Broken fence neighbour ignoring

Drhitz

Hello all

I'm after some advice.

The garden fence has is leaning into our garden with partial broken panels and broken godfather. 

The neighbour seems to be ignoring our request for him to repair it. This has occurred for 2 reasons, he has built a brick shed at the back of the garden which is within 20cm of the boundary and the fence has broke given he has left old fence panels resting on the broken panels.

The property is in Birmingham. The council website doesn't suggest it can assist with property disputes around fences.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

cymruchris

Drhitz said:

Hello all

I'm after some advice.

The garden fence has is leaning into our garden with partial broken panels and broken godfather. 

The neighbour seems to be ignoring our request for him to repair it. This has occurred for 2 reasons, he has built a brick shed at the back of the garden which is within 20cm of the boundary and the fence has broke given he has left old fence panels resting on the broken panels.

The property is in Birmingham. The council website doesn't suggest it can assist with property disputes around fences.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

What's a broken godfather?

Are they responsible for the fence? Is that what it says on the deeds?

When you say they are ignoring - did you ask them in passing when you were in and out of the house? Did you knock on their door? Or send them a letter? How have you asked?

Are you saying he built a shed and that damaged the panels?

sevenhills

Drhitz said:

This has occurred for 2 reasons, he has built a brick shed at the back of the garden which is within 20cm of the boundary and the fence has broke given he has left old fence panels resting on the broken panels.

The council website doesn't suggest it can assist with property disputes around fences.

Does the brick shed conform to planning rules?

I wouldn't really want to get involved, it will open a can of worms!

The fence is no ones issue, if you want a nice fence, you sort it out?

jonnydeppiwish!

With regards to fence, he doesn’t have to fix it. They can put a piece of string up instead.

housebuyer143

If he's ignoring you and you want it fixed, then repair it yourself? 
I doubt he will oppose you replacing it at your cost.

user1977

cymruchris said:

Drhitz said:

Hello all

I'm after some advice.

The garden fence has is leaning into our garden with partial broken panels and broken godfather. 

The neighbour seems to be ignoring our request for him to repair it. This has occurred for 2 reasons, he has built a brick shed at the back of the garden which is within 20cm of the boundary and the fence has broke given he has left old fence panels resting on the broken panels.

The property is in Birmingham. The council website doesn't suggest it can assist with property disputes around fences.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

What's a broken godfather?

I've never heard of godfathers in this context either, but a quick Google reveals they are post supports.

cymruchris

user1977 said:

cymruchris said:

Drhitz said:

Hello all

I'm after some advice.

The garden fence has is leaning into our garden with partial broken panels and broken godfather. 

The neighbour seems to be ignoring our request for him to repair it. This has occurred for 2 reasons, he has built a brick shed at the back of the garden which is within 20cm of the boundary and the fence has broke given he has left old fence panels resting on the broken panels.

The property is in Birmingham. The council website doesn't suggest it can assist with property disputes around fences.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

What's a broken godfather?

I've never heard of godfathers in this context either, but a quick Google reveals they are post supports.

I've learnt something new today

doodling

Hi,

In general, no-one is obliged to maintain fences.  Any covenants in the deeds requiring you to do something (positive covenants) are generally not enforceable (unlike covenants requiring you not to do something which generally are). They can leave it to fall down and there is pretty much nothing you can do about it other than give the pieces back as they encroach on your land.

The only cases where you might be able to get something done are:
1. The structure is dangerous and action needs to be taken to avoid the risk of injury (and in that case pulling it down is the answer, no need to replace it).
2. The absence of the fence results in a nuisance - for example if your neighbour had a dog and the failure of the fence meant that it kept coming into your garden.  The remedy to that would be for the neighbour to stop the dog coming into your garden though and that might not involve fixing the fence.

If a fence is important to you and your neighbour doesnt want to do anything, then the only option is to install your own, or agree with the neighbour that you will repair his.

Drhitz

Thanks for the comments. I believe the garden brick shed was built without planning permission (it's not registered on the council planning website) - more importantly, it's not 1 meter away from the boundary and just a measly  20cm from fence boundary. In that tight space the builders could have leant onto it or the current spare panels are leaning onto it.. 
The neighbour has ignored the request to fix the panels by avoiding me or plainly closing the door when approached. 
I don't wish to pay for it given the behaviour towards it, the root causes are listed above. But as someone above mentioned, he doesn't have to replace / fix it and could use a string. 

Looks like this is a dead end.

bobster2

Drhitz said:

Thanks for the comments. I believe the garden brick shed was built without planning permission (it's not registered on the council planning website) - more importantly, it's not 1 meter away from the boundary and just a measly  20cm from fence boundary. In that tight space the builders could have leant onto it or the current spare panels are leaning onto it.. 
The neighbour has ignored the request to fix the panels by avoiding me or plainly closing the door when approached. 
I don't wish to pay for it given the behaviour towards it, the root causes are listed above. But as someone above mentioned, he doesn't have to replace / fix it and could use a string. 

Looks like this is a dead end

Is the shed > 2m tall? If not it doesn't need to be > 1m from the boundary. It also might not need planning permission - it may be permitted development.

cymruchris

Drhitz said:

Thanks for the comments. I believe the garden brick shed was built without planning permission (it's not registered on the council planning website) - more importantly, it's not 1 meter away from the boundary and just a measly  20cm from fence boundary. In that tight space the builders could have leant onto it or the current spare panels are leaning onto it.. 
The neighbour has ignored the request to fix the panels by avoiding me or plainly closing the door when approached. 
I don't wish to pay for it given the behaviour towards it, the root causes are listed above. But as someone above mentioned, he doesn't have to replace / fix it and could use a string. 

Looks like this is a dead end.

Ok - so you've not actually asked them? They just close the door when they see you?

If they don't want to engage with you and repair - and if it was my garden and I wanted privacy - I'd put up my own fence with the good side facing me on my side of the boundary.

What makes you think it's 'their' fence - and not 'your' fence?