Have you ever gone half/half with a fence with your neighbor (Reston: HOA, home)

[VRE332]

Have you ever gone half/half with a fence with your neighbor that you share a property line with? I'm just wondering how this would work.

Thanks

[Carlingtonian]

Yes, we did. Essentially, you have to rely on the neighbor to be classy enough to pay their share. We have one next-door neighbor who offered to do so the minute I brought up replacing the old (and nearly useless) backyard fence. The other neighbors on the other side are complete slobs (in many ways) and never once brought it up. I could've asked them to, but I knew they'd never agree. (They actually had more to benefit, because they have a dog--a dog notorious for getting out and befouling the neighborhood--whereas the other guy has no dog.)

VA law does say somewhere that if both parties have animals that would be retained in an area by said fence, then they are both obligated to pay for it. But that was intended for livestock, rather than pets. So I doubt you could drag them into court to get them to chip in.

With the other neighbor, I basically did some quick math and ran a figure by him, which he agreed to. I figured one-eighth of the total would be fair. I figured there are three sides plus a gate (a major part of the cost), so the one side we shared with him probably accounted for a fourth of the total cost. Half of one-fourth is 1/8 of course.

[JfromReston]

Legal Considerations for Building a Line Fence in Virginia - Home - Virginia Cooperative Extension

[mlv311]

We did when we moved to our home here. We had gotten an estimate assuming we'd pay for it on our own since we had a dog and needed a fence. We let our neighbor know and he had gotten an estimate from another company because he was planning to get a dog. His estimate was lower. We just wrote him a check for half of the total amount.

[mdcrim]

We replaced an old, worn out fence, splitting it 50/50 with the neighbor. It behooved both of us because our dogs kept ending up in each others yards.

[ACWhite]

Like Carlingtonian, we have a less-than-classy neighbor too. He'd mentioned wanting to have a privacy fence when we first moved in, but about a year later, when we approached him about replacing the awful chain link fence with a tall cedar privacy fence, he said he wasn't interested in contributing toward it. So we went ahead on our own. We also pay for all the maintenance, which is not cheap, since we have it professionally sanded and refinished where needed every year to keep it looking nice and so that it will last longer. I hope you have better luck with your neighbors.

[Lucky★]

Originally Posted by JfromReston

Legal Considerations for Building a Line Fence in Virginia - Home - Virginia Cooperative Extension

That is excellent information. Also, if there is an HOA the HOA might hold both owners to be equally responsible for maintaining a property line fence. Could be an issue when it comes time to sell.

[chicagotodc]

I mentioned our desire to build a fence to our neighbor. He didn't offer to split it, I didn't ask. I figured it was the price I paid to have the "pretty" side face us. He's also a nice guy and I didn't really care that he didnt pitch in.

[khuntrevor]

my neighbor got stiffed on the other side for half of a 6 foot block wall. Cover yourself for sure, if you are the one cutting the check. Be very careful about the survey, too. I know somebody that ended up paying for a strip of someone's land (400' x 2') at 25 bucks psf. Wouldn't have been surprised to see crocs out there.

[finecognac]

Star-News - Google News Archive Search

You can always cite this article and ask him to pay his share. It's the law that neighbor has to pay half of the cost.