My neighbour won't replace her fence

lchvmc

We live on a hill and our neighbour next door is higher up than us. A fence panel in her fence came loose in a storm last Feb. She decided to take the whole fence down, worried it was all loose. She did the same on both sides of her garden but replaced the other side straight away. Our side still hasn't been replaced despite us asking. It means we have no privacy from her in our own garden and have stopped using it. Is there anything we can do to get her to replace her fence or do we have no right to privacy and need to put one up on our side instead? Because we're lower, we'd have to put a 15ft fence up at least to achieve the same height as the one that was there before. It has affected my health quite badly having such lack of privacy. 

Ms_Chocaholic

As you have mentioned it to her, she might be thinking if she holds out a bit longer then you would put one up to save her the cost.  Maybe keep schtum and see what happens.  Are you using your garden much at this time of year.

jonnydeppiwish!

She doesn’t have to put a fence up if she doesn’t want to. Why not offer to halves with her?

Mr.Generous

Offer to go halfs on the cost.

p00hsticks

lchvmc said:

 Because we're lower, we'd have to put a 15ft fence up at least to achieve the same height as the one that was there before.

I donlt follow this - fences are usually no more than 6 foot tall, so are you saying that having removed their fence your neighbour now has a 9 foot vertical drop at the side of her garden where it borders yours ?

Bendy_House

lchvmc said:

We live on a hill and our neighbour next door is higher up than us. A fence panel in her fence came loose in a storm last Feb. She decided to take the whole fence down, worried it was all loose. She did the same on both sides of her garden but replaced the other side straight away. Our side still hasn't been replaced despite us asking. It means we have no privacy from her in our own garden and have stopped using it. Is there anything we can do to get her to replace her fence or do we have no right to privacy and need to put one up on our side instead? Because we're lower, we'd have to put a 15ft fence up at least to achieve the same height as the one that was there before. It has affected my health quite badly having such lack of privacy. 

Hi Lchvmc.

You say that she took down the fences on BOTH sides of her garden? It would be unusual - tho' not impossible - that any one property would have 'responsibility' for BOTH sides - it seems a tad unfair.

Do your deeds indicate 'responsibility' for either side of your garden?

Anyhoo, a few points: unless it states clearly in the deeds - in words - that someone MUST actually physically maintain a boundary or fence, then there is no legal onus on them to do so. An exception to this is if the person - say your neighbour - had dogs or animals that would otherwise be able to come in to your garden - they DO have a responsibility to prevent this from happening.

So, apart from these two exceptions, if a fence falls down, or is even deliberately removed, then no-one 'has' to do anything about it if they don't want to. You cannot force your neighb to put up a new fence, and then can't force you to do ditto.

Deeds often suggest a 'responsibility' for a fence, and of course the neighbourly thing to do would be to take on your responsibility as a thoughtful and considerate person. But, at the moment, you haven't told us if this fence is her responsibility.

Have you spoken to her? She might well believe that she's fixed 'her' fence - the one on the other side - and is not also going to fix 'yours'.

A separate issue is this fence height. 15' is very high. It is actually more than twice the height of what is permitted under Planning regs, so if you really wanted a 15' fence there, the installer would theoretically require Planning Permission, or have to resort to planting trees.

How tall was the fence that came down?!

Does your, and your neighb's, land slope gradually, or does it 'step' at the border? If the latter, what prevents the land from moving?

Woolsery

Bendy_House said:

lchvmc said:

We live on a hill and our neighbour next door is higher up than us. A fence panel in her fence came loose in a storm last Feb. She decided to take the whole fence down, worried it was all loose. She did the same on both sides of her garden but replaced the other side straight away. Our side still hasn't been replaced despite us asking. It means we have no privacy from her in our own garden and have stopped using it. Is there anything we can do to get her to replace her fence or do we have no right to privacy and need to put one up on our side instead? Because we're lower, we'd have to put a 15ft fence up at least to achieve the same height as the one that was there before. It has affected my health quite badly having such lack of privacy. 

  unless it states clearly in the deeds - in words - that someone MUST actually physically maintain a boundary or fence, then there is no legal onus on them to do so. An exception to this is if the person - say your neighbour - had dogs or animals that would otherwise be able to come in to your garden - they DO have a responsibility to prevent this from happening.

The above is the legal situation. Even if there's a responsibility to maintain or mark a boundary, it's often not specified exactly how it should be done. However upsetting it is, there's also no right to privacy in a garden beyond what you can achieve in the normal way via planting or physical structures; the latter typically not more than 2m high at the perimeter for practical and safety reasons.

Fifteen feet is about 2nd floor window height.There must be millions of gardens overlooked by such windows, so it isn't an unusual situation in that sense. When I had an overlooked garden I planted a line of trees to give half of it privacy. It took round 5 years to solve the 'problem,' not that it had been one for anyone else in the property's 50 year history.

eddddy

It's a bit difficult to visualise the situation - is it that there is a high retaining wall (maybe about 9ft) between your gardens?  So that when the neighbour is in their garden, they can potentially 'watch you' from above?


Depending on how you use your garden, would having gazebos help - or perhaps building a large garden shelter or pergola?

Then you could sit, eat, drink, etc out of view of the neighbours. Or you could even bbq under a suitably constructed shelter.

YoungBlueEyes

I'd take a different track.  Make it so your neighbours WANT to put a fence up, to regain their own privacy.....

sheramber

if you want privacy then you will need to provide it.

She could mark the boundary with a piece of string.

Maybe she considers the other side is her responsibility and you side is your responsibility..

there must be some kind of retaining wall if her garden is so much higher than yours.  Presumably her fence was built  on top of it.

Why can you not replace the fence by putting it in the same place?

Ath_Wat

sheramber said:

if you want privacy then you will need to provide it.

She could mark the boundary with a piece of string.

Maybe she considers the other side is her responsibility and you side is your responsibility..

there must be some kind of retaining wall if her garden is so much higher than yours.  Presumably her fence was built  on top of it.

Why can you not replace the fence by putting it in the same place?

Presumably because the edge of the retaining wall is the boundary? Hence they would have to put their fence at the foot of the retaining wall, so it would have to be higher.

It would obviously be cheaper for the OP to offer to pay for a fence along the top of the retaining wall which would then be owned by the neighbour, but of course they would then have no control over it should the neighbour choose to modify it or take it down.

But yes, there is no obligation on the neighbour (unless explicitly stated in covenants) to do anything but mark the boundary, and if there is a retaining wall, I am sure they could argue that marked it sufficiently.