Tenant, Neighbour, Agents and the fence?

if in England--you cannot be made to erect or fix a fence. if it is dangerous you can just repair or remove

nice side--if you do replace--is facing your property

otherwise he can go jump

you can face the fence any side you want.I did one on my property and was not going to pay £1200 and have the best side facing away from me.!
I have also made a fence by putting in posts(on my land)
and using gravel boards (you can get them as long as 4 metres) I leave a small gap between each board(to allow for expansion etc) next door will see the posts and you will not.The boards are screwed on from your side
Having said this no one is obliged to put up a fence
some properties have the boundary marked by small concrete posts with wire running through them.
Check the deeds to find out who's boundary it is(marked with a T on the deeds,if the T is on your property,the boundary is yours.

I would put up posts and use panels that include feather edge and they look largely the same both sides, in the long run panels are easier to replace when the next wind arrives. They are 20-30% dearer than standard ones.
Leave the chicken wire up and if he does not like it tell them to put a fence up on their side could be one solution but not good for future relationships!!
Maybe send him a letter/note through the door, with a picture of post and panels you intend to use and get him to agree it in writing to the fence and access to put it up.

Reply to the comment left by Vixxyb555 at 26/07/2021 - 16:48
To be absolutely clear, how do you know that it is "your" boundary and fence?

Is there anything in the deeds requiring you to maintain a fence; if so, is the type of fence specified?

That you're neighbour is entitled to the nice side is an urban myth.

If I remember rightly, when putting up a fence, you erect the posts on the boundary line, with the rails in between. You then put up the boards on your side of the posts, as you're not allowed to trespass on your neighbours land to do this. This means that you automatically get the nice side.

For most modern properties you know which fences you are responsible for by looking at the Land Registry document. There are T markings on the plot map. Older properties may not have this on the documents but often have quite lengthy written Deeds detailing who is responsible for what.

I thought the nice side of a feather edge fence usually went on the other side for various practical reasons.
If the fence is the outer boundary it gives the property greater kerb appeal if the nice side faces out. It is also harder to climb the nice side so is better for security. When used to separate neighbouring houses it's a bit harder to see the logic, especially as you need to physically be in the neighbours garden to nail the boards on for them to have the nice side.

We had a similar problem couple of years ago with fence blown down in gales, luckily fell in our tenants garden, it was past its sell by date. Our tenants are lovely people but neighbours are awful. The neighbours had recently spent a fortune having that faux grass laid in whole of garden and as soon as fence came down were threatening to sue us for what I have no idea. We were refused access after asking very nicely so arranged a day with tenants and my builder friend to replace fence. We turned up with me helping to get it done in a day and received a lot of abuse from neighbour but we just ignored her even when she filming our every move. We did not need access because posts were put in as they were and we used panels that fitted between posts and fixed with brackets on our side, same with gravel boards. The builder noticed that the faux grass had been laid totally wrongly, the garden sloped away from the house, and was already sinking in places on the joins. But "oh joy" when we got to the last post at bottom of garden, we discovered a drainage channel that was put in for the faux grass had no soakaway and had been exited under the fence into our garden and beneath a section of decking in our garden. The ground had been washed away a bit and the decking supports were rotting. We took pictures and my builder gave us a quote to put it right. When we left after a long day the neighbour said she would send us a bill for cleaning the faux grass as we had got some dirt on it. My builder said ok and gave her his address to send bill. We got a bill £200 to clean the grass which really had no dirt on it because we brushed any off as we went along, we sent her a bill for £600.00 with pictures, for correcting the soak away plus explaining all the faults with the faux grass that if she wanted we would correct it for £4,000.00. A very embarrassed husband apologised profusely for his wife's actions to our tenants and asked them to pass it on to us and that was the last we heard. I wouldn't normally waste my time and breath on such people but sometimes they hit a spot.

Reply to the comment left by Y Lana at 27/07/2021 - 13:12I am not sure you are right as to which side the fence posts should go. On all new building developments, and I have lived on several, the fence posts are put in on the side whose boundary it is and the panels are fixed to the other side. This makes sense. This means that when the timber fence posts go rotten, and they all do eventually then you can replace the fence posts with most of the work being carried out when standing on your own land without having to work excessively from your neighbours garden. The panels, if they are tanalised and also treated with a preservative last for absolutely ages. It's always the posts that go first, usually breaking off at, or just below ground level. In our present garden the left hand side boundary is the responsibility of our neighbour and we see the panels on our side but on the right side which is our boundary we have the fence posts on our side. The fences are now about 20 year old and we have had to replace at least 6 fence posts but no panels. Our local handyman has found that if you can catch the fence posts before they actually give way you can save a lot of time and money by inserting a new post in front of the existing one, to a height of about 5 feet above ground and has used very long coach screws to bolt the new reinforcing fence post to the old one.

Reply to the comment left by at 27/07/2021 - 14:34
If access to neighbour's side not a problem, my preferred option is normally to bolt existing wooden posts (cut-off above rot) to new part-height concrete posts.

As the new posts are sunk in concrete rather than simply driven into the ground, they will not move and will never rot.

Disadvantages are cost and aesthetics.

Reply to the comment left by at 27/07/2021 - 14:34
@silversurfer2017, you may be right when it comes to building sites, as the developer would usually have a right of access to both sides of the fence being erected and can thus choose which side s/he wants fairface. In this case, however, the landlord doesn't have the right of access to the neighbor's land and without that has to do all the work from his - thus the boarding goes up on his side.