Shared Fence - adding trellis - neighbour not happy.

Doozergirl

I think if you knowingly bought the house like that then if it is shared and they already like it, it would be unfair of you to add to it. It is perfectly acceptable to erect your own fence on your side. It might inconvenient but it's been like that for a while, so I don't think they're being entirely unreasonable in saying no.

It's nice to have things the way you'd want them. I'd lose a few inches if it meant I could have plants that suited me.

As for maintaining the 'old' fence - well, i'trs not your problem anymore is it? I can't see that anything would need to be done to it that couldn't be done from their side either.

lindseykim13

We came home one day to find our neighbours replacing 1 panel of their 5ft fence nearest our house which we already didn't like with a 3ft one! We have 3 kids and a dog and we couldn't understand this so asked what was going on politly. They said they wanted more sun, problem is the housing here is staggered so we can't see in their house as it lays further back but they can most deff see in my living room if they are in the garden. so this one 3ft panel looked stupid compared with the 4 5ft ones running up the rest of the garden. Not happy, so we left it a few months over the summer where their kids did nothing other than annoy mine then when they were out to avoid any confrontation (they did it to us) we stuck up some posts and run 6ft trellis down the first few fences. We only needed 2 to have our privacy back and planted some peas/beans up so if they ever ask, that was why lol
Only cost around £40 i think. They still say hello but we never really did speak to them much anyway.

Hopejack

Yes the fence has been like that a long while but it was an elderly couple before and I think they just liked things the way they were! I appreciate that, however these people's other two fences are at least 6ft tall (I think the back one is taller). And they admitted they put in that fence at that height! Like I said earlier, they have climbers profusely over them adding at least a foot onto them so why do they see the need to keep this one fence at 5ft? They can't claim they don't want their climbers adding height on this particular fence when it's doing it on the other two which are taller anyway? It doesn't make sense.

The work was finished months ago. We have had a reasonable break in time - and to be honest wanting to sort your garden out for summer isn't, in my opinion, unreasonable. The building work left our garden in a bit of a mess so anything has to look better than we have right now!

Our garden isn't hugely narrow, in fact it's wider than long but it's just the thought of losing width just because of this issue doesn't lie well with me. We have young children so will want to put in all the plastic tat that goes with them to play on, hence wanting the space. I am going to ring our solicitors just to double check but I am 100% they are all shared.

I appreciate we knew the fence height at the time of buying but never thought they would object given the height of their other fences. I can see quite far down and along the back gardens and honestly, our two are the lowest of the lot!

I doubt they'll want the fence ripped out and replaced as they have climbers on it - plus it will cost a lot as it's a tongue and groove affair, not these cheaper lap type ones. They already stated when they put the other fence in, they put it in to match (that was another reason they didn't want to see 1ft of our trellis over the top as they said it wouldn't match). However, the fence they put in is totally covered by climbers and large plants so they can't see it anyway!

I could go on but it's not getting me anywhere (other than I feel better for ranting). We now know our options so need to decide what we do next. I still think a Russian Vine might be handy

silvasava

Just a thought - if you want something evergreen & not too invasive (like Russian Vine - nightmare) you can get evergreen clematis. They have quite large leathery leaves & flower very early in the year. One or two of these near the house and a summer variety further down the garden may be acceptable? I do have sympathy for you as we have been in our house for nearly 40 years - we're on really good terms with all our neighbours......except one! The fence between our garden & theirs belongs to them but we are so fed up with the snide comments we get if we are in our garden we are going to put up 2m high willow fencing inside our boundary just so the 'ayatollah' can't look over!

