Which side of the fence is yours?

MonkeyGirl

If this is in the wrong place please could a mod move it. Which side of the fence do you own is it the left or right?

I always thought it was the right but our neighbour seems insistant that its the left and he told the other neighbour this as well. I have tried looking on the net but cant find much info on it. The reason I'm asking as I want to get some quotes on getting a new fence so want to make sure I ask for the correct side.

Thank you for your help

Al_Mac

Current house the only boundary we have with another house is to the left, looking at it, just had a discussion with the neighbour about it, which is going to cost him more than me:D as I was going to pay;) . Last house was the same, the left that is.

Jacster_2

I'm putting in a fence soon, and going halfers with the neighbours on either side of me, so we didn't really bother with that.

Not sure that helps you, though,....

Can you come to an arrangement with them?

Hunnymonster

Check your deeds - it either details the boundaries (in which case the deeds are law) or doesn't in which case you can argue all you like but a court would most likely decide that it's a shared boundary.

What do you mean you don't have a copy of your deeds ?? You should have asked for a photocopy of them when you bought the house

robnye

a fence is shared if it is along the boundary, if it is to one side then it belongs to whomever's side it is on.
If i isnt shown on the deeds, as most fences arent, then generally it is shared

Nile

The Land Registry has a copy of your house deeds. They will show the boundaries of your land.


We've recently replaced some panels in a fence. Although the fence is our responsibility, our neighbour agreed to pay half the cost and helped us with the work.

If you have a good relationship with your neighbour, ask if they will help with the cost and work too.

As was suggested in an earlier post, when you move house you should always ask your solicitor to make a copy of the house deeds. There will be a payment/charge for this but it will prove very useful in situations like this one.;)

grumbler

MonkeyGirl wrote:

...I have tried looking on the net but cant find much info on it. ...

The best site I know is http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/boundaries.html

And there is a good forum there with a lot of extra information:

http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=8072546a2b914d119441e0278eb0592b

MonkeyGirl

Thank you everyone.

The reason I asked was because in the deeds it was hedges which were shared but now its a fence so we werent sure if it is still classed as shared.

One neighbour will probably go halves but the other wont as he is stingy. By stingy I mean he uses rain water to cook with etc...

Just to clear a few things up this isn't a newly moved into home my partner has lived here since 99. Last Jan our fence panels got blown down on both sides by high winds. We have only just got some money togther to be able to look into getting them fixed. We didnt look into it before as didnt have the money to get it done and we thought prices would alter by the time we had the money.

grumbler

The problem is that even if you knew exactly that the fence was neighbour's or shared you couldn't force the neighbour to repare the fence or to contribute money. If you do need the fence , but the neighbour does not want it, the only choice you have is to errect it at your own expense. And if the fence in question is neighbour's one and they don't want it to be repaired you can only errect a parallel fence on you own land.

trace-j

Nile wrote:

If you have a good relationship with your neighbour, ask if they will help with the cost and work too.

It helps if you have one of these! When we made the offer on the house we are currently in now, the rear garden fence was intact bar one panel that been taken down by the neighbour to aid his building works access etc (panel was in his garden). We moved in last year and the panel was missing despite our best efforts, he's a bit Jekyl and Hyde. He then decided it was our responsibilty to have the fence repaired to which we said 'get lost'! One night he let his pyromaniac kids have a bonfire and guess where the panel went.

We got hold of a copy of the deeds and it does confirm it is a shared boundary. He hasn't dare raise it again, but my partner said for the sake of £20 he'd repair it. But as I'm too bloody minded I said no, £20 can go towards something else on the house, besides Mr Jekyl is now trying to sell the house. So he can explain he wants about his nice family house with the hole in the fence. His deeds and buyers solicitors will pick up on the fact it's shared and needs sorting.

maggie1976

The deeds should show who owns the boundary, whether it's a fence or hedge. There will be a T on the boundary, and the 'leg' of the T points to the house whose owners have responsibility for it. In our current house we're responsible for all 3 boundaries - the joys of being in the end plot!