Which Side Of The Fence Is My Responsibility?

Is it your responsibility to arrange and pay for it or your neighbours? Garden fence responsibility can often be a subject of dispute between neighbours, especially when it comes to knowing where you stand legally.

Image courtesy of Hamar Fencing (before) 

You can get an idea by looking

There’s no general rule about whether you own the fence on the left-hand or right-hand side of your property, but by looking, although this isn’t guaranteed, or by any means an official way to define your boundaries, it can certainly help give you a good idea – fences with posts on one side it’s presumed that the owner on that side owns and is responsible for repairing the fence.

The installers should have put the fence up facing away from their property so that their neighbour gets the ‘good’ side. This in practice should be repeated with each neighbour so that everyone receives one ‘good’ and one ‘bad’ side.

As mentioned though, this shouldn’t be taken as a definite. You can’t assume this was done by each neighbour. So, how can you find an official answer to this burning question?

Determine ownership with title deeds

For an official and accurate answer, dig out the title deeds for your house. A copy can be found among the paperwork you received when buying your house, or if lost, ask the solicitor who did your conveyancing. If the information isn’t listed on the plans, you’ll need to check with the Land Registry.

When looking at the plans, ownership is indicated with a “T” which will mark one side of the boundary.

If you can see a “H” (which is actually two Ts joined together) the boundary is shared by both parties:

In this case, you have a party fence, so will have to speak with your neighbour about how you want to deal with maintenance; perhaps you decide to take it in turns, or split the costs 50/50.

If you would prefer complete ownership, there is a process you can undertake to buy out your neighbour. Although you must go through a proper, legally recorded sale procedure to make this official.

Image courtesy of Hamar Fencing (after)

Image above shows DuraPost® Olive Grey posts with traditional wooden fence panels. If you're a DIYer, see for yourself how easy it is to install DuraPost® in this video.

Fencing from the experts

We hope this answers your question about ‘which side of the fence is my responsibility?’ and helps prevent/resolve any disputes with your neighbour. If you’re still unsure on what to do, the Land Registry has lost of useful information on this topic. If no luck, your local council planning department should be your next source of help, and legal advice from solicitors if all else fails.

Need help finding a local fencing installer? Contact us and we can put you in touch with fully trained DuraPost® installers in your areas.

For any more advice on fencing, feel free to contact our expert team at Birkdale today, we’d love to help.