Connecting privacy fences in a neighborhood (HOA, attorney, new home)

[RemoWilliams84]

My wife and I live in Ashtynn Manor and we are looking at building a privacy fence. All fences must be the same style according to the builders.

My question is what to do about the neighbors fences. 2 of my neighbors, one on the side and one behind the house, have fences that we will connect to. This is the way the neighbors on the other sides of them have done also.

Do I need to go to the neighbors and ask permission?

What do you do about property lines? The fence on one side was not built directly on the line and if you build fences back to back with a gap how do you maintain the grass?

Do you share cost of the section of fence you are sharing or does the first neighbor that put theirs up just have to eat it?

Thansk for any advice. I'm a new home owner and have never lived anywhere that this would be an issue.

[LCTMadison]

What you should do is go talk with both of your neighbors, and ask them if it would be ok to tie into their fencing. Offer to share the maintenance expenses with them.

You would need to leave enough space between the back fences to get a mower through there. Regardless if it is within the fence or not, it is still yours to maintain. You could put a small gate in the back...at our Florida home we had an "invisible" gate that no one but us knew was there...it just blended in with the regular fence. You only saw the hinges from inside our yard, so from the outside, it did not look like a gate was there. It was pretty cool how my husband did it.

When Hurricane Ivan hit our area, it blew all our fences down, among other damage. We shared a fence with our neighbor, and he agreed to purchase the materials if we would either do the labor or hire someone to do the labor. Pretty fair deal, and we always had a very friendly relationship with them.

[Pirat_cat]

I'm wondering what's the "usual" thing to do in this situation too. We figured we would go over to the neighbors and just have a chat about it, but I'm wondering what the outcome typically is. Especially in the case where the neighbor's fence doesn't come quite to the property line.

[LCTMadison]

We have done this three times, and we have never had anyone act ugly about it or be disagreeable. In fact, all were very happy that we were respectful enough to talk with them about it.

In one house we were the original fence, and our new neighbor came over to talk with us about tying into our fencing. We were fine with it, and it was nice they came over to ask. It just shows respect between neighbors.

[Dirt Grinder]

First of all, I think it's always best to contact the neighbors and come to an agreement.

For my neighborhood, I was told that you have to get permission to attach to a neighbor's fence unless you install your own terminating post. This way you are not, technically, attaching your fence to theirs.

As for maintenance, I was told you are responsible for painting the side of the neighbor's fence that you have enclosed within your yard.

Having said that, one of my neighbors asked if they could attach to my fence and the other installed their own terminating posts. I'll see how the fence painting situation works out down the road a few years.

[BobWallace]

We talked to the neighbors, but what we ended up doing was putting our own posts close to the neighbor's fence and then extending the fence (unattached) to close the gap.

[DvlsAdvc8]

Good question.

I'm in a similar predicament. Except my neighbor decided to put up his fence a couple feet inside his property line to avoid a "low spot" that runs the length of our shared property line.

If I tie into his fence, I guess I'm mowing some of his grass. I also wonder if either of us might have any issues when it comes time to sell.

[tammie2]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdvc8

If I tie into his fence, I guess I'm mowing some of his grass. I also wonder if either of us might have any issues when it comes time to sell.

In Texas we did. We had the neighbor from h*!!. After Hurricane Ike 2 of my neighbors and I paid half for a contractor. So I have paid 2 halfs @ $350 each(my cost-$700 total-split), the third side was done by a neighbor without consulting me- her way, against code, 2' too tall, she took a foot of my propery, and then she told me I owed her $2100-FOR HALF. She put it up where it appeared to all belong to her, she did this to all of her neighbors and we all had the same problem-we wondered if we were financing some of her home repairs. I agreed to pay her the same $350 I paid for my other sides when it came to code(had it been reasonably close we would have paid). She didn't want to change it so she told me she was taking me to court....OK, here is my attorney's number.

When my home was listed the city made her change the style of fence to bring it to code. Again she sent me a bill, stating that I owed the money since it was caused by my putting the house on the market, nope, sorry. Then when the surveyor(sp????) came out, he noticed the property line discrepancy and the city made her move the fence back to the property line(at her expense because of how it was put up to belong to her rather than party fence style. Again I received another bill....but the fence was now within code, so I sent her a check for $350 as promised, not the almost $4000 she wanted

So for the most part, the property line will matter. The neighbors are usually cordial and pay their share or work with their neighbors to make it all OK.

[Pddykat]

I moved next to the neighbor from H*ll. Whatever you do make sure you get it all agreements in writing from any neighbor you share a fence with as things could get ugly later. Make sure all fences are correctly placed, do this by obtaining a survey BEFORE you buy the house or at least before you put up a fence or tie into your neighbors fence. My neighbor became belligerent when my boyfriend and I ever so nicely informed him that his fence was 2.5 feet on my property. I had to threaten to take him to court or worse take out his fence if he chose not to move it. I even offered to pay to erect a new fence if he would just take the one down that was on my property. He ginned up a fake bill and sent it to me via email which exceeded the cost of a brand new fence. Needless to say, the HOA would not get involved in the property dispute and in the state of AL, you the homeowner, not the fence contractor are responsible for determining property lines. He moved the fence and it is still a few inches on my property and after all that now he wants me to pay him for 1/2 of the shared fence. The problem is that the privacy fence was moved and no longer in "new" condition. There is a law on the books in AL that states homeowners share the cost of a shared fence, but how do you determine the value and how do I make sure he is satisfied with whatever we agree upon. One has to keep in mind that this guy is unstable and dishonest as he tried everything in the book, (to include calling me names and harassing me) because he did not want to give me back my 2.5 feet of property and pay to have his encroaching fence moved. The fake bill he sent me was nearly twice what Jones fence charges for a fully installed fence, and now he has sent emails stating that I need to pay him, “what I owe him”, but there was never a dollar amount agreed to and I don't know how to establish that amount considering the existing condition of the fence. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[Elizabeth_G]

I would call Jones Fence and have them come measure it off and quote you the price...or better yet measure it and call them. Send them a photo of the fence style. They should be able to quote you over the phone. If you'd like to suggest to your neighbor he may want to move, I know a great Realtor. LOL. Hang in there