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So, short story is that the fence at the rear of our property is in pretty bad shape and needs multipe repairs if not outright replaced. I do not know who originally built the fence. We live in Texas and from what I can tell from the survey I have, the fence is on the property line.
More details:
House behind us is a rental and owners live in California. I plan to contact the company that I think is managing it first...but if I am not remembering the right company, then I will mail the owners in California.
As far as the rear fence goes, it is a 6ft. privacy fence. The metal posts are on the other house's side of the fence and the "nice" side of the fence faces our house. That is part of what makes me think that the owners of that house built the fence first. But I don't know that for sure and the corners, or where our side fences hit the rear fence are weird. It is possible that they added on as other neighbors built fences.
The house behind us was built in 2003 and the owners are the only owners but it has been rented out since before 2009 at least. Our house was built in 2005 and we are the 2nd owners. We purchased in 2009. (I say "we", but my mother and father bought the place.) It is possible that my father knew who built the fence, but he passed away a few months ago, so I don't know what he knew.
Questions:
Best way to approach the owners about replacing this portion of the fence and sharing costs? Anyway to tell for sure who built the fence? Or if/when I hear from the owners of the other house do I just have to take their word for it? Anyone know if in Texas a fence built on the property line is considered shared? Worst case, if owners don't respond/can't be bothered, should we just build a new fence that butts right up to the old fence? Thanks for any advice. This isn't something I've had to be involved in before.
Give them a call or send them a note and say "The fence between us needs to be replaced, I'm willing to do the work, would you be willing to split the cost?" They may or may not. If they don't, then you could just do it your way, at your cost.
So, short story is that the fence at the rear of our property is in pretty bad shape and needs multipe repairs if not outright replaced. I do not know who originally built the fence. We live in Texas and from what I can tell from the survey I have, the fence is on the property line.
Get a better survey. If the houses were built that recently, the fence is most certainly fully on one side or the other.
...and say "The fence between us needs to be replaced, I'm willing to do the work, would you be willing to split the cost?"
"I'm willing to manage the project would you be willing to split the costs?"
Don't volunteer your personal labor at least not at the outset.
Quote:
They may or may not. If they don't, then you could just do it your way, at your cost.
Expect to have to eat every penny..
This sort of issue is one of the biggest risks of having neighborhood homes become rentals.
Few owners will care enough to volunteer money for this level of work which leads owners like you
to also look for ways to shave costs...
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is in pretty bad shape and needs multiple repairs if not outright replaced.
Repairs rarely require much in demo or disposal costs.
1. I did correctly remember the name of the property management company and spoke with their "maintenance co-ordinator" so we are opening discussions.
2. Our neighbors, who have lived here since that time believe that the 1st owners of our house were the ones to build the original fence. Based on the way the fence extends to the west of our lot, that is probably accurate. I think the owners of the rental home "added on" to the fence after it was built. The lot of the rental home is diagonal/wedge shaped on that side as they are near the end of a cul-de-sac, whereas our home in front of them is traditional shape with straight lines. So they built on to the fence on that side afterwards, after their neighbors to the west also built a fence. That is how it appears anyway.
3. We would prefer to outright re-build the fence. There are areas where the cross/support beams go from disintegrating to missing. Currently, when the wind blows (which it does a lot here), some pickets will just come loose from the fence and I can see the disintegrating/rotting cross beams they are nailed to behind them. Not to mention the entire panel that was damaged and partially patched after the "guests" put a dirt bike (small one) through the fence.
4. The width of our lot is 140 ft. So we are talking something like 17+ 8 ft sections.
Assuming you live in Ft Worth. Do not assume that the fence posts are in the same location as new and are still on the property line. You live in an area that has the Houston Black Clay soil. It moves around like the blob with our summer droughts and then the heavy rains. Fences will move. For an example, I have a wood fence around the back yard. The posts on the right side of my property have moved 14" at the front and 6" at the rear of the property and are no longer on the property line. For me, that's great as it's all on my property and belongs to me. Yeah, it's pretty much mine to take care of but nobody can touch it without my consent. They can't stack crap against it, place gardens at it that would use the fence as a wall, it's mine.
Your next step if the other owners decide not to chip in is to have the fence installer run a transit on it. He can locate the property pins for you and tell you where the fence sits. If it's on the other folks property, bit the bullet and put a new fence in front of the old. You won't see the old one and the new fence is now yours. If it is on your property, replace it with your money and take possession of it. It will eliminate issues later on when there's a question about who owns what and what someone can do with it.
I know it has been a while, but here is a short update. (We had a few things going on, so this got moved down the list.)
We did have a surveyor come out...the metal fence posts are directly on the property line. The actual pickets are technically on our side of the property line.
The owner authorized $650 for "repairs" to their management company but I'm trying to get answers from them exactly what parts of the fence they think that will fix.
In the meantime I have 3 quotes. The lowest quote, to replace the fence in the same style is $4000. To build it so it matches what we did with our side fences is $5400-5500.
We (my mother and I) are leaning towards eating the cost and rebuilding. We hate to eat the cost, but parts of that fence are in pretty bad shape. Sure, some sections are salvageable, but it is 11 yrs old as best as we can figure.
We are really happy with how they came out which is part of the reason we want to have the back match. They are due for treatment/re-staining though. With the heat and wind we get out here, it takes a toll.
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