Boundary Question - Having New Fence Fitted

SteveVy

Hi Guys,

I live in a new build property that is approx 1 year old..I am the 2nd owner of the property. In the garden of the property there is a fence that runs along the back, this fence bends in-wards and then continues on this new bend all the way straight. The neighbor behind told me the bend was because he wasn't happy to have a tree removed that apparently sits on both our land and his land.

We spoke to the neighbor recently who agreed we could cut the tree and he then decided to put some string out to mark the boundary...He told me half of the land in the red shaded area is mine.

The issue we have is the neighbor is claiming the new fence should run across the tree stump and not behind.  My fencer is telling me this is wrong and he wants to put the new fence in line with the current fence posts so its straight. I am unsure what to do!

I've attached the title document and I am hoping someone can help...

Can someone answer the following questions;

1) Would I be right in saying the arrow marked as A and C is our current fence? ( I say this as this is how the current fence is and "bends" in at arrow A).

2) Am I correct in saying I am allowed to move my current fence back so it is inline with the the arrow that is marked B?

3) Am I right in saying I can move the fence at Arrow C to Arrow D?  there is approx 1.5 meters of space in between these gaps. Is this space mine? All neighbors behind have fences up already,

Many thanks for your help!

TELLIT01

If the tree was on the boundary then it seems logical that the true boundary line can't be any further back than the extreme back edge of the tree trunk, and is probably nearer the centre line.  It would have needed to be a massive tree to cause your fence to be moved forward 1.5 metres.

Ant555

>Am I right in saying I can move the fence at Arrow C to Arrow D?  there is approx 1.5 meters of space in between these gaps
Is there any obvious reason why the fence at C is 1.5m further into your land than the boundary line you have drawn at D?

>Am I correct in saying I am allowed to move my current fence back so it is inline with the the arrow that is marked B?
From your post, I would say you are correct as long as its physically possible with the tree stump in place.

You can almost certainly put a fence on your own land - even if its a few inches off the boundary on your side.  That would save any issues with neighbour. 

If your neighbours land is the one at arrow B (is his the thin strip at the back as well?) and if so then it could be that since moving in, he has enjoyed 1.5m of extra space from the previous owners that you are now about to reclaim.

If there is still a tree stump then is it just that the fence man doesnt fancy the messing around? - At worst, can it not be a 'box' around the stump on your side around the stump?

Jeepers_Creepers

This is bizarre, Steve!

I'd have thought the 'stump' side was pretty clear-cut; your fence should be straight, in line with your existing fence, and was only diverted due to the presence of that tree. I suspect your neighb's claim that this land 'belongs to you both' is spurious, and is either a misunderstanding/ignorance, or deviousness.

The other boundary is - incredibly - even more weird. What is the reasoning behind there being two boundary lines, C&D?!

More importantly, what do your deeds say in reference to your boundaries?

SteveVy

Many thanks for all your replies, I've made a few changes to the plans.

The tree was at the X in Purple...the house builders skewed the fence to go around the tree but never put the remaining part of the fence in line, so the majority of land behind the current fence appears to be mine...

The part marked with an orange line in the left is also mine the whole way down...it seems the house builders for some reason did not want to clear the rest of this land out. I took the fence down a few days ago and it was full of wire fence and netting to hold back plants and trees.

I've had the new fence built the fencer had to work around the stump to satisfy our neighbor. It doesn't look great...but not sure what else we could of done...at least the fence is no longer skewed and is in line.

SteveVy

Jeepers_Creepers said:

This is bizarre, Steve!

I'd have thought the 'stump' side was pretty clear-cut; your fence should be straight, in line with your existing fence, and was only diverted due to the presence of that tree. I suspect your neighb's claim that this land 'belongs to you both' is spurious, and is either a misunderstanding/ignorance, or deviousness.

The other boundary is - incredibly - even more weird. What is the reasoning behind there being two boundary lines, C&D?!

More importantly, what do your deeds say in reference to your boundaries?

In regards to C and D...

C = The Route of the old fence...

D = The actual boundary and where the neighbors fences are...

The gap in between C & D is between 50cm and 1m.

Jeepers_Creepers

Why is the 'scrub' land between C and D yours and not the neighbour's on the D side? I'm not questioning whether it is, but just asking how you 'know'.

The diagrams above - have they been drawn by you? If so, could we have a look at the proper ones in the deeds?

With respect to fence A, now that the tree has been cut down, why are you allowing a 'stump' to mess up the smooth line of the new fence?