We are all accustomed to seeing fences around fields and around the gardens of individual houses. So, it may come as a surprise to learn that there is no general obligation in law to fence the boundaries of one’s land.

There are a number of circumstances where the law requires that fences are erected. These are usually related to safety and include:

• alongside railways: Railways Consolidation Act 1845;
• around disused mines: Mines and Quarries Act 1954;
• around building sites adjacent to highways, both road and path: Highways Act 1980;
• to prevent livestock from straying from their fields: Animals Act 1971.

A conveyance deed or a transfer deed may include a covenant requiring the purchaser to fence the land and for him or his successors in title to forever maintain the fence.

A wise householder will fence his land either for the protection of his own children or to prevent his pet animals from straying.

If the question you are asking is: How can I make my neighbour repair or replace his fence? then my answer is that you most likely cannot force him to spend money on his fence if doesn’t want to. It is, after all, his fence and if he wants to let it rot away then that is his choice.

Don’t forget that there is no general obligation in law that requires him to fence his boundaries, so you cannot depend on the forces of law to make him change his mind.

There is no point instructing a boundary demarcation and disputes expert to write a report with which you are hoping to remind your neighbour that he should repair the fence: if he doesn’t want to spend money on his fence then he will not listen to your expert. So you would be wasting your money, quite possibly as much or more money than it would cost to pay for a new fence.

So, what can you do?

You could do nothing and just watch the fence rot away.

You could leave the old fence exactly where it is and erect your own fence right alongside of your neighbour’s fence. So there are now two fences, one on your land and one on your neighbour’s land. The boundary, being a line of no thickness, would then run between the two fences even if those fences are touching each other.

The height of fences is a matter of planning policy. To find out what is allowed in your area contact the local authority planning office. As a general rule, fences in rear gardens are allowed to be up to 2 metres high.

There is no general rule about whether you own the fence on the left or the fence on the right of your property. The truth of the matter is this: it is the vendor who breaks up the land into smaller parcels before selling each parcel individually who assigns responsibility for the boundaries of the new land parcels that he creates. If he remembers to do so, then he will identify in the conveyance deed (or the transfer deed) the boundaries for which the purchaser is responsible.

There is no law that says the smooth side of the fence should face the neighbour. 

If your neighbour pays for a fence that he erects on his own land (even if he builds the fence so that the outer face of it, as seen from his land, runs along the boundary) then he is entitled to choose the style and colour of the fence, as well as whether he places the smooth side of the fence to face in towards his own house or out to face your house.

Only if your neighbour gives you permission to do so. 

Leaning things against your neighbour’s fence, hanging things on your neighbour’s fence, even using your neighbour’s fence as a makeshift retaining wall, will place a much heavier burden on the fence panels and supporting posts than they were designed to bear. The consequences of such actions are easy enough to predict and you will be liable for the cost of any repairs. On top of that you will still have to do, and pay for, the work that you did incorrectly, and which resulted in the damage to your neighbour’s fence. 

In short, anything you do to your neighbour’s fence without your neighbour’s permission 
- including staining, painting or applying preservative to your side of your neighbour’s fence – 
amounts to criminal damage.

Unless your neighbour agrees, you cannot:

• paint, stain or varnish your neighbour’s fence to make it a more attractive colour;
• affix close boards or panels to your face of the fence in order to conceal the support rails;
• attach trellis or some other system to support plants that you wish to grow up your side of your neighbour’s fence.

What you can do is:

• plant free standing shrubs or a hedge to conceal the fence from your view;
• erect your own fence alongside your neighbour’s fence.

If your neighbour’s fence is within the height limits set by your local authority, when measured from the ground on which it stands (not from the level of the ground on your side of the fence) then there is nothing that you can do about it. 

If your neighbour was to reduce the height of his fence, from say 1.8 metres to 0.9 metres, then you would find there was an issue of privacy within your land as your neighbour would easily see over the top of such a low fence.