Who owns what fence?

sofsofsof

Hi so being the lovely weather both sides of fence have come down...
We are a row of three houses, all terraced. we are at the end of the three houses, we clearly own / are responsible for the left side as this isnt attached to anyone.. however the right.. is attached with the middle neighbors. How can i tell by looking at title deeds and red boundaries what fence is owned by me? Would the middle house really own neither left or right side of the fences? Thank you

spadoosh

If the deeds do actually say who owns the fence it should be marked with a small T within the boundary of the person who owns it.



Its usually pretty immaterial though, you cant force someone to buy a new fence. So if theyre not being forthcoming with offering to replace youll be looking at 3 options. 1, not having a fence. 2, replacing the fence yourself (basically giving the neighbour a fence) or 3. building your own fence within your boundry to give you control of the situation.

Grenage

There might be a 'T' marker showing who is responsible for the boundary, but it won't tell you who own the fence. You can sometimes guess based on who's land it's on; unless your neighbours know, it's normally down to who's most enthusiastic.

Unless someone's got a dog - then you have to get some sort of fence in place.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Ask the neighbours who owns it. If its clearly on one side of the boundary (it might not be possible to tell precisely as boundaries aren't precise) there's a good chance it belongs to whomever's side its on.

Remember, deeds usually only specify who is responsible for maintaining which boundaries (and some don't even say that), not who owns a fence. Anyone can put up a fence on their land on any side. Some newer build properties may specify though.

It might even be shared if the previous owners split the costs with your neighbour (we did this with ours and had the fence erected on the boundary line and treat it as a shared fence).

AndyMc.....

Grenage wrote: »

There might be a 'T' marker showing who is responsible for the boundary, but it won't tell you who own the fence. You can sometimes guess based on who's land it's on; unless your neighbours know, it's normally down to who's most enthusiastic.

Unless someone's got a dog - then you have to get some sort of fence in place.

Even then you don’t need a fence as there are other ways of controlling the dog.

phill99

I will reiterate what Grenage has said above.


the markers on Deed plans only identify who is responsible for the BOUNDARY. The boundary is an artificial boundary (agreed by courts to be the width of a spade) that separates 2 pieces of land.


This is not the same as the fence. The fence is an artificial structure that is used for privacy etc.


So in reality, the person who owns the fence is the person that erected it.


However, most people acknowledge, that unless there is evidence to the contrary, the fence on the boundary that you have legal responsibility for is yours.