Thread: fence repair: neighbour dispute

HI, does anyone know about this sort of thing?

In the storms of mid January, the fence at the bottom of my garden blew down. The neighbour was quick to come round and demand I repair it. I refused, on the basis that it isn't my fence. I explained it was hers.

It transpires the neighbour is a tenant. Her housing association sent a surveyor who removed the debris immediately. Part of the boundary is an eight foot wall, and at the same time the surveyor deemed this to be dangerous and took it down. So there is now no physical boundary at all at the bottom of my garden and it's been like this for more than two months. The neighbour tells me the housing association say the fence and wall were not theirs but were mine.

I have my deeds and I bought a copy of the neighbour's from land registry online. To my untrained eye, I can proove conclusively that a) the boundary isn't my responsibility and b) that the boundary is theirs. I can also prove that they have an oblication to maintain a fence because of a clause in their deeds.

I have written numerous times enclosing copy documents, but the housing association has never even acknowledged my letters let alone entered into any dialogue. I have not had any success by telephone either.

As far as I can tell, my neighbour is not pursuing this and it is only me dealing with the housing association. I am not their tenant.

I want a new fence errected to give me provacy. I would also like a small sum in compensation for my shrubs which were killed.

How do I get them to put up a new fence and wall? More than two months have passed and I'm at the end of my tether. I am worried about the cost of getting solicitors involved.

Originally Posted by cheesy

I want a new fence errected to give me provacy. I would also like a small sum in compensation for my shrubs which were killed.

How do I get them to put up a new fence and wall? More than two months have passed and I'm at the end of my tether. I am worried about the cost of getting solicitors involved.

You can't - unless it is specifically stated in their deeds that they are required to maintain the boundary fences/walls - and then you will have a battle to enforce what is known as a restrictive covenant. Technically, only the person who established the covenant can enforce it. Without such a covenant, there is nothing you can do - they are not required to have a fence if they chose not to.

If you want a fence/wall for privacy, then you will need to erect your own on your side of the boundary. If you do erect a fence, you are not required to give them the 'good' side - you pay for it, it's yours and you are entitled to have it put up whichever way round you like.

As to the damages to your plants, it's either your insurance of forget it. To make a successful claim against the housing authority (the owner) you would have to prove that they were aware that the fence was likely to collapse and cause damage and didn't nothing to prevent this.

Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear

But if they have come along and removed the debris and the wall then they are showing that it is their responsibility?
Otherwise if they are saying it's cheesys wall and fence then they have commited criminal damage?

Originally Posted by joe1965

But if they have come along and removed the debris and the wall then they are showing that it is their responsibility?
Otherwise if they are saying it's cheesys wall and fence then they have commited criminal damage?

But cheesys has already posted that he/she can prove from the deeds that it belongs to the neighbouring landowner.

straight forward common sense, if between to neighbours gardens there is a fence, the person who put up the fence 90% of the time would not put the wood panel onto the supports on the neighbours side, as they would have to stand in there land to do it. So if the supports are behind your fence panels ther is a 90% chance that the fence is yours. however this is not the case with a fence that backs onto no ones land.

By the sounds of it, the argument ISN'T over who owns the fence - simply does the HA have a duty to replace it, and can they be forced to do so.

Originally Posted by gold hammered

straight forward common sense, if between to neighbours gardens there is a fence, the person who put up the fence 90% of the time would not put the wood panel onto the supports on the neighbours side, as they would have to stand in there land to do it. So if the supports are behind your fence panels ther is a 90% chance that the fence is yours. however this is not the case with a fence that backs onto no ones land.

Sorry, I dont get your description, are you talking about panels being nailed through the face onto a timber upright behind them?
My fence is concrete posts with the panels between, so there is no supports behind or in front.