Replacing a shared fence

orionmoo

Moved into a new house about 3 months ago now, and we've been doing lots of garden work recently with the new weather and we may wish to replace the fence in between our house and our neighbours.

The boundaries are all shared, and the fence looks pretty old so I'd imagine it is the fence placed there when the property was built new in 1999.

Now, we don't have a particularly good relationship with our neighbour already, after a bin dispute, does anyone know what the best course of action would be to replace the fence. Assume it is indeed shared owned (as in placed there by the developers on the boundary line and the boundary is shared) can we just inform them that we'll be replacing it and taking full ownership of the new fence or do we need to get their agreement.

I don't recall exactly what the deeds say, but I know they mention that our neighbours cannot withhold access (and vice versa) for any maintenance issues such as fences.

Would just writing a letter informing them of our intentions be suitable? What if they say no - can they really prevent a shared fence from being replaced if it is in a bad state (it's leaning over in parts and has several parts of several panels missing in other places)

Dan-Dan

You really need to know if your neighbour owns the fence before you start pulling it out because you cant know if its from build or hers

LateStarter

If 6 inches of land isn't important (and you can afford it), put up a new fence on your land, and leave the existing fence in place.

G_M

The boundary (different from the fence) is not shared. It belngs to one of you. Though determining who can be difficult.

The fence too will belong to one of you (unless the two owners erected it together and shared the cost - did they?)

So do not take unilateral action unless you are very sure of your ground, which clearly you are not.

Idealy, discuss and agree. If necessary, offer to pay the full cost (irrespective of who owns either the fence, or the boundary on which it sits). Try to get some kind of consent in writing so
* friendly chat - agree
* polite letter confirming the agreement and requesting confirmation back in writing
* get confirmation

As a last resort, as latestarter says, you can always erect a fence anywhere you like on your own land, so 3 inches in from the boundary is fine.

Land_Registry

If the properties were built new in 1999 then the developer may have included covenants in the Transfer of each ploy to indicate who was to be responsible for which fence for example or indeed state that they were to be shared.

The covenants though would be just part of the available information which may also include any particulars of sale the previous owner gave you, the neighbour's understanding of what has happened in the past 15 years etc etc

So the key is to gather what information may be available, share that with your neighbour and clarify understanding and then agree a way forward. At the end of the day such matters largely come down to neighbours agreeing and whilst a letter is one option in my experience that places things on a very formal footing and in a worse case scenario can become an issue in it;s own right if poorly worded.
An initial verbal and face to face discussion, which could clear the air over previous issues, is often the best way forward - however that always depends on neighbours of course

Our online guidance explains some of the issues around boundaries

You can view the register online and then order a copy of any Transfer by the developer by post - you may have a copy register etc though from when you bought of course

orionmoo

Thanks,

I'll grab the deeds tonight and have a re-read through the covenants listed.

I'd say I'm 95% sure however that the boundaries are shared. I remember we were all quite surprised that one home did not own one boundary (e.g. the left) but I'll double check it all. I know the plans can be a bit uninformative or misleading sometimes...