Hopejack

silvasava - I'd been looking at those. We inherited one anyway (up against the house) but sadly we suffer from quite bad frosts here and it's all but dead - the heavy snow this last winter and severe frost has definately nearly killed it! So I'm not sure an evergreen will be a good idea as they are certainly not as hardy as say ivy for example. I will chose the plants carefully as I don't want something rampant and am happy to wait a few years to get some decent growth - at this rate with a 5ft fence I'm not going to have to wait a lifetime for it to reach that am I!!

sunshinetours

Hopejack wrote: »

Yes the fence has been like that a long while but it was an elderly couple before and I think they just liked things the way they were! I appreciate that, however these people's other two fences are at least 6ft tall (I think the back one is taller). And they admitted they put in that fence at that height! Like I said earlier, they have climbers profusely over them adding at least a foot onto them so why do they see the need to keep this one fence at 5ft? They can't claim they don't want their climbers adding height on this particular fence when it's doing it on the other two which are taller anyway? It doesn't make sense.

The work was finished months ago. We have had a reasonable break in time - and to be honest wanting to sort your garden out for summer isn't, in my opinion, unreasonable. The building work left our garden in a bit of a mess so anything has to look better than we have right now!

Our garden isn't hugely narrow, in fact it's wider than long but it's just the thought of losing width just because of this issue doesn't lie well with me. We have young children so will want to put in all the plastic tat that goes with them to play on, hence wanting the space. I am going to ring our solicitors just to double check but I am 100% they are all shared.

I appreciate we knew the fence height at the time of buying but never thought they would object given the height of their other fences. I can see quite far down and along the back gardens and honestly, our two are the lowest of the lot!

I doubt they'll want the fence ripped out and replaced as they have climbers on it - plus it will cost a lot as it's a tongue and groove affair, not these cheaper lap type ones. They already stated when they put the other fence in, they put it in to match (that was another reason they didn't want to see 1ft of our trellis over the top as they said it wouldn't match). However, the fence they put in is totally covered by climbers and large plants so they can't see it anyway!

I could go on but it's not getting me anywhere (other than I feel better for ranting). We now know our options so need to decide what we do next. I still think a Russian Vine might be handy

If you find out it is shared what would you plan to do then. The way I see it if its yours you can do as you wish, if its shared or theirs you can't just add height (unless you do it your side of course)

This sounds like a case where with respect you need to make the running here as you have upset neighbours with a long running project, and all your posts have said is yes but they are being unreasonable. You also say you don;t have a narrow garden so you have options to grow plants or use trellis but are choosing not to do that!?

Try a bottle of wine and acknowledge their issues they had with your long running build project - you may then find you have some common ground. You are going to be living with these people for years to come don't forget. Its amazing what actually talking to people in a proper manner does - approaching them with your "rights" really probably won't help

pimento

As an aside, Clematis Montana is a bit of a thug. You could almost chop it down to ground level and it will come back.

pimento

Oh and if you want a taller fence, perhaps spend this summer sunbathing nekkid outside.

dizziblonde

But if they're not wanting the fence changed... you're going to HAVE to lose bit of your garden to go for trellis or something. You're going round in circles with the "I don't want to do that - I want to do this" and them "we don't want you do that" thing here. You are coming across slightly as wanting it all your own way and not wanting to compromise a bit - especially if you've just done a lot of building work that people have been tolerant of.

I'd back off for this summer - if tempers have got fraught over endless work (necessary but annoying if you're stuck next to someone getting their hammer on every day for weeks), let the dust settle and let them get to know you (and pray for a bit of high wind so you can offer to be the hero of the hour and replace the fence when it comes down?!). Push it too hard now and you're going to set yourself up for an uncomfortable time with the people you've got to live next door to - and good relations with neighbours are worth their weight in gold!

Incidentally - I've got a 6 foot 7 husband - he could peer over a 6 footer anyway :P

My husband's going to hate you btw - it's reminded me I'm adding fence staining onto his DIY list for the summer cos we've got one panel not matching the others that's starting to annoy me a bit.

ormus

theres too much rubbish talked about russian vine etc... i had one in my last house, to hide an ugly fence.
it wasnt that hard to keep it in check. a few times a year in the summer. hack it to pieces.
only takes 10 minutes or so.
if you want something really fast to cover up summat, its hard to beat a russian vine.
very cheap too.