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[Misc] Garden Fence
- Thread starter Perkino
- Start date
Could always ask a few neighbours further down the street to the left and right, to establish the pattern.
I am the opposite. My deeds were drawn up, as we are an infill plot, so that we own and are responsible for all boundaries. Bah.
Deeds should be marked to show ownership.
Not sure that is correct. The "resident" may be a tenant under a STA. It would be extremely unusual in a STA for a tenant to be responsible for the external boundaries of a property! It must therefore be down to the owner of the property and not the resident.
Also interesting to see on that site that the owner of the fence is under no obligation to keep it in good repair ... or, indeed, to even have one at all!
mikeyjh
Well-known member
There's only one rule here - He wants the fence mending, mends the fence.
This is where I have issues. I live on the end of a terrace on a corner, the fence at the end of my garden is the left side fence of the first house in another terrance row, so who is responsible?
lost in london
Well-known member
Lot's of opinions above, but the reality is that there is no set rule on this.
T marks may be persuasive, but as a positive obligation to repair, a neighbour is unlikely to be able to enforce this against the person whose boundary feature it is (for reasons too complicated / boring to go into here).
Other factors may be relevant (who has repaired it historically, local traditions (left side is mine etc), does the fence face in our out) to establish a burden, but ultimately, what are you going to do? Unless you have got miles of fence that is going to cost thousands of pounds to repair, no-one (sensible) is going to take their neighbour to force them to repair. Best case is it's a bit of leverage in discussions.
In practice, speak to your neighbour, try and do a deal, and if that doesn't work decide whether the cost of fixing it yourself is preferable to looking at a damaged fence.
I had neighbours on both sides, one genuinely thought that the rule was the fence on their left was my responsibility, the other thought that the rule was the fence on their right was my responsibility. Life is too short to argue about £20 per fence panel so I paid for both over the years (and one ended up giving me some wine).
T marks may be persuasive, but as a positive obligation to repair, a neighbour is unlikely to be able to enforce this against the person whose boundary feature it is (for reasons too complicated / boring to go into here).
Other factors may be relevant (who has repaired it historically, local traditions (left side is mine etc), does the fence face in our out) to establish a burden, but ultimately, what are you going to do? Unless you have got miles of fence that is going to cost thousands of pounds to repair, no-one (sensible) is going to take their neighbour to force them to repair. Best case is it's a bit of leverage in discussions.
In practice, speak to your neighbour, try and do a deal, and if that doesn't work decide whether the cost of fixing it yourself is preferable to looking at a damaged fence.
I had neighbours on both sides, one genuinely thought that the rule was the fence on their left was my responsibility, the other thought that the rule was the fence on their right was my responsibility. Life is too short to argue about £20 per fence panel so I paid for both over the years (and one ended up giving me some wine).
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
If I may digress very slightly, our house (owned) shares the guttering with next door (council)
We've cleaned the gutters a couple of times, and the council have cleaned ours along with theirs.
Now there is a broken bracket just within our side, which is causing water to pour over, when it is raining very heavily. If the guttering needs replacing, does the whole lot need replacing?
Would the council do it, and we pay our share, or can we have it done, and our repair man 'touch' the council property?
I have emailed the council to ask them as I'm not sure of the legal implications if we do their guttering as well.
We've cleaned the gutters a couple of times, and the council have cleaned ours along with theirs.
Now there is a broken bracket just within our side, which is causing water to pour over, when it is raining very heavily. If the guttering needs replacing, does the whole lot need replacing?
Would the council do it, and we pay our share, or can we have it done, and our repair man 'touch' the council property?
I have emailed the council to ask them as I'm not sure of the legal implications if we do their guttering as well.
Creaky
Well-known member
Some time ago one of our neighbours complained about the state of the fence between us, said it was an eyesore - I removed it and they still weren’t happy 
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,313
housing agency can state what they like, if the tenants are unable or unwilling to maintain fence it falls to the owner, the agency.
mikeyjh
Well-known member
I guess what I mean is, if you want a fence, it may be you have to put up a fence. If it's not in the title, they're under no obligation to replace it. Of course, if they're a good landlord, they should......
kjgood
Well-known member
The rule of left is mine as you look out of the back door applies to my house. Clearly marked on the property boundary drawing within the deeds package.
In my back yard I'm responsible for wall to right and neighbour on left is responsible for the wall on my left. We had an extension done and their surveyor came round. Whilst chatting with their surveyor I mentioned the wall is old and not stable now and what would it take to get repaired by them (the owners rent it out so I can't just have a chat with them about it). The surveyor said "do what everyone else does; wait for a storm and push it over so they're forced to make repairs". I'm quite tempted to do so!
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,588
The fence on our right is ours, on the left it's the responsibility of our neighbour.
Our fences run on a north-south axis and the prevailing wind is south-westerly so in high winds they often get damaged.
Our fences run on a north-south axis and the prevailing wind is south-westerly so in high winds they often get damaged.
Nitram
Well-known member
- Jul 16, 2013
- 2,178
I always thought the general rule from looking out from the house that the left boundary was the neighbours and the right was mine. However whoever drew up the boundary plans could nominate who they like so the only safe answer is to check the deeds. We have an alleyway that runs around our house, I always took responsibility for keeping it clear but it turned out the responsibility was for the neighbour at the end of the run. Not that they ever keep the area clear of weeds.