The Ugly Fence

MegaMiniMouse

I'm guessing that your neighbour's intention was to hide your broken down fence from his view

MMM

hatparksol

Originally when he spoke to me he said he wanted to replace the old fence, this was due to the fence leaning, it is leaning due to movement in the soil/ground on his side, If he'd of asked I would have helped him / myself and dug or had it done with him, right now passions are running VERY high, I'm not sure how it lies with the law if I remove the old posts, the lease shows a T on our side of the connecting boundary, I believe this makes the boundary Our responsibility, in which case I will get a still saw and cut the fence posts down to the level of his ground.

MegaMiniMouse

As I understand it, boundaries exist with or without a fence - there is no requirement to provide a fence, but if a fence exists, then probably there is a liability to maintain it

If you pull out the posts which are supporting the new fence, will the appearance improve, or will the new fence simply fall over and look even worse than the old fence which existed before (and saddling you with the liability to repair the damage)?

Why don't you erect fence number 3 on your side, leaving the old fence (and a bit of no-man's-land) in between the two new fences?

If you employ lawyers, the only winners will be the lawyers

MMM

hatparksol

I was of the opinion that if the responsibility for the maintenance of the original fence is ours, I am allowed to remove the fence as long as I don't directly damage his new fence, also the fact that I didn't agree for the new fence to be attached to mine that that could be classed as crim damage to ours rendering it difficult for him to say much, or it is a party fence which is leaning over on my property, and as such I am allowed to remove the over hanging fence - after giving him a fair amount of time to rectify it - as long as I passed back the removed posts. Either that or some drunken yobs might come down in the night and remove the noggings lol - either way it can't stay like this it's causing massive tension between me and my far better half

Mojisola

MegaMiniMouse wrote: »

As I understand it, boundaries exist with or without a fence - there is no requirement to provide a fence, but if a fence exists, then probably there is a liability to maintain it

If you pull out the posts which are supporting the new fence, will the appearance improve, or will the new fence simply fall over and look even worse than the old fence which existed before (and saddling you with the liability to repair the damage)?

Why don't you erect fence number 3 on your side, leaving the old fence (and a bit of no-man's-land) in between the two new fences?

If you employ lawyers, the only winners will be the lawyers

MMM

This isn't a good idea - boundaries should only have one fence/wall unless it's totally unavoidable because it will often cause problems re-establishing the exact boundary if there are multiple fences. You've already got two fences with some no-man's-land between them.

If you erected another fence on your side, you may find a future owner of next door will remove two fences, leaving you with your new one and take over some of your land in the process.

I think you really need to give it a few days before you do anything. Has the old chap next door been stitched up by the fencer? It shouldn't be attached to your wall or fence - if they are yours - and any good fencer would know that.

It's usually the land on the higher ground that's responsible for maintaining a supporting wall so I wonder whether the wall and both fences are actually his.

If they are, the best you could hope for is that he will let you stain your side a more acceptable colour.

MegaMiniMouse

I think that the behaviour of some unidentified drunken yobs would not relieve you or your neighbour of any legal liabilities

How long is the fence?

Calculate the difference in price between reconstruction and litigation

MMM

hatparksol

But surely that means he should be responsible for rectifying the angle of the posts due to his land shifting - and yes the builder is a Shylock, - @ Mojisola

hatparksol

LOL MMM - I was only joking

MegaMiniMouse

In the process of 'shifting', has your neighbour's land moved closer to yours, or further away? Higher or lower? How can you tell?

I dare say Geologists charge even more than Lawyers!

MMM

hatparksol

The land is higher on his side from 10" to 18" higher as the ground falls away towards the back of the houses, the land, and consequently the posts, which are 8' posts, 2 feet of which is in the ground, then there are 2 concrete slabs at the bottom then the wood panels you can see in the photos, the ground has moved three of the four posts in place, from 8" to 12" from vertical ( as they have all moved differently ) over our side of the fence, the fence panels are std 6' panels that sit on his land, as such they range from 7' 6" to nearly 11' on our side.