Associate Thomas Wild has responded to a reader’s question in The Times ‘Home Help’ feature on garden fence boundaries and deed markings. The reader asks what to do about damaged fencing between her garden and her neighbour’s, noting there are no boundary markings on the title deeds and questioning whether the neighbour is responsible for repairs.
The basic position is that—in the absence of any enforceable duties in the title deeds—there is no obligation on either party to maintain fences. Each landowner is entitled to build a fence entirely within their own garden and, if that fence later needs repair, the fence owner will have to repair it. The neighbour has no way to compel the fence owner to carry out repairs, so would need to erect their own fence if they want a physical separation between the gardens.
The full article is available to read online from The Times, by subscription only.
Thomas Wild is an associate in the property litigation team, advising on the full breadth of contentious property matters.
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