[Help] Fence dispute - who owns it?

[swindonseagull]

Yes, that is certainly how mine works. I maintain the fence to the left and my neighbour on the RHS maintains the one to my right as I look down the garden from the back door.

but what if you are the last house ? do you get 2 side fences?

 

[BadFish]

Pay for the fence and paint stat brother's phone number on her side.

Sent from my M2010J19CG using Tapatalk

 

[drew]

Fix the fence yourself. Your main objective is to sell the house not get the neighbour to pay for half a fence. That means the fence needs to be fixed first and you can afford it. You don't want to conceal a neighbour dispute or declare one. The neighbour won't pay.

This is not a choice here and if you are being done over by old sour face, you still have no choice. Everything else is just wasting time and energy. It won't change the outcome. Fix the fence, sell the house and move on.

I sometimes think I should be a lifecoach

This. What's the cost of the fencing compared to losing the sale? Also, if you're putting up close board fencing I shove the arris rails on her side!

 

[Seagull58]

but what if you are the last house ? do you get 2 side fences?

Somebody has to have 2 fences since there is always one more side fence than houses in a line of terraced houses. In my case I am the second last house to the left so my neighbour to the left only has one side fence to maintain. At the other end of the line I assume the end house has two fences but it depends what his house and garden butts up to.

 

[jessiejames]

It's a myth that the fence to the left is your responsibility, there is no such general rule.

Around here, it's to the right.

Check out the plan with the title deeds to check for the little T's - where on your side, that fence is your responsibility.

Good idea from an earlier poster about checking a few doors along to check the pattern.

This, although my understanding is that the T means no one is responsible, by law u can go 50/50 on the cost or don't do anything.

 

[Poojah]

Well, first and foremost let me say how honoured I am that a thread started by me, a Grimsby fan, about my fence, at a house he owns in Leeds, on a Brighton football forum, got to 7 pages (and counting). This really is what makes NSC great! Second of all, thanks to all of you for leaving me even more bloody confused than I was when I started it.

As it happens, we *think* we’ve solved the mystery. In the deed, it states that boundary responsibility is denoted by a ‘T’ - it then explicitly states that all others are shared. There is no ‘T’ set against that particular fence, meaning in theory it is indeed shared. The solicitor who’s looking after our property sale, from a cursory glance, concurs.

I’ll bring you an update in tomorrow’s episode of FENCE WARS.

 

[Weststander]

This, although my understanding is that the T means no one is responsible, by law u can go 50/50 on the cost or don't do anything.

“It is relatively well known that if T-marks are within your land that you are usually responsible for the repair of those boundaries”.
https://www.fieldfisher.com/en/insights/clarifying-the-significance-of-t-marks-on-a-plan

But that doesn’t stop informal arrangements between neighbours to do otherwise eg I’ve replaced my entire ‘neighbour’s’ fence, almost finished this, with us going 50:50 on materials and my labour for free.

I wanted it done as it was falling down on my side and the previous neighbour had driven the rotten posts way over the actual boundary in his Heath-Robinson bodged repairs.

 

[Eric the meek]

Ah but you lost a small part of your land that way. OK if its a big garden but on a small terrace in town in I'd always want to keep all my land.

Going back to the OP. If the neighbour doesn't accept its her fence basd on posts and rails I'd keep the post holes in the same place but reverse the fence thus grainìng a few inches of her garden. Except, if you're selling then it isn't worth risking a sale for a boundary dispute. Fix it and move on.

Karma will come around in the end.

Ah, but I didn't lose any of my land at all. I didn't move the boundary, did I? I just built a fence on my land.

The beauty of that was the owner of the house next door, when he refused to go halves with me on the new fence, said I owned the old fence, and put it in writing in an email.
After he saw I had built the new fence inside the boundary, and left the old concrete posts in situ, he said 'I suppose I've got to pay to get the old concrete posts removed.' I said to him that he had said they belonged to me, so he couldn't do anything to them unless he had my agreement.

Now THAT is Karma.

 

[Elbow750]

Ah, but I didn't lose any of my land at all. I didn't move the boundary, did I? I just built a fence on my land.

The beauty of that was the owner of the house next door, when he refused to go halves with me on the new fence, said I owned the old fence, and put it in writing in an email.
After he saw I had built the new fence inside the boundary, and left the old concrete posts in situ, he said 'I suppose I've got to pay to get the old concrete posts removed.' I said to him that he had said they belonged to me, so he couldn't do anything to them unless he had my agreement.

Now THAT is Karma.

Nice one.

I should have said by putting the rails and boards with the flat/ finished side facing out you get easy access to as much of your land as possible. Although you have not.lost any land if you fence it inside the boundary you make it difficult to access and there are/used to be legal claims if you can show you have used land as your own for 12 + years.

Probably wouldn't apply in your case as you've told neighbour its your land, but in other places it could be a problem.

I should add I've mostly lived in small terraced houses where 4 or 5 inches of garden are worth grabbing!

 

[The Rattler]

Who owns my fence now it has blown horizontally into next-door’s garden?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[McTavish]

Although you have not.lost any land if you fence it inside the boundary you make it difficult to access and there are/used to be legal claims if you can show you have used land as your own for 12 + years.

Probably wouldn't apply in your case as you've told neighbour its your land, but in other places it could be a problem.

Definitely only used to be.

The principle of adverse posession which meant that you could claim land as long as you had occupied it for 12 years was done away with in 2003. It is now almost impossible to get land registered to someone else in this way. (I found this out when I tried to pinch a bit of land outside my house from the Council).

 

[Originunknown]

This thread has life left yet. I've seen many orphaned panels in the village this afternoon.

 

[Glawstergull]

Who owns my fence now it has blown horizontally into next-door’s garden?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hopefully there will now be enough pieces to share around equally.

 

[timbha]

Who owns my fence now it has blown horizontally into next-door’s garden?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

:

Your neighbour is legally entitled to throw it back over the ……… aha, I see a problem

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

If this weather persists for much longer, maybe you could just agree with your neighbour not to bother with a ruddy fence, and just go open plan. Easier for everyone.