is there a way to tell who a fence belongs to?

[meriad]

For years I always thought that rule of thumb was that if you stand with your back to the road, the fence along the right hand side of the property and the one to the back is your responsibility.

But yesterday my next door neighbour rang the bell as the fence between her and another neighbour has come down in the wind; she was convinced it was his responsibility so she called the council to check (it's a block of four maisonette's with the council being the freeholder) and apparently it's hers after all; contrary to what I (and she) thought they said that the fence to the left and back is hers... which would mean that the fence between her and I (her right / my left) is my responsibility (sigh.... as that is in need of partial replacing as well)

AI gather that the land registry can confirm who has responsibility for what border - so I'm going to have a look at my paperwork, but what am I looking for? I know when I got the paperwork there was a map outline with the borders of my property all marked in red; does that mean I'm responsible for all those borders or would it be mentioned somewhere else?

Anyone have any vague idea? Thanks

[Rodo]

We have usually just halved the person at the other side if any fencing needed replacing. I have no idea which is legally ours.

[JoM]

I've just found out the plan of our close which we were given when we were buying and there's what looks like a 'T' at a right angle to our boundaries.
Give me a minute and I'll take a quick photo and upload it to show what I mean.

[JoM]

Here you are Ria, our's is plot 42 so like you the boundaries are marked in red but the 'T' is on the shared fence between us and next door and that means that it's our responsibility so hopefully there'll be something like that on the paperwork that you have.


BTW the grey line running through our plot that curves at the end is the garden wall.

[molly]

Jo is spot on, here is a website explaining all.

http://hoa.org.uk/services/ask-an-exper ... nd-fences/

[Aggers]

I understand that If you erect a fence on the boundary between two properties, the 'best' side
should be facing your neighbour. In other words, the posts will be on your side.
This is indicated on the deeds by the T signs referred to by JoM, the letter T being on the
side of the property responsible for the fence.

[meriad]

thanks Jo, that is VERY helpful I'll dig out the paperwork tonight and see what I can find

Aggers, I would normally agree with that, but when I did the fencing of my current property I deliberately put the 'good' side facing inwards. Upstairs is a rental, the garden and path leading to the garden are an overgrown mess so there was no way I was going to spend a fortune on a good fence for the nice side to be facing nothing but weeds.

And 'unfortunately' the way both A (my neighbour who is downstairs next to me) and I have done our fencing there are no posts to be inside a boundary as they are concrete posts with the panes slotted into their centre

[JoM]

I'm forseeing problems with out fence in the future as the strange fella next door (he who only speaks when he feels like it) has planted two trees right up against the fence and right by posts. As they grow they're going to expand widthways and damage the fencing, they're already about 9-10ft tall. The plan always has been that when this fence needs replacing we'll get concrete posts and gravel boards and obviously if we're digging holes for concrete posts his tree roots are going to be in the way!

[cruiser2]

We put up the fence round our garden. Our next door neighbour at the time gave us half of the cost which seperated part of the garden. But nothing on the other two sides.
Two trees are growing against part of the fence. Will ask the new neighbours if I can cut them down in the summer

[Kaz]

This thread is really interesting, as I didn't have a clue about this

Hope you get it sorted Ria xxxx