One of the fences on the back garden has been damaged by the winds over the last few days. Thing is i don’t actually know if it is my fence or the neighbours?

Is there anyway of knowing who is responsible? The plans i got when i bought the house aren’t very helpful.

Does it say in your deeds?

radical idea, how about you share it 50/50?

not a lot, victorian house bought as a repo…..

And the neighbours house, a victorian house bought as a repo as well! So i suspect they don’t know either!

I own, they rent. So i would have to deal with the landlord, which may or may not be easy, i have no idea who they are for a start, my experience of landlords fixing things isn’t good.

fence posts your side your fence, landlords unlikely to fund reepairs as they want all the money they can get to tide them over void periods.

land registry to find out mortgage providor and landlords name and address.

If you want a fence up ,…. Put the fence up

fence posts your side your fence, landlords unlikely to fund reepairs as they want all the money they can get to tide them over void periods.

And we all know how accurate sweeping generalisations are…

Have a good look at your deeds and see if you can get anything, the posts facing is a good rule of thumb but not exactly legally binding. Speak to the tenants and see if they can report it and get your details passed on to the landlord or get their details. They might be happy to go 50/50 if you can organise it (we did that on our rented out house as we were miles away when the fence was damaged)

fence posts your side your fence

When I put up fence at our house (new build) I put the posts outwards facing into next door as I didn’t want to look at them. Did I break a law?

It’s sometimes hard to see on the deeds – is just a small “V” shape or 2 on the side of the fence of who has ownership.

I agree with the 50-50 thing unless it’s obviously one side’s fence.

It should be specified in your deeds and will either be share 50/50 or you have responsibility for the right hand fence and your neighbour the left (or visa versa). In my current house I share costs 50/50, but in my previous house I had responsibility for the fence on the right – which benefitted me as it was the shorter fence as it was a semi detached.

Normally RHS fence is yours, or at least that seems to be the norm in Cambridge. I replaced all three fences as I wanted decent ones and the landlord next door wasn’t going to spend 5 pence on a fence.

It should be specified in your deeds

People who say this have obviously never seen a set of deeds. In most cases, especially Victorian era houses, they say pretty much bugger all.

Ours is LH side, so not definitive, but not in Cambs.

I have a house built in 1985, it states in the deeds that the boundaries are shared.

I guess this is a more recent thing. I had a new fence last year and split the cost with the neighbours.

as you are standing inside your house looking out the window its usually the fence on the left side which you are responsible for unless stated otherwise in the deeds

Did I break a law?

Not sure if it’s the law, but not the done thing.

Not sure if it’s the law, but not the done thing.

If I pay for the fence because the neighbour doesn’t want to. And I arrange it all, collect the timber, and spend two days putting the fence up, I’m sure as hell going to get the “good side” facing me, and he can have the side where you can see all the posts.

It’s definitely in my deeds, but the two houses I’ve owned are modern houses. My deeds contain a full drawing of my boundaries, including the responsibility of maintenance of the boundaries.

If I pay for the fence because the neighbour doesn’t want to. And I arrange it all, collect the timber, and spend two days putting the fence up, I’m sure as hell going to get the “good side” facing me, and he can have the side where you can see all the posts.

If you are doing it because he doesn’t want to I’m assuming you mean it is his responsibility or it is shared responsibility and you are taking the full financial and time faff hit on their behalf. If that’s the case you have every right to have the good side, not just ‘moral’ right.

If the fence is your sole responsibility (i.e. you are not doing it because your neighbour doesn’t want to but because you have to and they don’t) you are meant to have the ‘bad’ side. I’m assuming this ‘rule’ (again not sure if it is law) is so people don’t put up god damn awful constructions in the knowledge that the neighbour cops the worst of it. The upside to this is you should get the ‘best’ side of the fence your other neighbour is responsible for. I guess with shared responsibility fencing all bets are off and I’ve no idea who gets what (am assuming the person who goes to the trouble of organising or doing the work gets the best bit by default).

People who say this have obviously never seen a set of deeds. In most cases, especially Victorian era houses, they say pretty much bugger all.

All of our houses we have owned have had the responsibilities clearly marked. One of the houses was a couple of hundred years old too. The comment above about people have not seen deeds is not strictly correct although I don’t doubt there are plenty of properties where this is the case.

I’m assuming this ‘rule’ (again not sure if it is law)

It is not law.

The comment above about people have not seen deeds is not strictly correct although I don’t doubt there are plenty of properties where this is the case.

I’ll have to scan ours in and stick them on Flickr. No mention of fences, nor rights of way which you’d think would be important as the whole terrace has rear garden access through the neighbours gardens just at the back of the houses (not at the ends of the gardens as is more common). Remarkably uninformative document.

It’s a minefield! Check your deeds, if they don’t specify ownership then do your best to contact and discuss with the owner of the next door property and come to some (formal if possible) agreement.
LH/RH = urban myth (what about the fence at the bottom?!)
Which side posts are on? Again, urban myth (what about panels between posts?!)
There can be clues to look for in a boundary dispute but often these only help in building up a case to support one side in that dispute.
Carry on and do it yourself? If neighbour is actual owner they could rip down all your good work if they don’t like it!
Walls can be even more troublesome and old hedges that have grown to a thickness of 3-4 ft… nightmare to determine boundary lines in dispute.
It’s always good to get on with the neighbours and resolve things informally ‘over the garden fence’ but remember, neighbours change and friendly informal resolutions can become legal millstones.

Carry on and do it yourself? If neighbour is actual owner they could rip down all your good work if they don’t like it!

A few centimetres to your side of the boundary line, the fence will be on your land and they can’t touch it.

You’d have fun proving exactly where the boundary line lies tho…

50/50.

Just tell your landlord. It’s their property. If our tenants complained about the fence blowing down I’d just get it sorted.

No urban myth on the lh/rh thing. It was absolutely the case for my last house and clearly marked on the deeds and stated by our solicitor when he presented the surveys. On my house the section of bottom fence was the RH fence of the house behind us.

50/50 makes far more sense though.

“No urban myth on the lh/rh thing. It was absolutely the case for my last house and clearly marked on the deeds and stated by our solicitor when he presented the surveys. On my house the section of bottom fence was the RH fence of the house behind us.”

Anecdotes are not evidence.

Maybe, but I’m offering evidence, not anecdotes. Unless I’m required to back my comments up with actual paperwork?

Maybe, but I’m offering evidence, not anecdotes. Unless I’m required to back my comments up with actual paperwork?

Just because the specific house you are currently sitting in and those around it has been organsied with the responsibility to the left or right does not make that a catch all national policy that can be relied up as a ‘rule of thumb’ when determining responsibilities for an entirely unrelated property in another part of the country. That’s what the urban myth reference is I guess implying.

What convert said.

The thing about the fence posts is that you should put them on your side of the boundary so it then makes sense to put the fence on the other side of the posts this leaving you to see the posts on your side.

It seems that most the borders that are mine are hedges so that seems quite fortunate, when one fence got damaged my neighbour just said it was there’s and sorted out – I had no idea who was responsible so glad no debate.

The deeds for my house has “T” s on the boundaries I’m responsible for.

You’d have fun proving exactly where the boundary line lies tho…

Yep, the map used on my deeds is 1:100 with the boundary drawn in a thick marker pen, so the error is probably +/- a 1 metre. This in on a terraced house only 5m wide…..