who fixes the fence

[Blyss]

I moved into my house 4 years ago the person living next door has lived there for over 20 odd years, there is a large wooden fence between the 2 house that she put up long before i moved in. We have the wooden "blocks" on our side and she has the pretty side.
All was fine until new years week when due to high winds the fence started moving swaying like it was going to fall. My husband went out and tied a rope to the fence and out brick wall to stop it from falling completely.
I called the neighbour and told him he done this so she wouldnt get a fright when she saw it still moving a bit.
She told me on the fone that her husband fixed it the last time and what WE need to do is fix the wooden blocks .
Now with that being said she has always maintained to me that she bought the fence and its her fence ..{used to go on about it quite a lot}
So I was wondering as the fence is still not fixed if we have to do it ??
From my point of view I dont think we should , she put the fence up when we didnt even live here and its been put up badly {ie the wooden blocks are not set in conrate {sp} but just stuck in the dirt}
What do you think we should do??

[ELVIS68]

Push it over and then keep ya fingers crossed she`ll pay for a new one

[Pippa68]

Have you put this in the law section too, Blyss? just a thought as you may get more joy there :o)

I would check your deeds. My neighbours have their own fences (we live in a terrace) and so do we ~ however even though I thought we were only liable to look after our 'own' I discovered on our deeds that we were jointly responsible for one of the fences I thought didn't belong to us!

[fms]

wer i live its in the deeds that we own the fence on the left as you look at the garden from the house

[OBonio]

As Pippa said, you need to find out who is responsible for the fence from your deeds. At our old place, we were responsible for our right fence, but the neighbours responsible for our left (their right) fence.

At our new place, all the fences are a joint responsibility so I assume this means we would all need to put money in to fix them if they were to fall over.

[redcrx]

i always thought it was the left hand side like fms said. Saying that though, we've woken this morning to find the entire length of our right hand fence has come down, posts and all. My fella says its ours so thats not gonna be cheap.

[zimzam]

Fence on the left belongs to you. If the fence in question is on the right then its hers - her property - her ownership and she has to repair it. You can actually threaten legal proceedings if you really wanted to get nasty. You have no obligation to repair your neighbours fence (if it is her fence) and if the fence falls down she must make good the boundary line. Some people really do try it on!

[zimzam]

I had similar problems where I used to live (no, I lie - I had worse problems) but I joined and posted and received excellent advice from this place http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/ I think you would get the legal advice there that you need but if you post and receive a reply from them please do report it back here as its helpful for anyone reading or searching on AB to see an answer.

[Blyss]

thanks guys!!!
I havea bought property but her house she still rents from the council ,, I have a brick wall around "my side" and shes put up this 8 foot monster fence , we are on very good terms but I know she can be a nasty bint at times , plus my husband refuses to do it lol .
thankd for all advice ..I will look at that garden sit also .
thanks again.

[zimzam]

An eight foot fence is illegal. Six foot six is the max - go talk to your council.