Boundary discussion

House_Hunter

A slightly strange one...

As per usual we are repsonsible for the boundary on one side of our garden (where we have a fence) and the other side is the responsibility of the neighbour on that side to maintain.

But on the side where it is the neighbour's responsibility there is currently only a "chicken wire" fence along the actual boundary. the previous owner of our house has then grown a hedge - on our land against this wire fence.

The issue is that this hedge is massive and eats into our already rather thin garden. So we are planning on removing it (as it is our's and all on our land).

The issue is then who is repsosible for putting a new boundary up..

We would like some simple fencing; is it reasonable to ask the neighbour to pay for this? Or should it be split between us?

I can see the point that hey...it his responsibility to maintain, but then again they don't have to put a fence and could just put chcken wire....

Confused...

ormus

in the deeds of the house, the plan will show (with a red T) whos fence it is.

in practice, try and come to an agreement with your neighbour over paying for renewal cost etc.. that way you will have some control over the quality and design/style of the fence.

it makes for a better life. and cements a better relationship with the neighbours.

ormus

in my last house, my neighbour paid all the material costs, but we did the DIY job together.
as he paid, he could choose the actual fence, which i wasnt bothered about anyways.

House_Hunter

Cheers for the replies....that boundary is definietly his responsibility.

In your cases, was the replacing (i.e. maintaining) a fence or putting something in from scratch (is in our case, replacing hedge with fence)?

Cheers.

stef73

I removed the leylandii which was the fence between my house and neighbours .It was his fence (leylandii) so i spoke to him i paid for it and did it myself . That way i got the fence i wanted

robowen

the 'effective' boundary fence i.e the hedge is the the one you are removing and as its on your land its up to you to replace it with something or put up with the chicken wire.
If I were your neighbour I'd probably go halves with you. But I would think you were being cheeky asking for me to pay for all of the fence as its you who wants it.

ormus

ours was basically just a simple replacement. fence for a fence. we installed new concrete posts.
the old one was falling apart and looked a bit naff too.
although we ripped out some privets too. pulled them out with my diesel Landrover.
a very quick and easy job.

sunshinetours

As others have said a joint agreement where all are happy is best. Technically although its his boundary I don't believe in law you can enforce that someone actually puts a physical barrier there ie fence/hedge etc

You could always plant a thinner hedge. Something like bamboo may provide suitable fast growing screening cover although be careful you choose something that can be easily maintained and won't spread like wildfire

lfc321

Not clear from your OP whether there is anything wrong with the chicken wire fence. If not your neighbour might well take the view that the boundary is there and that they have fulfilled their responsibility in maintaining it. The fact that you want to take your hedge away, and then would rather have something other than chicken wire, is not their problem.

But, as everyone here has said, in practice the best thing to do is to talk to the neighbour and agree something that is acceptable to the two of you.