Neighbors and fence (San Antonio, Austin, Anton: cul-de-sac, house, purchase)

[sainthero]

I have a fence that is falling down and is in need of repair. I live in a cul-de-sac and have five neighbors sharing my back fence. I have reached out to them to tell them that I'm repairing the fence.

Should I ask them to help pay for half since it resides on their property as well? Two of them have a smaller portion of the fence than the others, should I try ask them to pay their portion only?

I have a feeling that they all will not be on board and maybe one or two will be able to pay.

By the way, anyone have any good references for fence guys? Thanks for advice.

[ScoPro]

Yes, you can ask each one to chip in....the worse that can happen is if they just say "no".

Are you doing the work yourself?

We shared a deteriorating back fence with two neighbors (20' with one, 40' with the other), one of whom had suggested we go in together & rebuild it. I agreed & told them to go ahead & get some estimates. After 6 months of not hearing back, I went ahead & hired my son to build an entirely new fence across the back of our 60' lot at my expense. Did it my way, and we have the "nice" side facing us.

I'll probably wind up doing the same with both side fences, as those folks don't seem to care much about repairing or rebuilding them. Expensive for sure, but as noted, it's done the way we like it....and we own it all since it's located entirely on our property.

Since our house was the last one to be built there, those 4 other fences slapped up by the contractors were all poorly built, one of them especially so. Our new fencing is done correctly with better materials, and so will the remaining sides, not to mention being all uniform in appearance.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

I've been wondering how it's decided who puts the fence up or owns it too. How is it decided where to put the fence? Is the fence generally located right on the property line?

[loves2read]

the house we have owned for 20+ yrs has had 3 fences--corner house with small creek behind our back fence--so we have only one common property line
the first we put in ourselves because there was no owner of the property next to ours--our builder did nothing

the second time we had to redo the fence--we split the cost with our neighbors sharing a side--for that lenght
the third time--we did two sides back and street side and left the common side alone==it was in better shape

now those neighbors have asked us to go in with replacing that length of fence as they are getting their sides redone--
we dont' live in house now--our son rents from us--but we said sure--
so the fence has been replaced (using our metal poles on our common side) and they are waiting to stain it--
I would have preferred using someone who would stain the boards before because it gives better coverage (like the last time we had fence redone) but we did not get input on who they chose

[mimimomx3]

Even if you pay for the whole thing yourself, you better get permission from everyone involved- a simple email will do. We replaced a fence, at our expense, on our property line, and a neighbor got very huffy because we had torn down "their" fence (which it wasn't)....even though it was rotting and falling down!
No good deed goes unpunished.

As for referrals, I go with Viking. More expensive, but reliable and solid.

[CptnRn]

You should verify if the fence is on your property or not. If it is not, you have no obligation to replace it, nor any rights to tear the old one down and build a new one. You could always build a new on on your property if that is the case.

When I have taken fence bids in the past, Viking was far more expensive then anyone else.

Viking $4,180
Allied Fence Company $3,633

Allied Fence Company
512-255-5416 Office
Allied Fence Contractors Austin San Antonio Texas

Allied did a really good job on mine.

You do not need a building permit to build a fence no more then 6' high in Austin. Higher then that does require a permit and permission from your neighbors.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

You should verify if the fence is on your property or not. If it is not, you have no obligation to replace it, nor any rights to tear the old one down and build a new one. You could always build a new on on your property if that is the case.

When I have taken fence bids in the past, Viking was far more expensive then anyone else.

Viking $4,180
Allied Fence Company $3,633

Allied Fence Company
512-255-5416 Office
Allied Fence Contractors Austin San Antonio Texas

Allied did a really good job on mine.

You do not need a building permit to build a fence no more then 6' high in Austin. Higher then that does require a permit and permission from your neighbors.

Agreed that Viking is more expensive- I did say that. My neighbor was being a pain, he had no right to even have an opinion about my taking down the fence as it was on my property line. Apparently, he had put in some money with the former owner of my house to build the existing, dilapidated fence- hence "his fence". Whatever, he was a jerk.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

[quote=CptnRn

Viking $4,180
Allied Fence Company $3,633[/quote]



Holy Tamole!! We're going to put in some steel posts and wood panels and it's only on two sides of our lot. Hopefully get by much cheaper. The wooden posts that are in the ground are the problem...they rotted.

I also found out that we can get the stuff home by using our Home Depot card, (if you have a Home Depot card you get the deal with the truck). We don't live very far from the store so I think we can get back waaay before the 75 minutes. If you purchase at least $100 of material you get the first 75 minutes FREE of the delivery truck, (you drive). Sounds good to me. Plus our labor is free, (teens with too much testosterone).

[ScoPro]

Perhaps I should clarify:

When we built our fence, we did not tear down the old delapidated one that was already there. - and the new one is entirely on our property. The marker nails from the last survey are still on the old fence, so the neighbors had no legal say.

They don't care, and probably haven't even noticed my new one is up.

None of the neighbors are jerks, plus they rarely come outside anyway.

[RevMen]

Is there a rule of thumb per-foot cost for regular old wooden privacy fence?

We bought our house last year and the fences aren't in very good shape. I haven't even thought about how to cooperate with the neighbors on fixing or replacing them. Luckily both of my neighbors are very cool, so I'm not stressing.