That's why I hate shared fences. Had the same issue in my old house, luckily the other 2 sides (neighbors) were willing to split. It took 2 years before the holdout finally agreed to split our costs.

bbry81 said:

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if you do that don't be surprised if they tear the old fence down and just use yours.

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I've thought about this... I think they are too lazy to actually do this though. It's low risk.

In my opinion, if the neighbor says they just don't have it financially suck it up and pay for the fence. Some points to consider...

1) They're FOS and they pulled one over on you. Yay them...
1a) If they're FOS you might have just given them what they "need" to become a real PITA.
2) They're actually in some hard space and don't have the cash. You did the neighborly thing.
3) Does the HOA or city have anything against double fences?
4) How's a fence a ft off the property line going to go over with a buyer should you sell?

We bought a tear-down new build 4+ years ago. Existing chainlink fences on both sides (one side a rental and the other a 90 yo woman) were horrible, the one on backside (also rental) fine. We asked all three if they minded removing chainlink and we pay for new horizontal wood fence. Both sides were cool, why not? Owner of rental behind said no and was pretty curt about it, saying she had no idea how good a fence it would be. So, now I have a 9"-15" gap between fences I have to maintain a few times per year to make sure hackberry saplings and vinesdon't get established.

Esteban du Plantier said:

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CapCity12thMan said:

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give them the ugly side of the fence.

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So their ****ty kids can climb into my yard?

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Leave a lot of nails sticking out?

thirty-two said:

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bbry81 said:

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if you do that don't be surprised if they tear the old fence down and just use yours.

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I've thought about this... I think they are too lazy to actually do this though. It's low risk.

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I disagree. It's a higher risk they don't and you have to deal with the weeds, poison ivy, leaves, and rats that will fill in the area between the two.

$25-$30/lf for a fence that small is about the going rate.

Gigemags05 said:

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$25-$30/lf for a fence that small is about the going rate.

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This isn't the full scope of the work she requested to be done. All in all it was a little over 100 lf that she was looking to be done. And it came out to just under $30/lf before, "add on misc. charges".

Our shared portion is only about 25 lf. If all they would have charged was $625-$750 for that portion I would have saved myself the trouble. However they wanted $600 for just the installation of new fence, then $175/ gate built plus a $275 small job fee. So just under $1k for our small shared portion. They wanted around $2,700 for the total job, plus the small job fee, plus the gate building charges, plus some other weird $600 fee to straighten the back posts... we can't figure that one out even after calling a couple times.


Needless to say, the front portion was the most important to her, so that's what I am doing. She is calling 3 more companies to come out and bid the rest of the job.

AgLA06 said:

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thirty-two said:

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bbry81 said:

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if you do that don't be surprised if they tear the old fence down and just use yours.

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I've thought about this... I think they are too lazy to actually do this though. It's low risk.

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I disagree. It's a higher risk they don't and you have to deal with the weeds, poison ivy, leaves, and rats that will fill in the area between the two.

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Good point. I actually have this problem on the other side... my neighbor on that side build their own fence inside of ours... this was before we moved in, and the prior owner likely did not want to share the cost.

We went through a similar issue but our issue was the neighbor just moved in and wanted to build a new, huge 8 foot fence with horizontal boards. They did offer to pay for shared fence but we did not want to re-do all the rest of our fence to match (b/c we don't like the style and didn't want to spend money). Anyways, we now have side-by side fences and have for about 9 months. No real issues yet. We have those rat / mouse boxes on both ends and re-fill them frequently (but our house backs to open land so we always have an unending supply of mice, rabbits, squirrels, armadillos, etc). No issues with weeds yet but this will be the first real year to see how it handles. Our lawn guy said he can take care of the grass / weeds in between if needed.

planoaggie123 said:

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We went through a similar issue but our issue was the neighbor just moved in and wanted to build a new, huge 8 foot fence with horizontal boards. They did offer to pay for shared fence but we did not want to re-do all the rest of our fence to match (b/c we don't like the style and didn't want to spend money). Anyways, we now have side-by side fences and have for about 9 months. No real issues yet. We have those rat / mouse boxes on both ends and re-fill them frequently (but our house backs to open land so we always have an unending supply of mice, rabbits, squirrels, armadillos, etc). No issues with weeds yet but this will be the first real year to see how it handles. Our lawn guy said he can take care of the grass / weeds in between if needed.

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Dump roundup. No weeds.

Posts set to day. Hopefully rain holds off until late tomorrow and we can set rails tomorrow and then start putting up pickets Monday.

No one's addressed where the actual property line is .... whatever you build belongs to the property owner. Hate to spend surveyor costs but since fences cost so much. might be a small % of total cost. It would ideal to learn that all you had to do was to nail new boards to the existing post/joists to get what you wanted!

Forgot to post finished pics

We're in a similar boat. Neighbor is known cheapskate.

Fence is in bad shape. I talk it over with neighbor and tell him that I'll get some bids. He doesn't like the bids and he "knows a guy" and will get back to me. Never does.

I check back with him...he says it's not a good time, because he's selling his business.

Now looks like they may be putting their house on the market. Rumors of them needing to replace the fence on the other side of their yard, too.

The 9 y/o in me is thinking of sticking him with the entire cost if he comes back and wants to replace it, 'cause y'know its not a good time. Realistically, I'll probably tell him that I'll pay half of the cheapest bid. I don't care that it could be 3 months old now and no longer valid.

I have a workshop in the back of a house I own. The outer wall of the workshop is used as the "fence" but the actual property line is around 4 feet on the other side of the workshop. I now want to build a privacy fence but when I do I will put it on the property boundary so the neighbor's yard is about to get 4 feet smaller. I don't think the neighbors will care because they are some trash tenants living in a rent house they obviously care nothing about.

Don't most cities require a permit for a new fence and will the city mark the property boundaries or will I also need to have somebody come survey the property (in addition to the city permit)?

Most cities require permit for new fence & sometimes even for rebuilding a fence. I highly doubt that a city would mark property lines. You will most likely have to consult your survey or have one conducted.

will.mcg said:

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Most cities require permit for new fence & sometimes even for rebuilding a fence. I highly doubt that a city would mark property lines. You will most likely have to consult your survey or have one conducted.

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Houston only requires a permit if it is over a certain height. No one from the city will survey your lot. You have to pay a surveying company to mark the corners.