Fence - paint - rights?

IGBT

IGBT

IGBT

Associate
Joined
27 Jan 2019
Posts
175
Hi y'all. Quick question please. I know that if you live in a terrace house say and you have a fence the house with the fence to the right is responsible to maintain, fix or even replace. Now the question is, do I own the fence? Does it belong to the owner of the house with the fence to the right? Can the neighbour paint the fence? If it paints (assuming its allowed) and the paint comes to your side, what do you do? As a courtesy the neighbour should tell you that they would be painting their side and in case something happens (come to your side) they will clean, etc.

Any advice, comments, guidance is appreciated. Ta.
 
You need to look at the deeds really and anything beyond that would be an agreement between neighbours... around here that is via solicitor in many cases :(
 
In the deed it says we are responsible for example to replace it in case gets damaged.

Now the question is. Does it mean that it belongs to me? Is it mine?
 
IGBT said:
Hi y'all. Quick question please. I know that if you live in a terrace house say and you have a fence the house with the fence to the right is responsible to maintain, fix or even replace. Now the question is, do I own the fence? Does it belong to the owner of the house with the fence to the right? Can the neighbour paint the fence? If it paints (assuming its allowed) and the paint comes to your side, what do you do? As a courtesy the neighbour should tell you that they would be painting their side and in case something happens (come to your side) they will clean, etc.

Any advice, comments, guidance is appreciated.
Click to expand...
i own all my fence .. put them in on my side of the border .. so i'd ask first ..
 
Guy you have to be careful with boundary lines. Dont assume anything. Never go off "mine is the left, yours is the right" because that is what next door said.

Posts mean nothing. Posts are usually whoever didnt paid for the fence.
 
Last edited:
Our neighbours asked about the fence the other day and they thought it was ours as the posts face us. The previous neighbours had taken the old fence down and replaced it with a new one with the feather edge on their side as it was easier to do from their side. So not always simple to work out just by looking at the fence
 
Last edited:
This is the sort of thing where just having a conversation with your neighbour is the sensible thing to do.

“Hi I want to paint my side of the fence”
“Ok no problem, I like the way my face looks so please be careful to only paint the face facing you.”
“Ok will do”.

It’s that simple. All this talk of solicitors is silly.
 
As others have said, there's no such "rule of thumb" when it comes to fence ownership. If your deeds don't show who owns it, then tread carefully and ask your neighbour. Boundary disputes can get extremely expensive.

I know for my deeds that the fence is jointly owned between us and the neighbour. Which pretty much means I can paint my side how I like, but opposite side is for the neighbour to decide on. Replacement or repair would then mean a 50/50 cost, unless I decide to erect a new fence on my side of the boundary, but for that I'd probably have to leave some visible marker in place to show the boundary line - ensuring there's no contesting of the fence ownership in the future (especially if you have new neighbours).
 
As i look out the back of my house I am responsible for the fence on my left and not the one on my right. But as said this isn't guaranteed. You also have to take into consideration other factors, for example when I bought my house my deeds said I was responsible for the fence as described earlier, but this means the front of my house would leave me responsible for a brick wall that was put up by the owners of the house on that side when my house was still a council house. So technically according to the deeds I am responsible for a brick wall installed and maintained by someone else - although this got harder when those neighbours died and new ones moved in who didn't have that wall on their deeds. Might be interesting if the wall needs repairing at any point.
 
The missives on mine state that fences are shared by the neighbours so no one owns them individually i.e. if they need repaired/replaced, its a joint cost.

If you're upset because they painted their side and its bled through to your side then just clean it off....
 
IGBT said:
Hi y'all. Quick question please. I know that if you live in a terrace house say and you have a fence the house with the fence to the right is responsible to maintain, fix or even replace. Now the question is, do I own the fence? Does it belong to the owner of the house with the fence to the right? Can the neighbour paint the fence? If it paints (assuming its allowed) and the paint comes to your side, what do you do? As a courtesy the neighbour should tell you that they would be painting their side and in case something happens (come to your side) they will clean, etc.

Any advice, comments, guidance is appreciated. Ta.
Click to expand...


I am not sure if it is always the same side fence that is theoretically owned/maintained by the neighbour.
It depends on what is indicated on the Office Copy Entries as in some cases deeds are not always available.

The only general standing courtesy I am aware of re fences is that if a neighbour replaces a fence then they should give to the "Good Side" without the majority of the support struts to the neighbour.
As regards paint/stain removal weeping through it would be courteous to let next door know and offer to resolve any issues but I dont suppose it happns very often that they bother to do so.
 
Mason- said:
It’s that simple. All this talk of solicitors is silly.
Click to expand...

Around where I live apparently it is far more normal than not for neighbours to only communicate on stuff like this via lawyer/solicitor :( it bemuses some of the people we/the neighbour have in to do boundary work, etc. as we mostly get along and sort anything like that out civilly. (Some parts have a lot of rich/retiree types who probably have nothing better to do with their time :s).
 
Mason- said:
This is the sort of thing where just having a conversation with your neighbour is the sensible thing to do.

“Hi I want to paint my side of the fence”
“Ok no problem, I like the way my face looks so please be careful to only paint the face facing you.”
“Ok will do”.

It’s that simple. All this talk of solicitors is silly.
Click to expand...
Yeah and that’s precisely what my partner said. They painted it and didn’t ask as courtesy. There is paint all over on our side. Luckily we didn’t paint our side nor have anything on the fence ‘wall’. The question is more like if I am responsible to change the fence in case of damage does it mean it is mine?
 
pepp77 said:
As i look out the back of my house I am responsible for the fence on my left and not the one on my right. But as said this isn't guaranteed. You also have to take into consideration other factors, for example when I bought my house my deeds said I was responsible for the fence as described earlier, but this means the front of my house would leave me responsible for a brick wall that was put up by the owners of the house on that side when my house was still a council house. So technically according to the deeds I am responsible for a brick wall installed and maintained by someone else - although this got harder when those neighbours died and new ones moved in who didn't have that wall on their deeds. Might be interesting if the wall needs repairing at any point.
Click to expand...
It if you are responsible for the fence on the left does it mean you are the owner? Like in if you have to swap and pay from your own pocket it means it is yours no?
 
Mason- said:
This is the sort of thing where just having a conversation with your neighbour is the sensible thing to do.

“Hi I want to paint my side of the fence”
“Ok no problem, I like the way my face looks so please be careful to only paint the face facing you.”
“Ok will do”.

It’s that simple. All this talk of solicitors is silly.
Click to expand...
The thing is that they didn’t ask and it bled to our side. Luckily we haven’t painted ours.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom