Confused neighbours leads us to end up paying for fence panels on BOTH sides

greatcrested

Simple solution.

Remove the fence panels on both sides.

Keep them stored somewhere to re-use in the future if wanted.

String a couple of strands of wire bewtween the fence posts.

The neighbours will doubtless not be satisfied and ask you to replace the fences.

Respond that you have removed your fence panels (as is your right), and that you are happy for the boundary to be marked by the strands of wire.

Suggest to the neighbours that if they want fence panels, you have no objection to them installing their panels on the boundary.

You willnot endear yourself to the neighbours and relations may become frosty, but you'll be on sound legal ground.

spiritus

NatNat77 said:

How long have you lived there? As we're selling and buying and we've had to specify on a form which side fences our "ours", and so has our vendor. Do you have something similar in the paperwork from the previous owner when you bought? 

12 years.
Neighbour One there for 17 yrs and Neighbour Two lived there for 18 months.
It just sounds like a knotted mess.
Both sets of neighbours have fully replaced fence panels on the the opposite sides when they were damaged so it doesn't look as if they are intentionally trying to screw us.
I will contact the Council after the New Year to see what they can advise but I can see this affecting lots of neighbours as someone, somewhere has at some time fobbed a neighbour off and ended up passing the buck onto them.
I also understand it is not compulsory to have a fence and the last few days were something of a Mexican standoff as we waited for Neighbour One to move the panels that had landed on their side-they took me by surprise telling us today that that is our side also. 

davidmcn

spiritus said:

NatNat77 said:

How long have you lived there? As we're selling and buying and we've had to specify on a form which side fences our "ours", and so has our vendor. Do you have something similar in the paperwork from the previous owner when you bought?

I will contact the Council after the New Year to see what they can advise

I don't see why the council would be involved, unless they're a landlord of any of the properties?

Splatfoot

Sometimes a house does end up with responsibility for both sides, houses can be built at different times, alleyways in between etc and someone ends up with both.  To be honest, I'd rather have responsibility for all the fences in my garden, makes things easier.

Grumpy_chap

Fences are cheap.
Just repair what you want to have repaired and be grateful neither neighbour tries to stop you.

Slithery

spiritus said:
I will contact the Council after the New Year to see what they can advise

If all of the properties are privately owned then it's nothing to do with the council.

theoretica

If you have a row of 3 properties there will be 4 fences etc - always one more boundary than property so everyone in the row trying to maintain only one each won't work mathematically.

Land_Registry

As as others posted nothing to do with Council unless they own affected land/proprrty
And remaining posts provide collective answer, namely invariably a matter for neighbours to agree/resolve; the registered details may offer clues/covenants but these are not always present, the title plan won’t say anything and even if register does refer may not be legally binding now; what each seller stated to the current owner for each can have a bearing; and what each of you have done over time can also impact. 

So best advice is to pool information and understanding and then agree a way forward if you can. And if you want to then formalise it enter into an agreement and register it/them 

NameUnavailable

As above, remove the broken panels from your neighbours garden (assume they're broken and can't just be fixed back up?) and leave it at that. There's no requirement to replace them, if you are worried about the cost of doing that, but you can give permission to said neighbour to pay for new panels if that's what they prefer.

Mojisola

My parents' house was at the end of a row so all three fences were theirs. Although it was an extra cost, it meant that they could have their choice of fencing and fence colour all round the garden and that they could fix anything they wanted to any of the fences - there are advantages to it.