Shred Boundary hedge / fence?

12603taylor

With regards to failure to investigate that a fence existed on the other side of the hedge ....I gave all the legal docs, planning docs, everything from when the house was originally built and there is no mention of a fence in any of it.

As I’ve always stated it is impossible to see the fence from anywhere or any point on our property or any surrounding parts of her property, even after being told there is a fence and actively trying to see if we can see any sign of it from our side of the garden and we still can’t. So other than walking round to her house (we don’t naturally cross paths with her, as her house is on another road ...it’s just that her back garden backs onto our front garden) and saying hi you don’t know us, but we might live behind you if we buy the house behind where you live, so do you mind if you let us in and let us come into your garden to investigate what’s there, just in case ... or alternative hiring a helicopter and hovering above her garden, I’m not quite sure what further investigations you would of expected us to do.

In reference to the hedge, my point is that she has been dealing with the consequences of that hedge being there for 30 odd years, and it was not us that imposed the hedge on to her ...it was a previous owner many years ago ...and we have now inherited the situation as it is now ...and in reality, although she didn’t sign up for it , the hedge has become a suitable boundary divide.

I will also point out that she is happy to benefit from the improved privacy this hedge offers her over a fence. And when we did discussed the option of removing the hedge (which we would not be keen to do) and just having a fence there she was not happy wirh that either as she would lose some privacy. She even commented that she would then have to grow a hedge back on her side of the fence ...which would be silly she said ...but to me supports the fact that she doesn’t like the annoyance of maintenance of this hedge, but still enjoys the benefits it offers her.

Money_maker

Exactly. Just decline her offer. You dont need to justify yourself when you reap no benefit whether she has a hedge or not. If it's been there that long, she's been dead lucky she's not had to do any trimming herself.

AnotherJoe

12603taylor wrote: »

I will also point out that she is happy to benefit from the improved privacy this hedge offers her over a fence. And when we did discussed the option of removing the hedge (which we would not be keen to do) and just having a fence there she was not happy with that either as she would lose some privacy. She even commented that she would then have to grow a hedge back on her side of the fence ...which would be silly she said ...but to me supports the fact that she doesn’t like the annoyance of maintenance of this hedge, but still enjoys the benefits it offers her.

Well in that case, politely decline her offer

moneyistooshorttomention

It does rather sound like the problem might be (at least in part) that she is wondering how to keep marking where the boundary is between the two gardens. The fence is obviously doing it at present.

What would mark exactly where the boundary is if the fence wasnt there? (ie rather than anyone - be they in her house or yours - wondering if it was your side of your hedge or her side of your hedge or somewhere in the middle of the hedge).

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

What would mark exactly where the boundary is if the fence wasnt there? (ie rather than anyone - be they in her house or yours - wondering if it was your side of your hedge or her side of your hedge or somewhere in the middle of the hedge).

The boundary is usually where the two parties involved agree it is, or they go through a costly process using specialist surveyors or even a court to have the matter decided.

When I was fencing our last garden, I offered the elderly gentleman next door the option of removing the hedge between us to reduce maintenance for him. He agreed, but then his idiot son intervened, saying that they might lose some garden because the boundary 'wasn't clear.' I just shrugged and said the fence would go in anyway and that would be the end of me needing to cut more than the top.

The 1.8m fence was erected and from my POV they got all of the land under the hedge because there was then a change of level where my fence, gravel boards/foundations were.

I didn't care. I'd already sat on my shed roof at the end of the garden and sighted a straight line from the neighbours garage at the front 120' to where I was. That boundary was straight as a die on the title plan, but in the real world, in the 50 years since it was drawn/defined, different people had kinked it all over the place! There was no overall winner; it was just a muddle.

And that's how things often are; untidy and unclear.

moneyistooshorttomention

This is the thing - can't say I'd relish the prospect of a court battle on this.

I "think" the usual verdict would tend to be along the lines of = slap bang in the middle of the hedge (I guess that would mean the middle of the trunks of the trees?).

Can't say I'd fancy diving into a thick group of leylandii, for instance, trying to figure out exactly where the mid-point of their trunks was. Add if they'd been planted a bit higgledy-piggedy (instead of in a dead straight line) :eek: and there are people that will literally slice a hedge of trees straight down the middle vertically.

So - actually - if that is correct that the usual legal assumption is = bang in the middle of the hedge, then the OP could find themselves losing a bit of their garden that was half the width of that hedge of theirs if the fence was no longer there.

Of course - they may prefer to take that risk, rather than paying half the cost of the fence....

Just glad I've never been in the position of a hedge defining a boundary of mine personally...

Davesnave

There are very few court battles and it's not a legal assumption; people just agree things pragmatically, or they grumble and fight, but nothing much happens.

Often there are fixed points of reference, like the neighbour's garage in my example, and these may be used if someone gets @rsey, but who usually wants to re-route a wayward boundary and pay for the privilege? I certainly wouldn't have relished it to gain the odd few square feet here and there.


In the other example I quoted, where the removal of the hedge revealed that neighbours had pinched 3' of our garden to make rear accesses, we didn't ask for the land back. Life's too short.

DriverMart

Another question …. having read this post …. I have lived in this house for 7 years now, and the boundary fence to my right is on its last legs and starting to fall apart, My neighbour started to paint it (including the concrete posts on three sides) a dark grey colour, it was previously brown, I went and asked him to stop painting the fence as I didn't want my fence to be that colour, and I was aware that the fence was on its last legs and that I would replace the fence with a hedge in the near future, he continued to paint it whilst I was at work over a period of weeks. I planted a hawthorn hedge (a few inches in from my side of the current old fence) in the autumn with small plants (approx. 6 inches tall) these are now shooting and we grow in time to produce a secure boundary. My neighbour at the weekend lent over the fence and said he was replacing some of the fence panels, I said that there was no need and that I had had planted a hedge, as I had informed him previously, which will form the boundary. He replied saying that it was a joint boundary and I could not stop him replacing the panels and that he was now against a hedge forming the boundary.

 I have dug out the documents for my property and the deeds state from 1935 when the house was first built "the property is sold subject to the following provision - for himself or his successors in title the purchaser shall in his conveyance enter into the following restrictive or other covenants, namely - to forever hereafter maintain good and substantial fences on the west and south sides of the property hereby agreed to be sold"
 The small plan of the plot of land also shows this boundary with T symbol with the leg inside my plot of land and stating that this is boundary to build and maintain. Therefore clearly identify this boundary as mine to build and maintain.

I have tried to reason with him offering to cut his side when it eventually requires it, but he doesn't listen I told him that he has by painting the current fence a different colour without consulting me or gaining my approval caused criminal damage to it and that he is liable to prosecution which I told him I didn't want to do, he then argues that because he paid half towards the fence when it was erected by the previous owner of my house that therefore the fence is part his, is this correct?

So in short firstly am I in my rights to plant the hedge to replace the fence? Does he have any say on the current fence? And am I right regarding the painting of the fence and fence posts?

Thanks in advance for your help

Martin
 

davidmcn

DriverMart said:

Another question …. having read this post ….

Much better to start your own thread rather than resurrect this one, otherwise people will just start answering the original post from two years ago.

AdrianC

Well, we don't normally get many threads fighting over who replaces the boundary marker... because BOTH want to...!

Nothing to stop you putting a hedge on your side of his fence, of course. Or him putting a fence on his side of your hedge. The actual boundary doesn't move.