Fence dispute

botty1963

I replaced a fence a few years ago as my deeds didn't indicate ownership. My neighbour was happy for me to pay for it. Now he has modified his side of the fence and when I questioned him he said he can do what he wants as it's his fence, and showed me his copy of the deeds which confirmed that. So do I own the fence as I had it replaced, or is the fence owned by him?

SuperHung

You paid for the fence then it is your property. If your neighbour wants to modify his side, he can install his own fences next to yours. How is he modifying it?

Aylesbury_Duck

As above. Ownership of a fence is not the same as responsible for marking and maintaining the boundary.  You own the fence, and it sounds like the boundary is his responsibility, so you've done him a favour by maintaining the boundary.  That doesn't entitle him to modify, attach things to or even paint the fence on his side without your permission.

botty1963

The fence is the type where it has vertical 'planks' with small gap between. He has put vertical pieces of wood all along his side to cover all of the gaps. 

JHW1942

botty1963 said:

The fence is the type where it has vertical 'planks' with small gap between. He has put vertical pieces of wood all along his side to cover all of the gaps. 

Cheeky sod!  Presumably you chose the style to allow some light or wind through?  Now he's made it "solid", it's more likely to blow over in a storm.

It's up to you what you do next.  If you want it removed, ask him to do so.  If you're happy with it as it is, point out that if it blows down as a result of his adaptations, he can pay for its replacement.  If he wants a solid fence (presumably for privacy), he should erect his own fence just inside the boundary on his land. 

IvanOpinion

Did he put up his own rails and attach his wood to that or did he simply nail/screw planks to the back of your rails.  In either case I would be telling him that if he wants to attach anything to your fence then he needs to pay for half of it.

As JHW says, depending  on what he has done, this could now be a wind block and could take damage in a storm. If that were to happen then I would be looking the neighbour to cover at least half of these.

You could also try calling his bluff and tell him that you will be taking the fence down totally because it is in the wrong place.  If he wants it kept then he can pay the full cost of it and be responsible for its maintenance.

m0bov

Tell him in 7 days he either needs to remove the mods or you will remove your fence completely.

botty1963

I think the issue that I am still not clear on is whether the fence is actually mine because I paid for it to be erected. Or, because his deeds show the boundary/fence as being his, is the fence itself his? He has said that because the deeds show the 't'on his side, therefore the fence is his. 

dinglebert

I would imagine that your deeds actually do say who is responsible for which boundary.  His indicate the fence you kindly paid for is his boundary and therefore usually the otherside is yours.  Therefore in reality you removed a fence you were not entitled to remove and replaced it with another one.

botty1963

When the fence was replaced he never mentioned ownership, in fact he even put me in contact with a supplier who could provide the wood at a discount. He was happy for me to pay to have the fence replaced. In fact, I didn't replace the section at the top, he later did that and asked me for the money for the wood. 

JHW1942

botty1963 said:

I think the issue that I am still not clear on is whether the fence is actually mine because I paid for it to be erected. Or, because his deeds show the boundary/fence as being his, is the fence itself his? He has said that because the deeds show the 't'on his side, therefore the fence is his. 

He's wrong.  It's very clear.  If you paid for the fence to be erected, it's your fence.  The T denotes that he is responsible for maintaining a boundary, and possibly for erecting or maintaining a fence if the deeds specifically say so.  If it's just the T, it's just the boundary.