Potential fence/boundary dispute - who is in the right here?

bogstandard2

We bought a semi-detached house this year. The gardens are separated by a straight-line boundary between the houses. 
On our side of the boundary, there's a rotten, broken-down fence. On our neighbours' side, there is a nice new picket fence. 
Apparently, the old lady who lived in our house before us refused to remove her rotten fence, which sat on the boundary, so the neighbours installed their own fence, which consequently, is now a few inches off the boundary. 
We mentioned we intended to take the rotten fence down soon and the neighbour said "well if you don't want to put up a new one, you can just pay to have ours moved back onto the boundary and we'll call it straight."
Basically implying that I either need to put a new (second) fence on the boundary, or pay to move his? Is that right? 
Can I not just take down the rotten fence, and then it's his business what he wants to do with his own fence? 
I have nothing to do with what happened before I moved in, and it's not my fault he doesn't have his fence on his boundary currently, so why should I pay? Or am I missing something? 

lesalanos

You can freely remove the rotten fence.

Your neighbour can then just as freely remove the fence on his side and then it's up to you to sort some kind of boundary out 

TELLIT01

You are free to remove the rotten fence and not replace it, unless there is anything in the deeds to state that you must have a boundary fence of some sort.  You cannot appropriate the land between the old, rotten fence and the new fence erected by the neighbour.  That remains their property and you cannot touch it.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Given their attitude and the potential for them to move their fence too far over after removal I would stick a few metal rods in the ground with some string to mark the boundary for now.

Maybe take some photos of the rotten fence before it's removal as well.  

nastyphoenix

It depends where you are as the law is different in each country of the UK. The law in Scotland will be vastly different to the law in England. 

WeAreGhosts

Wow, sounds like my slightly unhinged neighbour ...
We have a situation like your neighbour where we had to put a fence in our garden, not on the agreed boundary, for various reasons, but there's no way I'd expect the neighbour to pay for it moving when the situation changes. That's just rude. Why can't it stay where it is? The difference is probably just centimetres anyway ...
The one thing that was useful to us was getting in writing from our neighbour as to where the agreed boundary actually lies - with photos - and I'm sure that will come in useful for us when he starts trying to change things years down the line (his reputation precedes him in this sort of thing). 

ElephantBoy57

bogstandard2 said:

We mentioned we intended to take the rotten fence down soon and the neighbour said "well if you don't want to put up a new one, you can just pay to have ours moved back onto the boundary and we'll call it straight."

Sounds fair enough, it's your choice. I would just leave it where it is, unless its concrete posts. If its a wooden fence and posts it might need replacing in a few years.

rach_k

I'd give the neighbour the benefit of the doubt.  The previous owner of your house sounds difficult!  Ask them how much it would be to move their fence (or whether it's something you could do yourselves, together).  If the price is less than half the cost of putting up the original fence, I'd pay it.  No, you don't have to, but if you'd been there when they wanted to replace the rotten fence, would you have agreed to go halves on a shared fence?  I think most reasonable people would... so be decent about it, make friends of your neighbours and avoid any disagreement over the boundary line in the future.  The world is full of things where we have the choice to do the absolute minimum required by law or to do what is actually decent (or, heaven forbid, nice!).  I'm in favour of being nice, where I can.

If you don't go for moving the fence and don't put up your own, you'll never be allowed to touch it.  No plants climbing up it, no choice over the colour it's painted etc.  So if you're going for the 'what's in it for me' approach, it's still a good idea to be decent.

Mojisola

rach_k said:

If you don't go for moving the fence and don't put up your own, you'll never be allowed to touch it.  No plants climbing up it, no choice over the colour it's painted etc. 

That will apply even if bogstandard pays to have the fence moved.

rach_k

Mojisola said:

rach_k said:

If you don't go for moving the fence and don't put up your own, you'll never be allowed to touch it.  No plants climbing up it, no choice over the colour it's painted etc. 

That will apply even if bogstandard pays to have the fence moved.

If the neighbour wants it on the old boundary, he might be willing for it to become a jointly owned fence.