Fence ,gates and bad neighbour

amalis

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

What if they decided to remove the fence entirely?

I agree with the consensus that adding a gate to a fence that you have no desire to use on a regular basis, or that would only open onto private property, seems a bit pointless.

But it is what it is - unless OP is actually trespassing on the neighbours property and they have evidence of this then as far as I can tell they have no right to demand the gate be removed as its not on their property.

Equally, there is nothing stopping their neighbour from doing something to obstruct the gateway from their side of the fence so long as they don't encroach on OPs property. If preventing access to their property along their shared boundaries is so important to them, then why don't *they* erect a fence?

well when the fence was repaired (which was 4 month ago) the fencer was obviously stepping on the other side when working. That's the only time I can think when someone stepped on their land. It was 1 day job and since then the gates were not opened. Does that qualify ?

amalis

What he wrote me : " , to install a door will not only invalidated our insurance but has set a stage where potential risk will have to be redefined for compliance reasons." and " We understand this is your fence and as such it is your responsibility to rectify the defect to avert any potential risk." " You are required to replace with fence restricting access in or out of your property".

Grenage

Just go and check your paperwork, then you'll know where you stand.

TheCyclingProgrammer

amalis wrote: »

What he wrote me : " , to install a door will not only invalidated our insurance but has set a stage where potential risk will have to be redefined for compliance reasons." and " We understand this is your fence and as such it is your responsibility to rectify the defect to avert any potential risk." " You are required to replace with fence restricting access in or out of your property".

Legal bluster IMO. They have every right to prevent you from accessing their property, either by constructing a barrier or by taking out an injunction to stop you from accessing their property. But I don't think they have any legal remedy to you simply having a gate on your property.

Potential access is not the same as trespass. You could have *no* fence at all if your boundaries do not state you need to maintain one, and simply run a piece of string to clearly mark your boundary. This would give you even more access to their property than a gate, but they still wouldn't be able to force you to put up a fence if you had no covenant stipulating you needed to maintain one.

As I said before, if securing their boundary is that important to them (for insurance purposes) then it seems like it would be prudent for them to erect their own fence at their own cost along the boundary on their property.

Of course this doesn't change the fact that the practical solution to this is to remove the gate if you don't want the hassle and don't actually want to use it, as soon as the funds are available.

Head_The_Ball

amalis wrote: »

ok,I understand i'll ask another question- can I when repairing my own fence install a decorative gate? (say I have a funny sense of beauty)?

I presume that you are suggesting installing something that looks nice from your side but ugly or offensive from their side.

I wouldn't do that under any circumstances.

Don't get into a battle with people who can interfere with your home and your life far more than you can interfere with theirs.

You live in your home. The people you will be battling don't live next to you.

You could find your expensive fence mysteriously set on fire one night. You could find a source of irritating loud noise appears near you. You could find all sorts of rubbish appearing in your garden. There are 101 other unpleasant possibilities.

maninthestreet

There is no way they can force you to replace the gate with a fixed fence without a court agreeing with them.

konark

It might be silly to have a non-functioning gate but it's your land and you can have as many gates in the fence as you like (as long as you don't use them to access the estate) or no fence at all. If it was me I'd just take the gate off its hinges leaving an open gap and then write back to say you have removed the gate according to their wishes. See how they like those apples.

Have some of your neighbours received the same letter? Maybe someone else has a gate and is letting people into the estate so they've written to everybody who has a gate.

You could find your expensive fence mysteriously set on fire one night. You could find a source of irritating loud noise appears near you. You could find all sorts of rubbish appearing in your garden. There are 101 other unpleasant possibilities.

Who owns the estate, the cosa nostra?

Head_The_Ball

konark wrote: »

..Who owns the estate, the cosa nostra?

That is a possibility.

Whoever owns it, there is no point in unnecessarily provoking them.

Airwolf20721

So you put a gate there in case one day you need to bring a big funiture or something like that! Good idea but to get round this why don't you build a fence but in the middle think where it can easy be taken off! EG like a secreat gate you cant tell from the other side.

thescouselander

Why not simply take the gates down and leave a gap as there's no compulsion to have any fence at all.

They'll probably ask you to put the gates back in the end once they realise they've made their position worse.