which side

[fruitsalad]

of the fence, if i was standing down by the back of my house looking up at my back garden which side of the fence belongs to me the left or right hand side?

[Robinia]

Let's do this another way, your ups and downs are confusing :o)
As a general rule standing on the street facing your house the boundaries on the left are yours. However there are exceptions so if youre planning anything major/expensive check out your & your neighbour's deeds first... that way they can't start complaining as soon as the money's been spent!

[fruitsalad]

no robinia its not about about building, the kids keep kicking a ball against the fence and although i have told them about it, i was wondering who would be responsible for replacing the fence if it got broken obviously i would have a word with the parents if it were to break but was really wondering how i stood should this happen.

[smurfchops]

fruitsalad, you may get some good answers by putting this under the Law thread. Good luck.

[theshedman]

Hi, I would have said it was the side with the posts on but saying that the question could have been worded better. If you are looking up to your back garden you would probably have a fence either side of your property.

[fruitsalad]

yes theshedman i do have a fence up both sides of the garden it was already here when i moved in

[buildersmate]

Contrary to any of the above comments, it is impossible to say which fences (if any) are yours merely by inspecting the geography / layout, or even on which side the posts are.

[sddsddean]

BM is absolutely right. The only way to know is to look at your deeds. We don't 'own' either of our side fences...only the one at the bottom of the garden.

[theshedman]

Hi, looking at the deeds doesn't always give you the answer either as the neighbour could have put the fence up just within their boundary. The best thing to do would be to ask one of them and they may be able to tell you about the other side too. I said about it being the side with the posts on because when I worked for a building company they always put the posts on the side of the property they were working on, unless it was a panel fence, then they were on the ends of each panel.

[craft1948]

the shedman is quite correct.............on my deeds it is clearly marked that I am responsible for the fencing down the left side of my property, however, I built a wall down the right-hand side, but as the footings are totally on my property i actually own about 4 inches of land on the other side of the wall.
In my previous house the fence at the right-hand side was mine.

[heathfield]

Fence posts were traditionally placed on the side of the property owning the fence. This helps security - if the posts are on the outside, it makes it easier for anyone to climb over and into the property. But people seem to have forgotten about this. These days some people consider posts look ugly, and would rather see the smooth side of the fence when sitting in their garden. But it now means that now you can't go by the position of the posts to determine who's fence it is.

[carlton23]

I live in a semi-detached house with a wire fence on both sides and a block wall at the bottom of the garden, and my deeds state all boundary fences are mine, but there is an alleyway on the right side for access to other houses rear gardens, and my neighbour has only two fences, his left, and his bottom fence.

[spudqueen]

As already stated you need to check your deeds. In our first house we owned the fence on the right, in our second house we owned the fence on the left, and in this, our third house, all boundaries are jointly owned!

[woofgang]

if you do own the fence, unless you are covenanted to keep a fence there, you don't have to replace it or keep it there unless you want to. Whether or not you own the fence, the person (or parent of) whoever damages it is responsible for repairing the damage.

[Kos]

You also need to bear in mind that although you are only responsible for the boundary one side, if like me, the previous owner chose to erect fences on both sides then you are the owner of the fence on both sides.
You are within your rights to remove the fence that is not in your boundary responsibililty and leave a gap.