Who is responsible For Which Fence?

pinkteapot

.................................................

Mojisola

pinkteapot wrote: »

Our title plan doesn't have the marks on it, and there's no wording in the title deeds we got when we bought the house.

The fence across the back of our garden is falling down. The neighbour behind claims it's ours. But, the fence runs across the back of three properties (including ours). Neighbour behind has a long thin garden, running across the back of all of ours.

The fence is one continuous run. We couldn't even just replace the section behind us, as one panel is half across our garden and half across next door.

The house of the neighbour behind has been there 50 years longer than our houses. I find it hard to believe it's not their boundary!

Unless it says so in the deeds, neither of you has an obligation to put up a fence so tell your neighbour that you are happy with the fence as it or that you will take the fence down and replace it with some canes and wire to mark the boundary line or with a run of sheep fencing.

If your neighbour wants a nice new fence, he should pay for it.

pinkteapot

................................................

highguyuk

pinkteapot wrote: »

My only concern is that it's leaning heavily into their garden now, so I'm worried about what happens if it falls over and lands on their grandkid or something! As I said, fence has been up since long before our house was built so not entirely sure how it's ours. Ho hum!

Even though it's leaning away from our garden, it still looks a bit rubbish and we're planning on selling soon. But replacing would mean sorting out with four households what to do with it and just the thought of that gives me a headache.

Then put a new section of fence up about 0.1m into your boundary. Job done! :j

Mojisola

pinkteapot wrote: »

My only concern is that it's leaning heavily into their garden now, so I'm worried about what happens if it falls over and lands on their grandkid or something! As I said, fence has been up since long before our house was built so not entirely sure how it's ours. Ho hum!

Even though it's leaning away from our garden, it still looks a bit rubbish and we're planning on selling soon. But replacing would mean sorting out with four households what to do with it and just the thought of that gives me a headache.

If the fence is leaning into their garden, they should be propping it up rather than complaining to you! If there's no evidence in either set of deeds who is responsible for the fence, then the person most affected needs to sort it out. You can't be held responsible for their grandchildren's safety.

If you want to tidy up the garden before putting it on the market, you could always put a run of fencing on your side of the boundary between your two side fences. It's usually best to avoid double fences but sometimes it's the only way forward.

pinkteapot

..........................................................

Mojisola

pinkteapot wrote: »

The fence across the back of our garden is falling down. The neighbour behind claims it's ours. But, the fence runs across the back of three properties (including ours). Neighbour behind has a long thin garden, running across the back of all of ours.

The fence is one continuous run. We couldn't even just replace the section behind us, as one panel is half across our garden and half across next door.

The house of the neighbour behind has been there 50 years longer than our houses. I find it hard to believe it's not their boundary!

The evidence does suggest that the fence is theirs.

The only other way it could have turned out as it is would be if the same builder put up your three houses and fenced off the older house's garden before they put in your side fences.

If you want to sell, you will need to sort out the fence otherwise viewers will walk away from a house with a potential boundary dispute.

Land_Registry

As you can tell from the contributors to this post, boundary ownership isn't straightforward. We may or may not have information as to ownership.

We think our recent blog on this subject may be useful in explaining our position.
http://blog.landregistry.gov.uk/drawing-line-stand-boundaries/

suestew

I have this problem part of a fence came down and I am unsure who owns it. On my deeds both my front garden and back garden are completely lined in red so does that mean I am responsible for all fences? As it's been down for a while now I am just going to sort it out, it's an old lady next door and the cost is not that much.

DominicJ_2

Very few people are under legal obligation to fence their land.
There are a few, often people adjoining railways must fence the railway, but no one on a housing estate has any obligation to put up a fence.

You can, if you choose, put up a fence on your land, but you cant make your neighbour do so because he lives to your left.