Who should pay for a shared fence?

cheghead

Live in a terrace house and the fence on one side is just about falling apart and needs replacing making the back garden look really shabby. Both houses are owned/mortgaged. Should the cost of replacing be met by us and neighbour 50/50? What about if they refuse to pay for anything towards the cost?

tanith

It usually tells you on your deeds which fence is yours.. most of the people I know own the fence to the left if you are facing the house.. others say if the backside of the fence, thats the bit with the supports showing , is facing you then thats your fence..
I guess you could ask the neighbours if they want to go half and half but if its your fence they would be under no obligation to do so.... if it were my neighbour asking me to pay half towards replacing his fence I would say no as I'd already paid the full cost of replacing the other fence....

cheghead

How can you find out from the deeds. Would you have to contact a solicitor or would the mortgage lender have the details?

tanith

It would be your Mortgage lender that holds your deeds but they might charge you for a peek or a copy :eek: How about asking neighbours if they know whose is whose fence? Not just next door but other neighbours....

deanos

Do you have a copy of the deeds , we got one with our house

shown73

On out estate also, we are responsible for the left hand fence, facing the house from the front. Seems to be quite normal.

ScoobieGirl

deanos wrote: »

Do you have a copy of the deeds , we got one with our house

Me too. Each boundary has a "T" on it to indicate who is responsible for each fence.

Becles

You can download your deeds from www.landreg.gov.uk

My deeds do not mention fences and there are no T marks on the boundary diagram. We just split the cost with both sets of neighbours.

poppyolivia

Where ever the posts of the fence are its up to that owner to replace or mend. Well it is here anyway.

cobster

Hi. I would suggest that you check with neighbours down your road. For instance, where I live I am responsible for the right hand boundary - as is everyone else on the road. There are no Ts on my deeds either.

If the fence is your neighbour's responsibility you can either ask them to replace it, offer to go 50/50 on replacing it or you can erect a fence on your side of the boundary to hide their fence.

I had the same scenario with my neighbour who was happy for me to replace his fence as long as it wasn't higher than 4ft6. I wanted 6ft from a privacy point of view so I ended up having the fence put up on my side of the boundary. Now I have the delight of dealing with the family (he died at the end of last year) to have the right of way opened up that he blocked off with his fence over a dispute with the previous owners.

Good luck

Debt_Free_Chick

poppyolivia wrote: »

Where ever the posts of the fence are its up to that owner to replace or mend. Well it is here anyway.

Oooooo .... not necessarily. It could be that the posts were changed over with the (then) owners' agreement at some point in the past. So you can't rely on this as being incontrovertible "proof" of ownership and/or obligation to maintain. Sorry