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Any - Garden Fences - _

When we moved here 7 years ago, the garden fences on all sides were in poor condition, None of the neighbours wanted to contribute, so between us and next door (a semi) (they are renting) I paid for 6 good qualirty panels to be slotted into the concrete posts, also a bit higher for privacy. At the bottom, put in new posts and 4 foot high fence and trellis above that so we had a partial view of the greenery behind. Looking out from the back on the left was a fence but two elderly neighbours who didn't want to contribute, so put new posts in where needed and slotted in some panels with trellis on top, to stop the dog jumping over.

At the front on the right was a fence with a neighbour in another street, so bottom of his garden and side of my driveway. Had decking and a children's play area attached to fence posts. Neighbour said if i touched it and damage to the decking would have to fix it.

Politely said thank you and built a new fence a few inches my side of the old one.

Just to say how daft people can get, he now wants to replace his fences and the other neighbour to one side has declined.

He was grumbling, so I just said, if the old man does.t want to pay, and you want a new fence, do what I did, pay yourself.

Now 12 months on and nothing done...

Edited by _ORB_ on 14/05/2022 at 14:18

Any - Garden Fences - Engineer Andy

The problem with a lot of things these days is that people:

a) Don't like someone else identifying a problem they missed, never mind proposing a solution that in the longer term would save both of you money and hopefully get a better result than everyone doing their own thing (ego);

b) Often wait until the s*** hits the fan - i.e. the entire fence comes crashing down in the storm and causes lots of damage to other things (flower beds, cars, other people's property, etc) - whereby fence-repair contractors are inundated with emergency callouts, fences are in short supply (thus the wait for repairs/replacements are long) and prices are far higher.

Similarly for tree surgery.

A neighbour in my flat block had similar issues trying to not spend money on repairing or replacing their 18+yo boiler that had been faulty since 2017.

In the end, they had to have an emergency replacement done during the Pandemic (whereby parts and new boilers were [and are] in short supply and more expensive) which cost them more and was ugly / less useful (different location for the boiler) because a cheaper / better installation design would require a longer amount of time to gain sufficient permissions and the components needed, and they needed the unit asap (no heating OR hot water otherwise).

All that because their ego did not want to accept my (polite) advice 4 years before. They now won't talk to me, presumably for the same reason your neighbour won't do the fence work.

Any - Garden Fences - Ethan Edwards

ORB you've probably replaced fences that didn't even belong to you. Living in a not old (1992) property I have a copy of the plans. It clearly shows who owns what. Unfortunately as an End of Terrace most of it actually is mine....ah well nice in theory.

Any - Garden Fences - _

The cost of a few fence panels @£20 each wasn't worth arguing the toss.

But I certainly wasn't going to fix his decking...

Any - Garden Fences - Engineer Andy

The cost of a few fence panels @£20 each wasn't worth arguing the toss.

I somehow doubt if prices have stayed that low. There was a big demand (and thus shortage) of fencing components after the storms earlier this year and prices went up, plus now all the other inflationary effects kicking in severely...

If you have to get the fence posts replaced, and especially with concrete ones, plus the new panels are ones with reinforcement bars and concrete gravel boards below, the cost of buying and doing the work escalates considerably.

But I certainly wasn't going to fix his decking...

Some people do like to try it on. Cheeky blighter. As Ethan said, good to check which property owns what fence.

Trying to persuade them to replace them when the fences come down can be harder than most people think. Someone on my housing development has this issue with a neighbour whose (rented out) property adjoins theirs but off the development, and they don't even acknowledge letters sent.

They are a bad landlord as the tenant complained to the neighbour about the boiler not being fixed either. They don't even have a contact address - all correspondance goes to that address.

You'd think that under both circumstances their and your neighbours would want the fences up to scratch given the security implications or to the value of their and your properties. Sadly some people don't see such thinks until it's too late...

Best of luck getting them fixed.

Any - Garden Fences - _

The cost of a few fence panels @£20 each wasn't worth arguing the toss.

That was 2015/2016...

Fence posts for the 6 panels at one side were ok, (concrete) so slid new panels in from the top. Gravel boards ok. bottom of garden 5 posts, put new wooden ones in fitted cross bars and featheredge to 4' high then trellis, as collie could jump that...

left hand side at back, 7 new wooden posts and 4' panels plus trellis in the 4' concrete posts and 6@ to front of drive, about 30 feet. did it all myself.. was fitter then...

But as others say, ignored now, and I treat my panels every couple of years, still able to splash a bit of wood treatment on.

Edited by _ORB_ on 14/05/2022 at 18:39

Any - Garden Fences - Ethan Edwards

Yep when I creosote my fence probably 30% goes on the Fence and I up wearing at least half. ??

Any - Garden Fences - Andrew-T

The cost of a few fence panels @£20 each wasn't worth arguing the toss. But I certainly wasn't going to fix his decking...

This stuff about cheap fences is very small beer. Soon after we moved here in 2006 most of a 30-yard wall between us and our neighbour blew down in a gale when a tree 'leant' on it. The wall had been built with a pattern of holes which ivy had infiltrated, causing an extensive domino effect.

