Money Moral Dilemma: Should we help pay for a new fence?

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Former_MSE_Fraser
Former_MSE_Fraser Posts: 40 Forumite
edited 29 March 2016 at 2:15PM in Marriage, relationships & families
This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

We've got a new neighbour who has a dog. Our back gardens meet, but we own the fence. The new neighbour wants to replace it with new, taller panels to stop his dog from escaping. Should we help out?

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  • IDProtected
    IDProtected Posts: 237 Forumite
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    The new, taller panels go on the neighbour's side of the boundary between the two properties; simples!
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  • scotsbob
    scotsbob Posts: 4,632 Forumite
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    If neighbour pays and organises it you won't have much, if any, say in the colour or style.
    I'd bet the support posts will all be facing your side and not theirs.


    Alternatively, if you pay half you will be in a stronger position. Bear in mind you are going to have to look at it for some years to come
  • Gloomendoom
    Gloomendoom Posts: 16,550 Forumite
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    I think I must have deja vu.

    Is the dog a Doberman and your husband doesn't want the neighbour to put up the fence?
  • Georgiegirl256
    Georgiegirl256 Posts: 7,005 Forumite
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    Gloomendoom wrote: »
    I think I must have deja vu.

    Is the dog a Doberman and your husband doesn't want the neighbour to put up the fence?

    I know, it's uncanny isn't it?
  • Person_one
    Person_one Posts: 28,884 Forumite
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    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5431138

    As above, we've done this one.

    As usual, no actual moral dilemma either!
  • spirit
    spirit Posts: 2,886 Forumite
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    What's the subject matter got to do with Marriages, relationships and families?


    surely this should be on the In my Home board?
    Mortgage free as of 10/02/2015. Every brick and blade of grass belongs to meeeee. :j
  • pigpen
    pigpen Posts: 41,050 Forumite
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    Ah.. Rumbled.. These are not things users contact Mse about they are in fact taken from the boards and regurgitated!!

    Now we know!!
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  • meknowalot-51
    meknowalot-51 Posts: 237 Forumite
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    Firstly make sure the planned new fence is within the legal height limit.As for helping with the cost,your neighbour wants to keep HIS dog from jumping the fence so they should pay the full cost.A good thing for you to do is offer to help installing it or painting.As it's your fence you can refuse and tell them to leave well alone.Although if the fence is looking a bit naff let them do it at their expence.Will you still be the owner?Legal advice required.
  • EssexHebridean
    EssexHebridean Posts: 21,467 Forumite
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    Further to the comments above, make sure that when the new fence is installed the boundary doesn't mysteriously shift a bit in your neighbours' favour - stranger things have happened. If it were me I'd be inclined to leave the existing fence in place and simply agree that the new neighbours are quite entitled to put up a new, higher one behind it. Further down the line you could, if you wished, remove your own fence, and it may help to disguise the "reverse" of the new fence being on your side if this is what happens. That way the new fence goes on your neighbour's land so there can be no dispute over boundaries later, and if there is any issue over height etc it's not your problem.

    As for meeting some of the cost? No - you have a perfectly adequate fence - you should not be put to expense to meet the requirements of someone else for something additional.
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  • Fujiko
    Fujiko Posts: 150 Forumite
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    EssexHebridean wrote: »
    Further to the comments above, make sure that when the new fence is installed the boundary doesn't mysteriously shift a bit in your neighbours' favour - stranger things have happened. If it were me I'd be inclined to leave the existing fence in place and simply agree that the new neighbours are quite entitled to put up a new, higher one behind it. Further down the line you could, if you wished, remove your own fence, and it may help to disguise the "reverse" of the new fence being on your side if this is what happens. That way the new fence goes on your neighbour's land so there can be no dispute over boundaries later, and if there is any issue over height etc it's not your problem.

    As for meeting some of the cost? No - you have a perfectly adequate fence - you should not be put to expense to meet the requirements of someone else for something additional.

    On the face of it this seems like a good compromise, but the downside is that each neighbour will have one side of their fence which they will not be able to get to in order to paint it, so in the end both fences will deteriorate. So while I agree that it is really the new neighbour's responsibility to keep their dog out of your property perhaps it is not a good beginning to neighbourly relations to start with a dispute over a fence. I think help in installing the new fence would be a reasonable compromise but certainly do not offer to pay anything towards it.
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