The house next door to us has just got planning permission to build on their front garden which will necessitate knocking down their garage. The wall of this currenty forms the boundary between our properties & will leave us “fenceless”.

[our house] pathway [existing garage] REST OF WORLD
[our house] pathway REST OF WORLD – can now see in

Whose responsibility is it to replace the fence? Ours because it’s our side of the house, or his because he’s getting rid of the current wall? It’s leaving us (and our bikes) massively exposed and it’s all pretty crud. For info, he hasn’t bothered telling us he has planning permission or that he was planning to start today – we’re not on the best of terms – so it will be hard to sit down over a cup of tea & have a nice chat about it.

If it’s your responsibility then it’s “your” wall and therefore he can’t knock it down without your say so, no ?

And he’s received planning permission without you being informed ? Massive FAIL by the council planning people then, they should have sent you a letter.

Your deeds should state whose responsibility that property line is.

I don’t think he has to replace the wall unless the council stipulated this as a requirement when granting permission. Just because someone owns a boundary doesn’t necessarily mean they have to put up a fence.

Why not put your own fence up there? He would still ‘own’ the boundary but you would own the fence and he wouldn’t be able to touch it. I have a boundary owned by my neighbour which consists of a wire fence but my house’s previous owner put up a hedge which I now own. You might need to place the fence a few centimetres on your side so its not actually ‘on’ the boundary but at least you would own and have control of the fence.

EDIT: the above assumes he owns the boundary. Check your deeds as someone said above.

best place for this sort of thing:
http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/

You will have some rights under the Party Wall Act and he is required to consult with you and if necessary if you don’t agree a surveyor can be appointed at his cost to help resolve.

Just check your deeds and work out which garden the boundary is on. With gardens which abut one another there will likely only be one shared boundary on your property which you will therefore have responsibility for. My advice would be to talk to your neighbour and sort it out amicably.

If you look at the Party Wall Act, I think you will find ownership of the boundary is unimportant, he is the one doing the work so he is the one responsible for sorting out in a way that meets your approval. He has to consult you and if he does not, you can stop him doing the work.