The house we bought had a fence on the back yard that butts up to two other homes that are back to back. Think two houses back to back with no alley and then my house is on the side (in the middle) of both of theirs.

The real estate lady told me that we do not own the fence on the back of our property. Also the slats face our house and the poles are in both of their back yard's.

How do I know who's fence it is? I realize the normal etiquette is to share the cost of repair/replacement if it is a shared fence, and am fine with that. The last conversation I had with them is they wanted ME to pay to have the whole thing hauled off.

Is there a way to prove ownership, so I can get them to help?

Survey from home purchase should show the fence and property line.

If the fence is built on the property line on the survey to the point you cannot distinguish the parcels, then typically, the home facing the poles is the owner (your neighbors).

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then typically, the home facing the poles is the owner (your neighbors).

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Say what?

I just lost a section of shared fence in a storm last week. When I talked to a fencing contractor, he told me that Texas state law says that cost must be shared between owners. I don't know how accurate that is, as I'm not a lawyer and my neighbors are cool, so we did wind up sharing cost... but I'm inclined to believe him since he does this for a living.

I wouldn't believe him. Your neighbor does not have to help you pay for a fence. If they are not ass holes they will though. You also can run into a situation like I did where you have a neighbor that is a cheap ass and wants to put up a piece of crap out of prefab panels from Lowes and you wind up saying screw it and doing it yourself.

There is no law that states you have to split the cost of fences with neighbors. Imagine how many pissed off ranchers there would be if this were true.

Most neighbors split 50/50 or 60/40. Whichever neighbor gets the good side pays the 60%.

For the O.P.
Just build a better fence on your property and disregard the neighbors if they dont want to help.

In my area fencing materials cost about $13 to $14 dollars a foot for 6' cedar with steel posts. Most fencing contractors charge $4 to $8 per foot for labor

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If the fence is built on the property line on the survey to the point you cannot distinguish the parcels, then typically, the home facing the poles is the owner (your neighbors).

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I hope no one actully heeds this advice....

Unless a person clearly has the fence constructed totally within their property, no one can actually claim ownership of a fence built on a property line, since it's a common line between owners. Sure, they may have it constructed, but they don't own it, if they put it on the property line, but the only way to find this out, would be to have a surveyor locate the lot corners.

As an adjoining owner, if the fence is constructed on the property line, you can do anything to the fence you want, including replacing it, or adding to it. But then again, it might not be worth getting neighbors po'ed.

Some bad information flying around on this thread.

Normally, fences are built on either one persons property or another. Which way it faces does not have anything to do with it. You should have property pins on the back corners of your lot. They are usually steel pins that are driven into the ground and they mark the actual corners of your lot. If your pins are on the other side of the fence, then the fence is built on your lot.

There is no law that says that the cost of the fence has to be shared. Most neighbors will do this anyway if they are both benefitting from the fence.

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There is no law that states you have to split the cost of fences with neighbors. Imagine how many pissed off ranchers there would be if this were true.

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No law, but in my part of the world, it is the way things are done.

Been through this before but I had reasonable neighbors and we basically split the costs.

Most fencing contractors should haul off the old fence for free. Every one of them that I got a quote from, save one, did this.... and the one that charged only was charging a couple hundred bucks or so. Which is peanuts compared to the cost of the fence.

I built a nice fence around my new home in 2005. A year later, someone moved into the house next door (sans fence).

They came over and asked if they could continue the fence around their home and link into mine. I told them that was OK, but I would appreciate them splitting the cost of the fence section (already constructed) that we would wind up sharing.

They agreed that this arrangement was reasonable.

Two weeks later, I walked over to their house to comment on their newly-constructed fence and collect on our agreement.

I was first told they didn't remember the conversation. After reminding them a few times, they simply said they thought about it further and decided not to follow through with the agreement.

Less than a week later, they parked a huge 20 year-old run-down motor home in the backyard against "my" fence and later added an equally run-down, equally old boat just out of spite.

I hated those people.

Hometown folks have a stone Zig-Zag fence built entirely on their property; including the triangular shaped 'zags' on the far side of fence.

Neighbors who back up to fence plants vines along fence that crawl over.

All is well until homeowner 1 sees vines topping fence on their side and looks over to investigate source. Subsequently they deploy yard man to scale fence, repel down far side and uproot vines from their property.

Old Army phook war breaks out. Whole town follows drama. Hilarity Ensues.

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They came over and asked if they could continue the fence around their home and link into mine. I told them that was OK, but I would appreciate them splitting the cost of the fence section (already constructed) that we would wind up sharing.

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So you asked them to pay for a fence that you built or had built before they bought their property? I'd have been pretty pissed if I were them, especially if you kept insisting that they drop you some money if that is the case.


add: as far as the cost of fencing between ranchers, splitting it is generally the practice around here as long as both agree beforehand.

[This message has been edited by wunderbrad01 (edited 4/18/2011 9:48a).]

I did my own fence around my land. The neigbors on either side helped me, and we split the material costs 50/50 for each side with each neighbor. I did a section of the back at my own cost just to keep it simple once. I have a second neighbor on the back of my lot that redid his section of fence, and he was supposed to mail me the pricing so we could calulate a fair split of the cost, but never did for some reason.

