Neighbors taking out our fence - tomorrow

Dan-Dan

op- as above, tell him to not touch your fence and take lots of pictures now and prior to any work starting

Helvetica_Van_Buren

If he wants a new fence so badly, he can put it up on his side and on his boundary.

Tell him to mace sure the Tarmac stays his side of the boundary and you'll decide what to do with your own fence at your own leisure.

HelenRachel

Yes right - deep breaths! Will draft said letter as feel I need something in writing (i know its then 'official' but I'm really worried its all going to get out of hand whilst were away next week so I want some very clear guidelines as to what I find acceptable and what isn't).

eddddy

Tell your neighbour firmly and politely that you do not want him to take down your fence.

Also, tell him that he must not cause any damage to your fence when he removes his bushes. (If the roots of his bushes have grown under your fence, it's his problem not yours.)

Also, he has no right to damage your fence or garden plants when he tarmacs his property.

If he doesn't like the look of your fence, he can construct his own on his side of the boundary to hide it.


If you do want to write a note, make it a friendly, neighbourly, chatty note - with no hint of any kind of dispute or disagreement. For example:

"Hi

I've thought a bit more, and I'd like the fence left until I'm ready to replace it. So please make sure it isn't damaged when you remove the bushes and do the tarmacking. "

HelenRachel

Helvetica_Van_Buren wrote: »

Tell him the fence is fine as it is and he isn't to remove any of it for any reason.

Politely decline his offer of a quotation for a further a fence.

Can you not see that he's doing this to create work for himself? "I'm going to pull your fence out and then you can pay me to put a new one in".

Yes I think I've been quite naive with how I've dealt with this. This is the first time I've owned and I not had to sort out this sort of problem before.

Guest101

I just want to be sure - as it's often confusing. Is the fence actually yours?


Did you, or a previous owner of your property physically pay to put it up?

HelenRachel

Guest101 wrote: »

I just want to be sure - as it's often confusing. Is the fence actually yours?


Did you, or a previous owner of your property physically pay to put it up?

I have no idea who payed to put the fence up. The paperwork that came with the house shows that it is our boundary (its marked with a little 'T'). Our neighbour lived there as a child and we moved in nearly two years ago (when he first started saying we needed to replace the fence). He says that the previous owner put up the fence. I suppose what you mean is that technically it could have been his father who paid for the fence and its therefore his fence and he can do what he likes with it?

[Deleted User]

I think you will have to write to him if communicating verbally isn't working saying that if he is going to lay tarmac, you expect there to be no damage to your fence or plants, and it would be better if he could wait until you are back from holiday so plans can be discussed more fully to minimise damage and costs (to him).

Ideally you need to be there when the work is going on to make sure he doesn't just massacre your border areas. Its going to be difficult to keep this civil though whilst protecting your garden from damage.

Could you remove the plants that you are worried about (put the root ball in a big black bag) just in case?

I suppose he feels he's waited two years and that's long enough, just bad timing that he's doing something about it while you are going on holiday. If you can manage to negotiate a delay, that will be all you need.

HouseBuyer77

Could be worth taking some pictures of the fence/garden in it's current state just in case that it is a huge mess when you come back from holiday. That plus a copy of the letter you're about to send saying you do not wish him to disturb the fence may come in handy later (though fingers crossed you can resolve this amicably).

Try to avoid the neighbour seeing you take pictures in case it aggravates them.

societys_child

As the builder is planning to quote you for a new fence, I would say that he firmly believes it's yours.