Who owns which fence?

illbeurhuckleberry

Hi all.
please can I have your opinion. Moved into a property recently. Previous owner informs me I am only responsible for the back fence . I was under the opinion I was responsible for the right fence also.
I've had a look at the plans snd it does look like I am not responsible for the right or left fence snd the T marks are on my neighbours boundary. Please see pic attached.it’s plot 125.
Am I correct? 

princeofpounds

The T marks should be defined in the deeds and/or plan. If they are not defined, they do not technically mean anything. The usual convention is that they imply responsibility for a boundary, but that is not a rule.

In addition, responsibility for a boundary does not actually mean ownership of a fence. Usually it does suggest that - if you are responsible for a boundary then you are supposed to mark it, and the usual way of doing that is a fence. But again, that is not a rule.

What really matters is who bought and put the fence in. Often, however, that's difficult to establish, and so things like T marks can provide some supporting evidence to reach a decision in the absence of any other evidence.

Your plan is unfortunately blurry and you have not defined what you mean by 'right' or 'left' (from the street? On the plan?).

stig

whoever owns the fence is whoever paid for it, either by having it installed or by buying the house whose previous owner had it installed.
who is responsible for maintaining the boundary, and how, will be in the deeds and/or diagrams supplemental to those deeds. If a fence isn’t specified, a bit of string between two sticks might be enough to meet the requirement.
These are two different things. Usually they overlap, but not always. I own both side fences to my garden cos I’ve got dogs who would love to go roaming if they had a chance, so both neighbours were happy for me to replace the existing fences when they got a bit shabby. I’ve no idea who has the legal responsibility to maintain the boundary, that would only ever come up if there was a problem. But I paid for the fences,  so I own them.

and I can’t make out any detail on your plan above  - which rectangle is the house and which is the garden/fenced area?

stig

user1977

Let's step back a bit - why are you asking?

illbeurhuckleberry

I’m asking out of interest because it’s most unusual to only be responsible for the back fence. Snd no- there’s no issues with the neighbours etc etc etc.

AdrianC

illbeurhuckleberry said:

I’m asking out of interest because it’s most unusual to only be responsible for the back fence. Snd no- there’s no issues with the neighbours etc etc etc.

Being responsible for the boundary does NOT automatically mean owning that fence...

JGB1955

illbeurhuckleberry said:

I’m asking out of interest because it’s most unusual to only be responsible for the back fence. Snd no- there’s no issues with the neighbours etc etc etc.

The back fence is the ONLY one that we're NOT responsible for......

illbeurhuckleberry

Thanks everyone. So it’s who ever bought the fence owns it but maintaining the boundary is a different manner. So assuming the fence is on there side of the boundary. 🤦‍♀️🤯

stig

Usually people are happy to have a single fence on the actual boundary - much less hassle and confusion. But yes, there’s nothing to stop people erecting a fence entirely on their own property, maybe because the fence on the boundary has fallen into disrepair but the owner doesn’t want to replace it, or one side wants a six foot fence to keep dogs in but the other is happy with the 3ft picket fence in place. This is where the responsibility to maintain the actual  boundary should kick in, to prevent a feature on one side or the other from being treated as the boundary incorrectly.

To be honest though, if I was looking to buy a house  and saw two parallel fences separating the properties I’d assume some sort of neighbour dispute and would take a lot of convincing that this wasn’t the case.

stig