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If the fence is built on the property line on the survey to the point you cannot distinguish the parcels, then typically, the home facing the poles is the owner (your neighbors).

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I've heard this more that once and I always thought it was funny, the "owners" get the crappy unfinished looking side of the fence.

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I've heard this more that once and I always thought it was funny, the "owners" get the crappy unfinished looking side of the fence.

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You do this in urban areas to keep people out...

In the same vein of this thread, what would the case be for someone renting a home? The windstorm last week knocked down a portion of fence on one side of us, and it damaged the corner posts with the neighbor on the other side of us. Is it the responsibility of the owner, or is it common that they try to sneak this in on the lease agreement? I haven't had time to research our agreement yet, but I'm fearing the worst. Thoughts?

most likely that's an owner issue.

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I've heard this more that once and I always thought it was funny, the "owners" get the crappy unfinished looking side of the fence.

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You do this in urban areas to keep people out...

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How do you drive nails into the other side of the fence? I guess it isn't trespassing as long as the fence isn't up yet and they aren't growing crops in their back yard?

..mostly stirring the pot. I grew up in the 'burbs and you're right, its much easier to hop the fence on the post side.

I knew this thread would get entertaining.

My landlord handled fence damage from a storm when we lived in a rent place. Thing is, they were cheap and got cheap labor. it took almost 6 months to get a fence built and they never once put a stringline down. One neighbor didnt care because "f--- it, its a free fence and it looks like I picked up extra yard down there at the end". One neighbor however, agreed to pay part of it and then threatened a lien on the company when it was done since the fence builder ran into a tree root, when putting in a post and opted just to move the post INWARD 8".

I didnt own the house, so this was fairly entertaining and highly educational for me.

it was truly the most piss poor job I had ever seen. My office faced out into the yard, so I set up my webcam to come on when it sensed movement. The work crew never once showed up before 2 pm.


[This message has been edited by jed1154 (edited 4/18/2011 10:36a).]

wunderbrad01:

I didn't insist anything. You're insinuating that. I simply suggested sharing the cost. They used the same fence builder I did (after asking me who built my fence), so disparate quality of construction wasn't an issue.

They didn't balk at the suggestion, and actually agreed to the arrangement with a handshake. If they would have said "no", I can't say I would have denied their request.

After living next to them for a couple of years, I think they were just tceh tard trash. The wife wore the pants in the family and after sleeping on it, didn't like the agreement her husband had made. Instead of simply telling me they had second thoughts, they dodged me for a couple of weeks.

The confrontation we had when they blatantly violated the homeowner's association rules and deed restrictions by placing the dilapidated RV and boat in their backyard wasn't any prettier. They let their place go to hell. Things just kept going downhill with them.

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How do you drive nails into the other side of the fence? I guess it isn't trespassing as long as the fence isn't up yet and they aren't growing crops in their back yard?

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Stand in the Alley?

Checked the lease, and there is no mention of fences at all. There was a good bit of verbage about not adding/removing property without consent, and our obligation to report maintenance or repairs and not engage in them ourselves. We'll see what the owners say.

When I did my my neighbor paid 50%. I did 100% of the work but put the good side towards my house, as we had perviously discussed as the good side was previously on his side.

He got off more than a couple hundred cheaper do to me doing the work.

We have 3 shared sides. Each side (left back right) has alternating sections. Pretty side, 4x4 and brace side.

Each neighbor left back right paid a quarter of the cost of the fence. I think this is the best way as long as your neighbots aren't *******s.


O and jayelbee; my huge brown lab trumps your "huge" yellow lab.
It'd only be huge to Asians or Indians.

I'm now beginning to realize why my grandfather has always built his fences 6" inside the property line and would not allow other neighbors to connect to them. Of course, that means HE has to pay for the whole thing, but it ends up being his fence and his fence alone.

In my neighborhood we have the "good neighbor" fences and as far as I know they're on the property lines. The good neighbor fence is awfully hard to weed eat around.



[This message has been edited by Hoss (edited 4/18/2011 12:49p).]

You can always finish up your side of a good neighbor fence so you only have to look at the "pretty" panels.

How is that hard to weed eat? The pittsporum is what is making that situation hard.

It's a PITA for our lawnguy. We're constantly reminding him he has to do a better job in that area.

(And that's not pittosporum. )

[This message has been edited by combat wombat™ (edited 4/18/2011 1:07p).]

"I guess it isn't trespassing as long as the fence isn't up yet and they aren't growing crops in their back yard?"

Not correct. Whether there is a fence or not, nor whether crops are growing, is no defense for trespassing.

Legally, it's the property line you are crossing, creating the trespass, not the existence of a fence or crops. Fences are built for keeping things in or out, not to mark ownership.

One way of looking at it is, would you consider it illegal entry if you went into your neighbors home, uninvited, just because they don't have a lock on their door?

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You can always finish up your side of a good neighbor fence so you only have to look at the "pretty" panels.

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I've thought about doing that but have not yet developed the desire to put forth the effort.

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How is that hard to weed eat? The pittsporum is what is making that situation hard.

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That's not my actual fence. I stole it from some fencing company's website for the benefit of those that don't know what a good neighbor fence is. My fence just has St Augustine going up to it and all the little corners make it hard to get at with a stringed trimmer.