refer to "T" marks on a title plan.
If the stem of the T points towards your property then you are responsible for that boundary.
If there are 2xT marks (looking like a sort of H) then it is joint responsibility.

Note, if there is no written reference to responsibility in the deeds (eg no mention of T marks) then even if the title plan has such marks on it, those marks have no force in law.
HM Land Registry plans: boundaries (practice guide 40, supplement 3) - GOV.UK

The deeds should show who has responsibility for the boundaries. Either you, the neighbour or shared responsibility.

However just because someone has responsibility for the boundary doesn’t mean they need to pay for a fence. They could just mark the boundary with some string between a couple of canes if they so wished.

Basically what it comes down to is whoever wants the fence has to pay for it, unless they can persuade the neighbours to pay or go halves.

true
but the person not responsible for it wants one then they have to pay for it and moreover erect that fence entirely on their own land, not the actual boundary line

In theory yes. In practice I don’t think many people would complain if the neighbour took down their tatty old fence and gave them
a nice new one for free.

I bought a house and it was unclear on the deeds who was responsible for which side. It was a stone wall on one side that was very wobbly and I had young kids and the surveyor said it was unsound. The other side was wood and in ok condition for snd parts poor in other areas. I approached both sides asking if they knew who was responsible for what. One guy slammed the door in my face (!) the other was an elderly lady and her DD says no idea but if I wanted to replace it fine with her but she had no money to contribute. Other side eventually came over and rudely told one of my tradesmen ‘tell her it’s her fence’. I’d seen him out back with a man and a clipboard the week before probably confirming that it was in bad shape. Anyway still no idea who owned which side but I needed it replaced so I paid for it all. Made sure the good side was facing me though! Never got on with the rude neighbour though his wife was nice.

I really dont buy into this "who is responsible" lark. It really does seem to be unenforceable. No one must have a fence. A post with a bit of string defining the boundary is pretty much the maximum anyone can insist on. So if a neighbour who has on their deeds that the fence is theirs decides he cant be arsed or doesnt want to replace a fence. Thats pretty much end of argument.

If you want to replace fences, speak to neighbours, agree or disagree costs and then make your decision. No one can force a neighbour to pay for a fence from what ive seen.