EddScott

Currently our garden is seperated from the neighbours by concrete posts and green wire fencing. One neighbour is about to have a fence put up. Shes mentioned to another neighbour that she is going to have the wire fence removed.

I'm not against the fence being put up because frankly it will be a relief not to have to see the ugly bint. What I'm thinking though is, should she not have to ask me first if she can remove the wire fence? Is it not half on my property and half on hers?

Its not such a big deal becuase as soon as their fence is up it means I only need to do 2 sides to fence off my garden

Brendan Hughes

Fences usually belong to one house, so one side of your garden will be yours and the other will be your neighbours'. As long as that side belongs to her and not you, she can do what she wants.

paul-s

I thought it usually worked like this. The fence on one side is yours and the fence on the other side is your neighbours responsibility. In our case the one on the left is ours, the one on the right is our neighbours.
dunno if this is true ?

JoeyDeacon

As has already been said, one side of the fence is your responsibility and the other side is your neighbours respoinsibility.

If I were you I would just let them replace it as the last thing you want to do is get into a dispute with your neighbour.

Trust me when I say a party wall dispute is a VERY expensive business.

OllyK

Your deeds should tell you which boundaries you are responsible for. If you bought your property in the last few years, you can get a pdf from the Land Registry for a about £3.

Scooby-Doo

As you look from the road towards the house you "own" the left hand side. This is not always the case though as in some circumstances you may own all boundaries.

Make sure you agree a boundry line before they put new stakes in.

Steve PPP

There is no convention for fence ownership, although in a run of houses one side will usually go to one neighbour until the end house, who could get both sides, or none.
The only definitive way of knowing ownership is to look at your title deed plan, where each boundary will have a small capital "T" drawn on it. If the "T" is on your side of the boundary you own the fence, if on the other your neighbour owns it.
There should be "T" markings for the majority of properties built in the last 40 odd years. Before that you have to rely on wording in the deed or who has maintained the boundary (usually applies to hedges)

HTH

Steve W

Avi

So just to clear it up:

Usually one side of your garden's fence is yours, and the other is your neighbours??????

simo

Or some houses , our included, we own the wall on the road side but the rear & right hand fence are shared responsibilty with the neighbours whos boundary they are on.

Simon

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

Why are you even worried ? you're getting one side of your garden fenced for free - if the other neighbour decides to do theirs and doesnt check, you'll only have to do the bottom and you're sorted.

best not to mention it to the first neighbour in case they ask you for half the cash or change their mind !

Steve PPP

[QUOTE=Scooby-Doo]As you look from the road towards the house you "own" the left hand side. ]

Sorry mate that's not correct. There is no standard for boundaries on a new site.
It is totally up to the developer of the site who owns what.
I have often done boundaries where the "right hand" boundary goes with the house, it depends on what works best for the site layout, so you can't rely on a rule of thumb.

Sorry.
Steve W

robski

Our house we need to maintain the right side, the left is our neighbours to the left to maintain. The back fence is maintained by the guy behind.

Worst thing I have seen is where someone leaves the chainlink and puts a new fence just inside their boundary, horrible!

Ive seen (and maintained) boundaries on either side.

Try to dig out the plans from when you bought your house as someone said they are normally marked now. If not marked it may be verbally stated in the documents.

mart360

We have 4 fences around our garden... one 75ft on 45ft one 45ft & one 36ft

guess which one we own... the shortest,,, but by some stroke of luck the next door neighbour replaced it himself when the storms hit

M

David Lock

I thought one convention was that it was your fence if the fence posts were on your side?

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Personally I wouldn't let a neighbour replace a fence that I was responsible for, I know you’re covered by your deeds but I’d still be worried about disputes in the future.

Allan

Scooby-Doo

Fair enough. Every house I have lived in I was responsible for the left but all houses I have owned have been 1920-30's houses so modern houses are obviously different.

My dad has 27 boundaries and is responsible for all of them
Just to add its not a big house, just had a lot of land that was sold years ago to build a retirement village around the house. Some of the rows with neighbours have been fairly amusing as he is unwilling to build what they want

EddScott

TBH I'm not too bothered just annoyed that she hasn't got the courtesy to inform us of what she is planning to do. Maybe she doesn't have to but considering she has a dog which I don't want in our garden and I certainly don't want my daughter going into hers, some warning would be appropriate.

Just as an addition, if this fence goes up, I'm quite within my rights to build the remaining two sides of fencing to completely enclose my garden? I hope so because they also have a driveway with walls etc (again without any warning to us) and again they've done one side for us already

Steve PPP

Correct, the old saying was that you "drive the nails to home", I.E. you nail the panels on your neighbours side of the fence post, so the nails point to your house. A bit of a bum deal if you ask me, as it means that you put the fence up, but the neighbour gets the best side of it. It is only a rule of thumb though, so can't be relied on.

Also doesn't work for concrete slotted fence posts and the like.

Steve W

OllyK

Even if the boundary is yours, she can put a fence up, providing it remains wholey on her side. It would be the first time I've seen "double" fencing.

Steve PPP

If you "own" the boundaries, you can fence or wall them subject to planning guidance.
You should have permitted development rights to build a wall or fence up to 1.8/2,0 metres high (can't remember which) as long as you are not within 4.5 metres of a highway, when it is 0.9 metres. Check with your local council.

On some developments permitted development rights are removed when planning permission for the development is given, you would then have to apply for everything you did!

Steve W

tmo

Your deeds show which are your boundaries. Market with the inward facing T.
However a fence can be up to your boundary and not be yours. The boundary line is a mythical position and has no width therefore someone can place a fence up to this position without your consent.
However the footings are a different matter, a neighbour’s fence can not have footing on your property without your consent. If they do, quick court injunction to back them rip it down.
Don’t forget anything they do on your land without your consent is trespass.

RichS

I'd say it's always worth having a friendly chat with a neighbour before a fence is erected, no matter who is instigating and/or building the fence.
It will probably save possible aggravation later on.

I helped a friend remove a concrete post & green wire fence and replace it with a nice wood panel fence a few years ago.

First job was discuss with his neighbour to a mutually agreeable conclusion.

Then when we built the fence, we "drove the nails home" so that the neighbour got the nice side of the fence.

Me and my mate had a fun afternoon fence building, grunting like Tim Allen, and in the end everyone was happy

OllyK

I'm interested in the "nice" side of the fence. Personally I like to see the side with the structure / supports facing in, feels like you are fencing the ******* out, rather than being fenced in. Also the struts are then ideal for locating vine-eyes and creating nice support wires for climing plants to grow up.

Hanslow

Agree with Olly because it also stops the neighbours ******* climbing on the batons to look over the fence (and potentially break it).

David Lock

It also means that you make max use of your garden area as actual fence is right along the boundary and not 6 inches into your land to accommodate posts.

RichS

Actually I agree with your comments guys - by "nice" side, obviously I meant the clean/unstructured side, but I see your point.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

If you are putting up your own fence, and giving the neighbour the 'nice side' then you would have to confer with them first, as you'd need to be in their garden to put the panels up.

OllyK

Unless you use concrete posts

RichS

Precisely

tmo

The nice side is an urban myth they can do what they want with it from a legal standpoint.