Money Moral Dilemma: Should we help pay for the fence our new neighbours put up?

Section62

ChasC said:

Seems your neighbor is just like mine. I'd be out there yelling at the contractor and threatening legal action.
As for contributing absolutely not. I'd be looking for compensation. Who the hell does he think he is????
Grow a back bone and tell him to **** off or he'll walk all over you with his next stunt. You ain't ever going to get on with people like this so don't waste your time trying. If he wants a war, give him one

What contractor?  Nothing was said about there being a contractor involved.

As Pollycat says, this would be just about the worst thing you could do.

If I was the neighbour I'd be on the phone to the police about the would-be sociopath living next door who seems to fly off the handle at the least thing, and has just been out in the garden ranting at a figment of their imagination.

The police wouldn't do much about it, but it would be the first step in officially recording the unstable behaviour of a neighbour - so if they go ahead and prosecute this 'war' they seem intent on, my response would be making use of every legal avenue to have their behaviour restrained.

Also interesting that you've used he/him/he'll/his (7 times) when the dilemma posed was gender neutral.

Could your assumption that the neighbour is 'he', coupled with your unreasonable response to the situation, point to some deeper problem?  Is this an indication of why people are increasingly unable to be neighbourly to each other?  That could make for an interesting future discussion on a forum like this.

P.s. I hope you smiled at the camera when you realised that the whole of your display was captured on CCTV, it will be useful evidence that can be passed on to the police at the appropriate time during this 'war'.

Ineedaservant

this ....v

GaleSF63

Bramblekins said:

Used to be that the side that the supporting posts were on owned the fence. That may have changed though.

So I've heard, but it can depend on who gets there first.  The house I grew up in was built a while after the next door house, which had put all the supporting posts on our side because there was nothing to stop them. As it happens, (noticed your id), we had brambles growing over them all the way down the quite long garden so they were useful! 

Pollycat

GaleSF63 said:

Bramblekins said:

Used to be that the side that the supporting posts were on owned the fence. That may have changed though.

So I've heard, but it can depend on who gets there first.  The house I grew up in was built a while after the next door house, which had put all the supporting posts on our side because there was nothing to stop them. As it happens, (noticed your id), we had brambles growing over them all the way down the quite long garden so they were useful! 

On the other hand, as I said up-thread:

Pollycat said:

And the fence down the left hand side of our house is actually the bottom fence of 8 different houses - which were built before our house was built so I can't see how a fence that existed before our house existed can be mine.

but the supporting posts are all on their side, not mine.

Maybe it depends who puts the fence up - the builders who built the houses or the people who bought the house,

unforeseen

To be clear, in the deeds, unless there is a positive covenant stating responsibility for the fence (which will only apply to the first purchaser anyway) then the deeds will only show responsibility for the BOUNDARY not the fence/wall that may sit on it. . How you wish to demarcate it is up to you, a couple of canes with string between is sufficient if you have no reason to make it a secure boundary. If the neighbour wants a fence then they are free to erect it on their side of the boundary at their cost. 

DPS-2016

Always should ask before.  The cost is theirs unless you're feeling particularly generous.  If you would have accepted the deal had you been asked you might want to contribute but I'd be reluctant and might be worried further shared changes would happen without consultation.  

fezster

unforeseen said:

To be clear, in the deeds, unless there is a positive covenant stating responsibility for the fence (which will only apply to the first purchaser anyway) then the deeds will only show responsibility for the BOUNDARY not the fence/wall that may sit on it. . How you wish to demarcate it is up to you, a couple of canes with string between is sufficient if you have no reason to make it a secure boundary. If the neighbour wants a fence then they are free to erect it on their side of the boundary at their cost. 

Spot on, and as I said a few pages ago. All this talk about checking deeds and ownership is a fools errand. The deed may indicate responsibility for the boundary. The line on the plan is not accurate enough to be able to determine on which side of that boundary a fence sits on, nor who has ownership of it.

Anyanka1

I think neighbours are a bit like spouses/partners:  You need to start as you mean to go on.  If you don't want to be your neighbours'... What is an MSE acceptable word for b!tc#? frankly, you need to let them know you will not just do whatever they say, whenever they say it.

Not that long ago, I had some, shall we say, undesirable knock on my door and try to tell me we could not park our car outside our own house because it would inconvenience her and was therefore "illegal".  That is the mentality you seem to be dealing with, OP.  I suggest you do as I did and just ignore them.

teetkac

Thanks for all the responses, I've read a load but there are so many! It's seems like an overwhelming 'no'.

Just to answer a few queries:

I had already checked all of our paperwork and there was nothing in it about who maintains what, also, the house we bought wasn't even registered on the land registry as it had been so long since it was last sold so nothing on there either. 

They had chosen and purchased what they wanted (posts and featherboard) and so we had absolutely no say in what we were paying for. Furthermore, they had chosen their labourers and one of the reasons we had concerns is because they employ cowboys. I would also like to say, that they lied about the other neighbours contributing and told us they were but their other neighbour actually approached us to ask what we were doing as they had the same problem their side (with them taking the fence down without discussing it)...they hadn't even been asked for any money at all.

The fences before were absolutely fine, and sturdy enough but they were only 3 foot high. Fair enough, they wanted higher fences.

Just to kind of paint a picture of the residents, the old lady on the other side of them feels like she is being bullied out of her home, they park in front of everyone's drives, they do loud DIY gone midnight and they have had so many bonfires (they burn EVERYTHING - plastic bottles the lot) that they have burnt half of our apple tree, our garden sofa and 3 waterproof covers!  Hopefully that covers off people's questions about maintaining good relationships with your neighbours 😂

I politely declined to pay for the fence, saying that we wanted to do our own thing. They were OK with that. 

I will say though, whilst they were a nightmare for the first 6 month or so of being here, they do seem to be getting better and maybe learning how to get on with the people around them so that's good enough for me. 

Pollycat

Welcome to MSE.

teetkac said:

Thanks for all the responses, I've read a load but there are so many! It's seems like an overwhelming 'no'.

Just to answer a few queries:

I had already checked all of our paperwork and there was nothing in it about who maintains what, also, the house we bought wasn't even registered on the land registry as it had been so long since it was last sold so nothing on there either. 

They had chosen and purchased what they wanted (posts and featherboard) and so we had absolutely no say in what we were paying for. Furthermore, they had chosen their labourers and one of the reasons we had concerns is because they employ cowboys. I would also like to say, that they lied about the other neighbours contributing and told us they were but their other neighbour actually approached us to ask what we were doing as they had the same problem their side (with them taking the fence down without discussing it)...they hadn't even been asked for any money at all.

The fences before were absolutely fine, and sturdy enough but they were only 3 foot high. Fair enough, they wanted higher fences.

Just to kind of paint a picture of the residents, the old lady on the other side of them feels like she is being bullied out of her home, they park in front of everyone's drives, they do loud DIY gone midnight and they have had so many bonfires (they burn EVERYTHING - plastic bottles the lot) that they have burnt half of our apple tree, our garden sofa and 3 waterproof covers!  Hopefully that covers off people's questions about maintaining good relationships with your neighbours 😂

I politely declined to pay for the fence, saying that we wanted to do our own thing. They were OK with that. 

I will say though, whilst they were a nightmare for the first 6 month or so of being here, they do seem to be getting better and maybe learning how to get on with the people around them so that's good enough for me. 

As always with MMDs, you obviously provided much more information than the 3 lines that MSE condensed it to - including the neighbour's very anti social behaviour.

If my neighbour burned "half of our apple tree, our garden sofa and 3 waterproof covers", we'd be having a much more serious conversation with them than about tearing a fence down.