The first problems were that the neighbour was a doctors' practice, and ownership of the wall could not be determined as it had replaced the wall of a Victorian greenhouse, originally part of the doctors' property. Both insurers tried to refuse liability because of lack of maintenance or intrusion of tree roots, and although the doctors were willing to contribute to the repair cost, as they planned to leave the property soon they would only pay half the cost of the cheapest available boundary - a fence. We intended to have the wall rebuilt, for which the cheapest quote was £13K.

After nearly a year and threats of the insurers' ombudsman, each insurer grudgingly offered to pay a quarter of the cost - naturally for the doctors the cost of a fence. I think we paid about £8K altogether, but the rebuilding was excellent. I hate to think how things might have developed if we had not been on good terms with the doctors' site manager.

Any - Garden Fences - Manatee

We intended to have the wall rebuilt, for which the cheapest quote was £13K.

How high was the wall?
When I cleared the site here, under the shrubs which separated us from next door the demolition chaps found a single skin 750mm high garden wall in poor condition. They asked if they should leave it there or demolish it. Foolishly I told them to scrape it up as it was crumbling anyway.
It turned out to be next door's wall so I found myself on the hook for rebuilding it. It was about 17m. long. We shared the cost in the end because we both wanted a better wall, so I made it about a metre high and "double" i.e.215mm thick, in English garden wall bond.
The bricks were about £1600, the brickies bill £1200 (4+2 gang for a day) and we supplied the sand and cement. My groundworkers did the foundation. So it probably cost around £4,000. I thought that was bad enough. All ex VAT.

Edited by Manatee on 20/05/2022 at 19:27

Any - Garden Fences - Andrew-T

We intended to have the wall rebuilt, for which the cheapest quote was £13K.

How high was the wall?

On our side, about 8 feet, but only 6 on the other side, which was being used as a surgery car park. It's now reverted to private occupation. About 25 yards of wall had to be rebuilt - I rescued and cleaned about 700 bricks which were re-used.

I was very pleased with the £13K job - which included re-creating the pattern of holes to match the parts which still stood - when other quotes were £17K and £19K and our insurance assessor suggested a cost of not less than £20K. The base of the wall may have dated from 1875 but was certainly Victorian, and TBH was rather crumbly, but the builder didn't quibble about laying over it. He also added several pillars containing steel supports, so another gale will be no problem - especially since the new neighbours have added their own parallel wall because they didn't like the look of all those little holes :-))

Any - Garden Fences - Manatee

Ah, I can see why it sounded expensive!

Any - Garden Fences - Andrew-T

ORB you've probably replaced fences that didn't even belong to you. Living in a not old (1992) property I have a copy of the plans. It clearly shows who owns what.

Undoubtedly true. The difficulty is that unless you are on good-neighbourly terms it may be hard to get replaced any panels 'owned' by neighbours. Quickest to arrange replacements and ask them to go halves ?

Any - Garden Fences - daveyjp

Never ceases to amaze me how much grief garden fences can cause between neighbours,

Thankfully we only have one fence and when that blew over many years ago I spoke to the neighbour and we agreed that rather than useless cheap wany edge panels which always blow over as they act like sails we would get a proper job. Hand built shadow box fence using treated timber so the wind would blow through it.

Cost us £175 each at the time for new posts, rails and staves. 20 years later its still as strong as when fitted.

Any - Garden Fences - focussed

I have had this nonsense with every neighbour we had in the UK in three houses, including the last one in east anglia who started his " I've just moved in" conversation with "You've got part of my garden" - us having lived there 15 years. I referred him to his solicitor. He used a conveyancing agent and demanded that we pay for a solicitor - my reply was predictable.

This sort of mean cheapskate niggling over nothing much was one of the many reasons why we decided to emigrate to rural france. I'm not saying that disputes over fencing and boundaries don't happen here but our boundaries here are mostly either ancient stone walls, woodland down to the road's edge or bocage like this:- www.flickr.com/photos/tnayrb/2952653144/in/photost.../

Doesn't need creosoting either!

Any - Garden Fences - Manatee

When erroneously demolished my neighbour's wall, I 'lost' the boundary. I assumed it was simply an extension of a line of fencing between our back gardens, he differed and he was probably right

Fortunately neither of us is an i****, so we resolved it and we are still speaking.

You really have to be daft to start a boundary dispute with a neighbour

Any - Garden Fences - _

Have just finished the wood treatment for the fences, and neighbour on left asked, what colour and where did I get it from. Had a pot and a bit left over, so he had it to paint fis side of the fence.

Any - Garden Fences - sammy1

Sounds like a lot of karate training going on in your neighbour hood, does Mr Myagi live locally?

Any - Garden Fences - De Sisti

ORB you've probably replaced fences that didn't even belong to you. Living in a not old* (1992) property I have a copy of the plans. It clearly shows who owns what. Unfortunately as an End of Terrace most of it actually is mine....ah well nice in theory.

I obtained the deeds for my property from HM Land Registry (GR130276) and it doesn't indicate which owner is responsible for whichever side of fences/walls. I've read that is the case with some title deeds.

*My house was built in 1910.

Edited by De Sisti on 30/05/2022 at 20:56