New Fence should we help pay?

sparkiemalarkie

Thank you,
I feel very strongly that we shouldn't pay anything towards the fence since our neighbour wants to replace it to accommodate his dog...


I think my husband is being far too 'soft'....


sparkie

culpepper

They should leave your fence where it is. It could cause problems later on, otherwise . He should have his new fence erected on his side but your fence, marks your boundary and you would be better to request it be left standing.
We had problems a few years ago after just such a scenario resulting in some unpleasantness with a new neighbour who wanted to access the road (beyond the new fence owned by a newly built housing estate) and was adamant that our garden narrowed to meet the posts erected by the fence owners at the bottom of the garden and not its original width (meaning she would be driving over the bottom of our garden).
While the dog owner might be the nicest most honest person in the world, it doesn't follow that it would be him that would cause trouble..

bugslet

Same as kylyr, if I needed/wanted to replace their fence because of my dogs, I'd talk to the neighbours and not expect them to pay anything as I was doing it for my own benefit.

Person_one

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

The old fence is perfectly fine... just needs a coat of preservative.

The new fence is going to be much higher...I think Dobermans are quite big dogs.

He hasn't asked for a contribution.


sparkie

Then just given him permission to change it, if you're happy to have one of that height. It sounds like he's reasonable enough to know that its not really on or a great start to neighbourly relations to ask you to pay to replace something you already have that's doing the job fine!

JimmyTheWig

sparkiemalarkie wrote: »

The old fence is perfectly fine... just needs a coat of preservative.

The new fence is going to be much higher...I think Dobermans are quite big dogs.

He hasn't asked for a contribution.


sparkie

Id' be tempted to offer the cost of the preservative and offer to help put it up if they're not getting it done professionally.

GBNI

No, I wouldn't contribute. I've two dogs and if I felt I needed to change fencing to keep them in, certainly I'd discuss with neighbours to make sure it's ok but I would also make it clear that I expect no financial contribution. After all, the dogs are my issue not theirs.


And yes, Dobermans are very big dogs and can easily scale fences! Lovely animals though

Reggie_Rebel

pigpen wrote: »

Smile sweetly, say yes of course you can replace the fence how very considerate... and let them get on with it!

Is the correct answer

jackieblack

When we wanted a 6 foot fence between us and our neighbour we just put one up on our side of the boundary.
The original boundary fence was left untouched and is still there

princeofpounds

Putting up a tall fence is entirely his responsibility, in order to keep his dogs in check. If you want to contribute, that's ok, but it's not a moral obligation in any respect.

You have a choice. You can either keep your fence in place, and ask him to put his fence up next to yours. Which might look a little odd.

Or you can sacrifice your fence. The fence then becomes his. Unless you both pay for it, in which case you jointly own it.

There are some technical complications about boundaries, which is a different matter to the ownership of the fence itself, although the position of a fence can come to define a boundary over time. But if it's a matter of an inch or two it's no really a big deal - it only matters if the fence goes in an obviously wrong place. the question to ask yourself is whether you want to keep ownership of the feature or not.


If it was me, I would keep my fence and suggest he put his adjacent to it, as long as this didn't look stupid. That's the least complicated option. And if I wanted to show goodwill, if he was putting it in DIY I would offer to help hold the panels/posts etc., rather than pay for the materials.

Guest101

Fences are not denoted on boundaries.


Whoever puts up the fence, owns it.