Quizzes & Puzzles0 min ago
Who Owns A Garden Fence??
42 Answers
Is there a hard and fast rule or does it vary from house to house? If I stand in my back garden it’s the fence on the left between us and guy next door. It needs repairing in the middle as the gales a while ago have damaged it. There is no problem as in whoever it is will take responsibility, we just don’t know who it is.
Btw we have the ‘good’ side, and next door has the side with all the fencing support posts.
Btw we have the ‘good’ side, and next door has the side with all the fencing support posts.
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you asked this before (twice)
you asked this before (twice)
Herbgardener "If you are unsure who owns a boundary fence you can look at any copies of title deeds you have in your possession, or ask the Land Registry for Office Copies and a Title Plan. This plan will show the boundaries to your land as officially registered at the Land Registry." Except that boundaries and fences are two separate things and the location of rarely says anything legal or definite about the other.
As has been said here many times before, there's no hard and fast rule.
However, if you think for a moment about how you'd erect a fence at the front of your property, next to the footpath, you'll probably be able to see that most people erect fences with the posts on 'their' side. (i.e. facing inwards towards their own house). So, if the fence between your garden and that of your neighbour was erected in a similar fashion, it's your neighbour who owns it.
However owning a fence isn't the same as having responsibility for repairing it. Unless (unusually) there's a covenant in the property deeds of one of your houses, requiring the owner to keep the fence in a good state of repair, neither of you is responsible for repairing it.
If, as seems likely, it's your who neighbour actually owns the fence, he's perfectly entitled (subject to the provisions of any covenant, as above) to leave it exactly as it is or to simply remove it altogether. (He could then say to you, "OK, if you want a fence there, you'll have to provide one").
However, if you think for a moment about how you'd erect a fence at the front of your property, next to the footpath, you'll probably be able to see that most people erect fences with the posts on 'their' side. (i.e. facing inwards towards their own house). So, if the fence between your garden and that of your neighbour was erected in a similar fashion, it's your neighbour who owns it.
However owning a fence isn't the same as having responsibility for repairing it. Unless (unusually) there's a covenant in the property deeds of one of your houses, requiring the owner to keep the fence in a good state of repair, neither of you is responsible for repairing it.
If, as seems likely, it's your who neighbour actually owns the fence, he's perfectly entitled (subject to the provisions of any covenant, as above) to leave it exactly as it is or to simply remove it altogether. (He could then say to you, "OK, if you want a fence there, you'll have to provide one").
I don’t remember seeing any title deeds that show who owns boundary fences.
They’ve just got a thick red line on a very small map, showing the property boundaries, and I’ve always thought that was a bit ambiguous.
Plus, when you sell, one of the forms you fill in asks who owns the fences/ hedges/walls surrounding the property.
Any time I’ve bought, the previous owner has stated “don’t know” so I’ve done the same when I’ve sold.
They’ve just got a thick red line on a very small map, showing the property boundaries, and I’ve always thought that was a bit ambiguous.
Plus, when you sell, one of the forms you fill in asks who owns the fences/ hedges/walls surrounding the property.
Any time I’ve bought, the previous owner has stated “don’t know” so I’ve done the same when I’ve sold.
The fence belongs to the side with the posts. Regardless of laws, this is logical - If you were erecting a fence, you would first put in the posts & then fix the rails or whatever to it without leaving your property, to do it the other way, i.e. fixing on the far side of the posts, you would have to do it from your neighbour's land.
