[Misc] Garden Fence

[Triggaaar]

The Neighbour died in December and the house is owned by a housing agency. The previous occupier replaced a fence panel in 2015 so I assumed they had responsibility for it. The fence started to come down in January but the housing agency simply state that the fence is to be maintained by the residents

Widen your garden by a yard and rebuild the fence.

 

[Weststander]

Could always ask a few neighbours further down the street to the left and right, to establish the pattern.

 

[ofco8]

we own neither. Deeds prove that our neigbours own, and are responsible for, the fence on either side. Happy days.

I am the opposite. My deeds were drawn up, as we are an infill plot, so that we own and are responsible for all boundaries. Bah.
Deeds should be marked to show ownership.

 

[rippleman]

The Neighbour died in December and the house is owned by a housing agency. The previous occupier replaced a fence panel in 2015 so I assumed they had responsibility for it. The fence started to come down in January but the housing agency simply state that the fence is to be maintained by the residents but she obviously cannot do that.

Not sure that is correct. The "resident" may be a tenant under a STA. It would be extremely unusual in a STA for a tenant to be responsible for the external boundaries of a property! It must therefore be down to the owner of the property and not the resident.

 

[Audax]

Well you learn something every day. I had never really thought about the issue much, but about ten years' ago my right-hand brick wall (and therefore my neighbour's left) collapsed. He said "Well it's on my left so it's my responsibility", and he rebuilt it without asking me for any contribution. I never checked the deeds (I'm not sure whether he did) as I just had this vague "left hand's mine, right hand's not" view. God knows where I got it from, I don't think anyone ever told me formally, but i just thought it was the law and of course that incident just supported it. Turns out it's not a universal property law at all. Well I never.

*Strokes chin thoughtfully*

Also interesting to see on that site that the owner of the fence is under no obligation to keep it in good repair ... or, indeed, to even have one at all!

 

[mikeyjh]

How would I discover who is responsible for the dividing fence between me and the neighbour?

I expected to find it in one of the documents from purchase of the property but I cannot find it

There's only one rule here - He wants the fence mending, mends the fence.

 

[PoG]

Left hand fence and end of garden fence when looking out from your house is normally your responsibility

This is where I have issues. I live on the end of a terrace on a corner, the fence at the end of my garden is the left side fence of the first house in another terrance row, so who is responsible?

 

[Perkino]

There's only one rule here - He wants the fence mending, mends the fence.

Currently I'm not fussed, the fence came down so I have moved the broken bits out of the way so my children can play in our garden and in next doors garden. My concern is that they move in a new family before repairing the fence

 

[lost in london]

Lot's of opinions above, but the reality is that there is no set rule on this.

T marks may be persuasive, but as a positive obligation to repair, a neighbour is unlikely to be able to enforce this against the person whose boundary feature it is (for reasons too complicated / boring to go into here).

Other factors may be relevant (who has repaired it historically, local traditions (left side is mine etc), does the fence face in our out) to establish a burden, but ultimately, what are you going to do? Unless you have got miles of fence that is going to cost thousands of pounds to repair, no-one (sensible) is going to take their neighbour to force them to repair. Best case is it's a bit of leverage in discussions.

In practice, speak to your neighbour, try and do a deal, and if that doesn't work decide whether the cost of fixing it yourself is preferable to looking at a damaged fence.

I had neighbours on both sides, one genuinely thought that the rule was the fence on their left was my responsibility, the other thought that the rule was the fence on their right was my responsibility. Life is too short to argue about £20 per fence panel so I paid for both over the years (and one ended up giving me some wine).

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If I may digress very slightly, our house (owned) shares the guttering with next door (council)
We've cleaned the gutters a couple of times, and the council have cleaned ours along with theirs.

Now there is a broken bracket just within our side, which is causing water to pour over, when it is raining very heavily. If the guttering needs replacing, does the whole lot need replacing?
Would the council do it, and we pay our share, or can we have it done, and our repair man 'touch' the council property?
I have emailed the council to ask them as I'm not sure of the legal implications if we do their guttering as well.

 

[Creaky]

Some time ago one of our neighbours complained about the state of the fence between us, said it was an eyesore - I removed it and they still weren’t happy

 

[beorhthelm]

The Neighbour died in December and the house is owned by a housing agency. The previous occupier replaced a fence panel in 2015 so I assumed they had responsibility for it. The fence started to come down in January but the housing agency simply state that the fence is to be maintained by the residents but she obviously cannot do that.

housing agency can state what they like, if the tenants are unable or unwilling to maintain fence it falls to the owner, the agency.

 

[mikeyjh]

Currently I'm not fussed, the fence came down so I have moved the broken bits out of the way so my children can play in our garden and in next doors garden. My concern is that they move in a new family before repairing the fence

I guess what I mean is, if you want a fence, it may be you have to put up a fence. If it's not in the title, they're under no obligation to replace it. Of course, if they're a good landlord, they should......

 

[kjgood]

The rule of left is mine as you look out of the back door applies to my house. Clearly marked on the property boundary drawing within the deeds package.

 

[BNthree]

In my back yard I'm responsible for wall to right and neighbour on left is responsible for the wall on my left. We had an extension done and their surveyor came round. Whilst chatting with their surveyor I mentioned the wall is old and not stable now and what would it take to get repaired by them (the owners rent it out so I can't just have a chat with them about it). The surveyor said "do what everyone else does; wait for a storm and push it over so they're forced to make repairs". I'm quite tempted to do so!

 

[Pavilionaire]

The fence on our right is ours, on the left it's the responsibility of our neighbour.

Our fences run on a north-south axis and the prevailing wind is south-westerly so in high winds they often get damaged.

 

[Nitram]

I always thought the general rule from looking out from the house that the left boundary was the neighbours and the right was mine. However whoever drew up the boundary plans could nominate who they like so the only safe answer is to check the deeds. We have an alleyway that runs around our house, I always took responsibility for keeping it clear but it turned out the responsibility was for the neighbour at the end of the run. Not that they ever keep the area clear of weeds.