Fence blown down who pays?

silkyuk9

Last February (14) the fence dividing my garden and the next doors blew down and we had it replaced at a reasonable cost of 50% each.

Again last night ther damn thing came down again in the gails and the owner of the property next door has said he wont pay as the fence is not his.

Ok, I live in a terraced house of 4 homes. basically a long block of 4 houses all with back gardens seperated by those slt type fences you buy from BandQ etc. I have lived in my house for around 15 years and this is the only second time the fence has come down, as before same time last year.

According to the owners next door that is my fence as each house owns the fence in the garden to the left of each other.

Will that information be in my deeds? Its not a great deal as the 2 new partitions wont cost an arm and a leg infact the job cost £50 last year split £25 each. But in my opinion I would have thought it was a neighbourly thing to do go halves.

ariba10

It should be mentioned in the deeds. Our's is.

silkyuk9

ariba10 wrote: »

It should be mentioned in the deeds. Our's is.

We havent got our deeds I would imagine Woolich have them, Can i ring them up and ask them to search in the m for that info?

WestonDave

Just get them from Land registry online - will cost a couple of quid but much quicker.

Alter_ego

Even when you've investigated etc. If neighbour wont pay there is no way you can make them pay

Not even if it's their fence!

silkyuk9

I would never ever buy another house that was joined onto another. If I could have afforded a detached 15 years ago i would have. Every friend I know who lives in a detached house has never had issues with neighbours. yup Detached for me in my next life!

jhs14

It won't necessarily be on your deeds - is the fence as old as the houses? If not then it will belong to whoever put it up in the first place - regardless of who is responsible for maintaining the boundary, or even on which side of the boundary the fence is sited.

Edit: didn't read the OP properly! As per my above advice then, I suppose the fence belongs to both of you as you both paid for it. But as has been said, if he refuses to pay you can't make him.

Mojisola

silkyuk9 wrote: »

I would never ever buy another house that was joined onto another. If I could have afforded a detached 15 years ago i would have. Every friend I know who lives in a detached house has never had issues with neighbours. yup Detached for me in my next life!

Even detached houses share garden fences.

globalds

perhaps you should ring the guys who put it up ..it should last a little bit longer than just under 12 months

tired_dad

If the fence was purchased 50/50 then does not ownership become 50/50.

I doubt you could enforce payment.

You're options are to leave it as is or sort it out yourself.

You are right, its unneighbourly but in life you will meet all sorts.

silkyuk9

globalds wrote: »

perhaps you should ring the guys who put it up ..it should last a little bit longer than just under 12 months

it was very windy last night, I think the issue was we got a fencer to put up what needed repairing, looking back we should have changed a joist that hadnt fallen down last year as this seems to have snapped at the bottom, obviously weak through the years. That has snapped and brought down 2 panels but those are unrepairable. Maybe a lesson learned spend a few extra quid last year and might have saved the fence in the long run.