Moving a fence back to original position

Capt Doufos

Capt Doufos

Capt Doufos

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,724
Location
Nr Colchester, Essex
Hi Everyone,

So the council decided last week to cut back the 6ft high wall of brambles from behind our garden. I knew that the current position of our fence was behind some older fence posts but until they cleared it I hadn't appreciated quite how much.

I was going to take the opportunity before it all grows back to replace the fence, but are there any concerns with goin back to the what seem original position? I can only think it was put where it was for ease of not digging out the concrete posts and the fact it starts sloping away at that point. Is this a scenario where I would need to have it properly surveryed do you think? There is a good 4-5ft at the widest part so it's a significant chunk of garden.

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Capt Doufos said:
I was going to take the opportunity before it all grows back to replace the fence, but are there any concerns with goin back to the what seem original position? I can only think it was put where it was for ease of not digging out the concrete posts and the fact it starts sloping away at that point.
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Only other things I can think of are:

1. Will it reduce your privacy, because - assuming you keep to 6 foot high panels, the height of the top of the fence will be lower as it will be on the slope?
2. Will some keen-eyed neighbours spot what you're doing and complain / claim you're land grabbing?
 
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Privicy is ok as we are higher than the surrounding houses that look towards the fence. I agree with point 2 though, but not sure of the worst outcome from that really?
 
How sturdy are those concrete posts? If theyre good and sound id just be grabbing some new panels and sliding them into place, doubt anyone is going to question it. Its pretty obvious that was an original boundry point at some time.
 
Capt Doufos said:
Privicy is ok as we are higher than the surrounding houses that look towards the fence. I agree with point 2 though, but not sure of the worst outcome from that really?
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Worst outcome is very low consequence so I would just go for it. You can just say you're restoring the original boundary position.
 
Probably doesn't matter but the original concrete posts may have originally been put in by the council/other and the actual demarcation point may be on the inside of them, not inline with them.
 
Semple said:
Yeah I doubt anyone would contest it seeing as it looks like the open side is a public bit of land - i.e. not someones garden.
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Yes but it's still probably owned by the council!!

It's unlikely the fence would have been moved back in the past voluntarily by the property owner, so it may have been the council challenging the border. Before you do anything you have to check where the boundary actually is via the deeds.
 
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radderfire said:
Yes but it's still probably owned by the council!!

It's unlikely the fence would have been moved back in the past voluntarily by the property owner, so it may have been the council challenging the border. Before you do anything you have to check where the boundary actually is via the deeds.
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If he checks it may not be conclusive and if he asks anyone and draws attention to it, they will say no you can't do that and he will then be on their radar.

Personally I would just do it. Worst case is that he has to remove some slotted fence panels and he could even reuse them on his own fence line.

Even if someone from the council challenges it, they may not have conclusive evidence either way.

If the council raises it, he could also say ok why aren't you maintaining your fence boundary then? Then they would have to fit panels anyway and he wouldn't even have to pay for it! He could then remove his own current fence.
 
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I have the deeds with the boundary marking, I know roughly how far the boundary is from back of the house, but with the scale and the size of the lines the error margin is probably a meter or so. It is our boundary to maintain.
 
How old is your house. That could be an old boundary line from before the houses were built.

I would probably still go for it but you have to be prepared to put the fence back to where it is now if the council complain
 
radderfire said:
Yes but it's still probably owned by the council!!

It's unlikely the fence would have been moved back in the past voluntarily by the property owner, so it may have been the council challenging the border. Before you do anything you have to check where the boundary actually is via the deeds.
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Considering most councils are struggling with budgets to cover their core services, I genuinely can't see anyone bothering with contesting over a couple of sq feet - especially when there's some evidence that it looks like a fence was there in the first place.

A guy near my folks home did a bit of a landgrab - again was only something like 20-30sq feet. Just after the council had cut down wild bramble he moved his fences over. Council never bothered contesting it. I suspect that's coming up to 10 years now, no idea if there's a cut off time where it has to be contested before legally it becomes the homeowners property.
 
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