Love a house we've seen but fence is down

Octothorpe

We got fed up waiting for neighbours to repair their taty fence (2 years!) so we just put up a lovely new one on our boundary. 

Problem solved!

Mickey666

StandingInTheSun said:

This house ticks all our boxes bar one, and that is that the back boundary fence (which the vendor says belongs to the neighbour) has been damaged in a storm and is currently badly broken, leaning into our would-be property.

Obviously it's May and we haven't had a storm like that for a while, so we're wondering if the neighbours just don't care and will leave it like that. It really does reduce privacy as the two patio areas are essentially connected with it down.

I know things like this would come up in surveys and presumably conveyancing, but wondering if others have bought houses under similar conditions and if there's anything we can do in advance.

So there's effectively a single patio area divided into two by a wooden fence?  Doesn't sound like either side of the fence is going to enjoy much privacy in practice - certainly not in terms of conversation anyway.

As for the fence itself, assuming it really does belong to the neighbour then much will depend on their attitude towards it.  Ownership of a fence rarely comes with any obligation to maintain it and in extreme cases the owner might even decide to remove it altogether.  The only way to gain some control over a fence is to erect your own one on your own side of the property boundary. 

Even a brand new fence should only costs a few hundred pounds, so pretty much negligible in the grand scheme of buying a new home.  Maybe knock £500 of your offer price to pay for a new fence of our own when you move in?

macman

FTB's perchance?