The debate of house barriers when you're looking to buy - fencing, hedges, panelling

JustAnotherSaver

One of the houses we're looking at in the other thread brought this question to mind & i was wondering what the protocol is with this.

Looking in the photos, it appears some of the wooden fencing at the back of the house is in need of repair. It looks like there's gaps between the house we're looking at & the neighbour. Aside from the fact i'm not keen on flimsy wooden panels anyway. They're a nightmare in winter!!

But how do you decide if you can replace them? You may want them gone but the neighbour may want them to stay. They may have been in place before either owner of both houses moved in, so who owns them?

On the other side looks like trees & overgrown hedges. I'm taking it that any hedge & tree growing into your garden is perfectly fine to get chopped by you??
What if you wanted to replace one type of barrier for another (those horrible concrete base panels, for say, a well kept hedge?)


I've only ever lived in a detached house, so i don't know what the jist is here.

G_M

Only the owner of a fence/wall etc can remove, repair, replace the fence/wall etc since it belongs to them.

Of course, anyone can add another fence/wall etc on their own land. But not on the boundary itself, unless you own the boundary.

There is no obligation on the boundary-owner to provide any fence/wall etc unless either they wish to, or there is a covenenat saying theymust.

Ownership of boundaries is one of the most difficult, and contentious, neighbour problems. Land Registry Plans, or the original Builders Plans sometimes indicate ownership, but not always.

JustAnotherSaver

Sounds like a lot of fun!!

How do you know who owns a fence? Let's take number 8 & number 10 houses.
They could both say they own it - who's right?
It could've been in place before either moved in. What then?
We could end up in a place & then go knocking at number 8 saying do you own this fence? And they think, ey up, we can bag a free fence from this newcomer.



On to the topic of trees & hedges though, since from the photos it looks like the back garden is being attacked....
...am i correct in thinking even if your neighbour owns the tree & owns the hedge ..... if it comes into your garden, you're perfectly fine to start cutting those bits?

Davesnave

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

I've only ever lived in a detached house, so i don't know what the jist is here.

Surely detached houses also have boundaries with others?

My detached house has a long boundary, but some of it belongs to neighbours, some is shared and some is mine. One of the boundaries changes from one side of a hedge to the other part of the way along it.

One of my friend's boundaries is in the middle of a river. Sometimes, the river changes course, as it did last winter, so he can gain or lose land.

Davesnave

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

...am i correct in thinking even if your neighbour owns the tree & owns the hedge ..... if it comes into your garden, you're perfectly fine to start cutting those bits?

Yes, so long as you offer the bits back to the neighbour, though they don't have to accept them.

You are right that gardens can come under attack. When I removed a huge 8' thick privet hedge at my old house, I discovered that neighbours had, at some time stolen bits of my land to make narrow accesses from footpaths.

G_M

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Sounds like a lot of fun!!

How do you know who owns a fence? Let's take number 8 & number 10 houses.
They could both say they own it - who's right?
It could've been in place before either moved in. What then?
We could end up in a place & then go knocking at number 8 saying do you own this fence? And they think, ey up, we can get [STRIKE]bag a free fence from [/STRIKE]this newcomer to pay for replacing his fence

Ownership of boundaries is one of the most difficult, and contentious, neighbour problems. Land Registry Plans, or the original Builders Plans sometimes indicate ownership, but not always.



On to the topic of trees & hedges though, since from the photos it looks like the back garden is being attacked....
...am i correct in thinking even if your neighbour owns the tree & owns the hedge ..... if it comes into your garden, you're perfectly fine to start cutting those bits?

You can do what you like on your land (and air-space).

JustAnotherSaver

Davesnave wrote: »

Surely detached houses also have boundaries with others?

There's no houses anywhere near where we live currently. It's brilliant

gazzabboi

when your solicitor does his bits at exchange, you will be asked if the area on the red line plan is correct. On the red line plan it will say who is the owner of each fence/boundary.

Davesnave

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

There's no houses anywhere near where we live currently. It's brilliant

Surely you still have boundaries? The responsibility for those could easily be as vague or perplexing as those one comes across in settlements.

I've only lived in the countryside for four years, and I've already had more boundary issues than the other 35 years of house ownership put together.

Davesnave

gazzabboi wrote: »

On the red line plan it will say who is the owner of each fence/boundary.

Only if you're lucky, I'm afraid.

It's far from as clear cut as this, or what GM says about disputes would not be the case.

moneyistooshorttomention

I've got the Land Registry entry for house I am buying and, whilst red lines are drawn round my "territory", it doesn't indicate what boundaries are owned by who.

I asked my vendor, whilst having my viewings, exactly what I do and don't own out of the boundaries. Hence, I know exactly whats mine and what isn't.

I've got the most important bit clarified and that is that my open-plan front garden (ie house at end of cul-de-sac) is owned by me and I can change the paved-over end of road section into proper garden and extend my side wall to run further down my boundary. That bit that currently looks like end of road is within my "red lines" okay:D