Renting with fence problem

pinkangelnic

Hi I need some advice please

I'm currently renting and some of our fence pannels have recently blown down due to bad weather. We know they must be responsibility of this house rather than neighbours as the back fence covers 3 gardens at the back.

Now the fence has always been in bad state of repair since we moved in, rotten and broken at the top. We have mentioned this every time we renew but nothing has been done about it.

I cannot live with the fence in the current state thankfully the neighbours have not complained..... yet.

I am right in thinking that its not our responsibility to replace? and that the landlord has to ensure the house.. including gardens are in a good state of repair.

Its been 3 weeks now after contacting the agent and emailing pictures of the state of the fence each time I chase them up they say they'll look into it, I've not pushed them further as I hate confrontation and apart from that I'm really happy with the property so dont want to rock the boat.

so what do you think, Mine or landlords responsibility? and do they have the obligation to keep this kind of thing in good state of repair?

Thanks in advance !

bris

A fence is a boundary and if the LL doesnt want to repair it, then there is nothing you can do.
Just because it covers 3 gardens doesn't mean it's the sole responsability of you LL, fences are often a shared expence with each of the neighbours that it seperates.
There will always be a debate over who should fix a fence, so expect a long wait for it to get fixed.

G_M

Landlord's obligation.

Have you reported the problem in writing? To the landlord (copy the agent) at the address for the Serving of Notices on the tenancy agreement?

Forget 'mentioning' it - get formal.

pinkangelnic

A couple of Mixed responses there

You're Right G_M getting formal may be the only way to force them into doing something. Unfortunatly everything goes through the agent, this is the address on the tennancy agreement on where to serve notice as our landlords currently live overseas. thanks to you both for your opinions

dimbo61

Problem number one! Landlord lives abroad and agent wont or cant spend money on fixing fence.
Is the landlord paying TAX on his income from renting this property ?
Formal letter to letting agent ASAP

cattie

Bris is correct, there is no legal requirement for any property owner to maintain a fence, be they landlord or owner occupier.

First point is to try to establish who is actually responsible for the fence, no hard & fast rule as it sometimes just depends on whether one particular house has assumed responsibility in the past & maintained the fence. It may not actually be a fence that in the norm, would be the responsibility of the house you occupy. Obviously no landlord is going to be willing to repair a fence that has nothing to do with them.

Usually when you buy a property, the vendor would have indicated whether they have responsibility for any parts of the fence, or if it is shared responsibility with an adjoining property, or if it's not known because no parties have ever taken responsibility. So if your landlord is unsure if any part of the fence forms part of his boundary, he could try to check this way.

If he or neighbours are unwilling to carry out repairs, then I'm afraid you have no option but to do it yourself if you can't live with it the way it is. Sadly, this is what happens sometimes in the case of badly maintained or damaged fences. If you do end up having to repair it yourself, it's possible to get fence panels quite cheaply by shopping around.

Pont

The fence situation can become a problem for the owner responsible for said fence should the renter, or a neighbour, be caused 'injury' from the fence being in a bad state of repair.

However, as a previous poster stated, a property owner has no legal obligation to erect a fence (they could just stick a piece of tape to the ground to indicate the property boundary). In reality this doesn't occur too often!

If the agent doesn't acknowledge the fence/boundary is the responsibility of the owner of your house then maybe enlist the 'help' of your neighbours. It would show on their deeds who has responsibility. If it is your owner, then perhaps a string of complaints from your 'irate' neighbours may go someway to get the ball rolling!

squinty

pinkangelnic wrote: »

I cannot live with the fence in the current state ......

A bit drastic.

pinkangelnic

Hi Thanks again everyone for your opinions and advice,

The agents/landlord is pretty good most of the time they replaced the broken washing machine that came with the property within a week, and when the boiler broke they got someone out the same day so normally they're pretty good,

with all of your replies with them having no legal obligation to repair it, the situaion does not look good, as for replacing it ourselves if it was my own property I'd have no hesitation but we're currently saving for a deposit for our own house so last thing I want to do is spend money on repairs on somthing that isnt even mine.

squinty, i suppose that was a bit drastic saying I couldn't live with it, i'm just frustrated as I have pride in where I live and don't like it looking shabby