Fencing - whose responsibility?

KatieDee

Hi everybody,

We are an end terrace and the land next to us (bordering the side of our garden) is owned by the council. They have some properties in this area but ultimately there is nothing next to our house, just land.

We would like to put up some fencing to increase security and today my neighbour on the other side suggested I speak to the council to see if they are willing to go 50/50 on the cost of the fence.

I understand the logic behind it (going 50/50 with a neighbour is quite common) but is it even worth bothering them about? We had already budgeted for this work to be done and I know the council are struggling with budgets as it is...without putting £500 towards fencing that won't benefit them in anyway!

I hope this makes sense to those reading...does 50/50 responsibility for fencing only apply to residential properties?

p00hsticks

KatieDee wrote: »

Hi everybody,

We are an end terrace and the land next to us (bordering the side of our garden) is owned by the council. They have some properties in this area but ultimately there is nothing next to our house, just land.

We would like to put up some fencing to increase security and today my neighbour on the other side suggested I speak to the council to see if they are willing to go 50/50 on the cost of the fence.

I understand the logic behind it (going 50/50 with a neighbour is quite common) but is it even worth bothering them about? We had already budgeted for this work to be done and I know the council are struggling with budgets as it is...without putting £500 towards fencing that won't benefit them in anyway!

I hope this makes sense to those reading...does 50/50 responsibility for fencing only apply to residential properties?

Unless there are specific covenants in place requiring you to fence off a property, or you need it to, for example, keep a dog under control, there's usually no obligation on a property owner to erect or maintain a fence. There may even be covenants on some estates forbidding the erection of fencing.

If I were in your position, assuming there's nothing obvious marking the boundary at present, I'd be tempted to get in touch with the council to tell them what you are planning - they may or may not contribute to the cost, but they might want to be involved to ensure that they agree the position of the boundary that you are going to fence off. Better to double check now than have to move (or remove) it later

stator

I wouldn't get your hopes up. There is no law about who has to pay for it. It's the person who wants a new fence who ends up paying

If you contact the council you might end up in a dispute. It might be better to just stake your claim (pun intended) but putting up the fence in a position that you think is justified from the plans.

KatieDee

stator wrote: »

I wouldn't get your hopes up. There is no law about who has to pay for it. It's the person who wants a new fence who ends up paying

If you contact the council you might end up in a dispute. It might be better to just stake your claim (pun intended) but putting up the fence in a position that you think is justified from the plans.

Thank you for your reply

I would only do it in line with our boundaries anyway, as I wouldn't want to take any of their land. I will give them a call anyway to explain what I plan to do - they may want to send somebody out to tell me where I can put it.

There is a fence up at present but it really needs replacing. Apparently, a previous owner had managed to get them to pay towards a new fence but this must have been at least 20 years ago...things have definitely changed since then! :rotfl:

p00hsticks wrote: »

Unless there are specific covenants in place requiring you to fence off a property, or you need it to, for example, keep a dog under control, there's usually no obligation on a property owner to erect or maintain a fence. There may even be covenants on some estates forbidding the erection of fencing.

If I were in your position, assuming there's nothing obvious marking the boundary at present, I'd be tempted to get in touch with the council to tell them what you are planning - they may or may not contribute to the cost, but they might want to be involved to ensure that they agree the position of the boundary that you are going to fence off. Better to double check now than have to move (or remove) it later

Again, thank you for your response. I will give them a call and see what they say. I wouldn't want to cause issues further down the line as I plan to have them cemented in and fencing certainly isn't cheap!

stator

The thing is, they may send someone out and he might say "This fence is in the wrong place, move it 10 meters further into your garden" and then you've got a dispute. If you just replace it, they don't know, no dispute.

Mallotum_X

Jus do It, they are not going to pay so no point in risking them getting involved.

Davesnave

Put the fence exactly where the old one was and take good photographs as the work progresses to prove you have done this.

That's all you need do.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

Put the fence exactly where the old one was and take good photographs as the work progresses to prove you have done this.

That's all you need do.

That's what I would do in that position. Correction = that's what I have done in that position. I made sure that the replacement was put exactly (to the absolute inch) where the previous one had been and didn't bother to give any notification, as it was quite clear that the position of the previous one was indeed exactly accurate.

I didn't even think of asking for a contribution towards the cost (though it would have been welcome) because I knew they would have expected something MUCH cheaper than what I had chosen to have and I had no wish to have to put up with someone else's "budget" tastes.