Lucas_Dad

What to do when you can't afford formal legal advice? Ask the Barbie of course! I'll try to keep it in a nutshell.

Background: When neighbour installed the shared fence he made no effort to get in contact. Just turned up one day after we moved in with an invoice asking for half. I understand of course owed him nothing, but wanted to get off on the right neighbourly foot, so we agreed to pay our half ($750).

Because he did not involve us, our side of the fence was a mess. Lower ground than his, so I had to dig an amount away, which I then shored up with sleepers. Then I packed out behind the sleepers with dirt and left over decomposed granite. (I have photos). A landscaper complimented me on it, so I'm confident it is good and solid. For well over year, all was fine. The fence stood just fine.

Fast forward 18 months. Neighbour installed concrete sleepers in order to put his own deco granite down to extend the width of his drive. Obviously this involved a good amount of digging for him to set his posts, get the sleepers the right height, etc.

By coincidence (not) the fence started to lean. Two panels & posts. I had to 'band-aid' back to vertical it by putting wood braces between the house & the fence (only 1-1.5m). The lean was so great & strong that simple friction held the wood braces in place. Didn't need to fix them at all.

I've approached him several times. Each time "I'll get back to you" but never did. He initially said he'd get on to the original fencer. Really bizarrely he could not remember who did the work - but could remember the guy who didn't do the work. Odd that... never head back from him.

The last time we spoke (before xmas) I asked him to find someone independent. His comment enraged me inside. "Well it doesn't affect us so why should we pay to fix it?". What a selfish... you know what...

So now I find him unapproachable. Just the thought of speaking to him gets me stressed & knotted in the stomach.

What I can do is start to put things in writing, and begin some sort of formal proceedings. But, I don't know what proceedings. There's no neighbourly relationship, so nothing to lose there, but I'm not prepared to fix his mistakes. Cannot afford formal legal advice.

Sorry, bit of a long one. I tried to keep it as short as possible! Felt good to get it all off my chest, if nothing else.

Primarily I want the fence fixed. If I can get back my $750 in the process, that would be great too!

All and any advice, greatly appreciated. Cheers

Pulaski

Well you shouldn't have paid him the $750, but I think you know that.

The amount seems too small to stress over, so personally I would recommend righting it off to experience and moving on with your life. Even if there is a mechanism to get part of your money back I suspect that it will involve personal aggravation and throwing at least a little more good money after the bad.

Lucas_Dad

Moving on is fair comment. The snag with that is I still have a fence that leans, if not for the ugly braces against my house. "It's just not fair" is the thought I'm struggling to shake off.

Someone last year mentioned 'community justice' to me. Never thought to google it until now. http://www.cjc.justice.nsw.gov.au/

Still interested in more thoughts, if forthcoming.

Gordon Barlow

If the fence is leaning towards your house, and it follows the exact property boundary (at the foot), then I would have thought you had a right to do what you want with the portion that's on your side. Let it sag right over, and saw off the bit that's on your side. Let him agonise over that. Do you really need the fence?

geoff52

The fence issue is obviously playing on your mind, especially when you start talking about fairness. In my opinion if there was fairness in the world it wouldn’t be the way it is.
Don’t escalate the issue by getting third party involved. Just make sure the fence is not damaging your house in any way. Otherwise just ignore the fence and let it fall apart. You just happen to have a SOB for a neighbour end of story.

Lucas_Dad

One detail I forgot to mention. Completely taking on board the majority view to just move on with life.

However ... one of the fence panels that is leaning over is also stopping me from opening my side gate - the side gate that happens to be our preferred spot for keeping our bins. So of course for now we keep our bins at the other side of the house (giving us a lovely aroma in our bedroom window should we need to open them... mmmmm nice!)

When I pointed this out to Mr Neighbour, he just said "well add a fence post then" still obtusely ignoring that he is the cause of these problems.

GarryP

Burn the fence down.

Or for a slightly less drastic solution? Push an official channel that his development actions are pushing the fence over, then if nothing happens (usually doesn't they are useless) arrange for the work on your side to move away, and for the fence to collapse.

Then get him to pay for the entirety of fixing the fence, since you had warned him (with evidence) and he had done nothing.

spouse of scouse

What an ignorant pig your neighbor is. There's some good DIY legal advice on your options here http://www.lawaccess.nsw.gov.au/Page...es_fences.aspx

Lucas_Dad

Thanks all for everything so far. Really appreciate your time, advice and comments!

Swerv-o

This is exactly what I was thinking! If it's not all on your side, pull the whole thing out and then he can pay to replace it if the fence is important enough to him.

Make sure you photograph and document carefully before taking action though...


S

Lucas_Dad

Indeed! I have good pictures of 'before' that shows behind my sleepers it is full & packed with dirt, excess deco granite, etc. And at the time the fence was straight and upright. I am going to have to put careful thought into when I spoke to him. Obviously didn't think I'd have to consider taking action, so I've recorded nothing. I've a pretty good memory though.

What I didn't do was to take pictures when the fence was leant over, before I braced it against the house. BUT... we've had LOADS of rain over the last four days. More rain = very soggy ground.

So, two days ago I removed the braces against my house. Aaaand guess what... didn't take long for the fence to start leaning again That shouldn't be a smiley face really but it means I can now get some good pictures for evidence.

Why not put the braces back up? Well you see m'lud I only had those braces in place for the shade cloth that I had draped over it to keep the side of the garage cooler in the summer anyway, and that's not needed at the moment ...

I'm not against cutting the fence. It is on what I call the 'ugly' side of the house anyway - patio, garden, etc is the other side; but it is colorbond steel fence and it'll end up really sharp. If one of his kids decides to reach up and cut himself, I could get in the sh!t for that. Definitely a last resort.

Dorothy

If it were me (Mrs Passive-Aggressive) I would take down any panels that are leaning into my side of the property line. Just take them out and chuck them. You paid half for the fence, so you can do what you like with your half. If the neighbour doesn't like them being down he can replace them at his own cost. You've already paid for a new fence.

moneypenny20

For a relatively small amount of money I'd avoid any legal proceedings. If you come to sell the buyer can request paperwork on any disagreements with neighbours. It's not worth the hassle. Do what you want to the fence but keep records of what he's said, you've said just in case.

SoCalDon

It's a shame how this came about and heaven only knows how you will deal with it to keep yourself sane and happy. Good luck on that score. Outside our bedroom window is a fence at a jaunty angle because the neighbour built up his garden against the newly built fence and pushed it our way a bit. This was before we moved in so we are kind of stuck with it.

However, this does sound like a retaining wall issue and you probably ought to investigate with your local authority just whose responsibility it is. In Brissy, if the retaining wall is less than a metre high, the downhill neighbour is responsible. Over a metre then it is joint responsibility. The fence is shared responsibility. Check with the city - perhaps the bastard is responsible and you can dob him in. Good luck though, I do feel for you.

Lucas_Dad

I agree. If I were to go to the small claims court, total cost is about $200-$300, but he would become liable for all this plus fencing costs if I win. IF.

This is the route I think I am going to go down: http://www.cjc.justice.nsw.gov.au/
http://www.cjc.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pa...eighbours.aspx

It is free, and they claim this: "If you can't come to an agreement yourself, you can contact CJC to arrange a CJC mediation. CJC mediations regularly help resolve fencing disputes. We have a settlement rate of around 80%."

Before I do that, I'll let the fence keep coming over, and keep photographing. I'll also get a couple of fencers round to quote for repairs.

Thanks again, everyone. All opinions and views always gratefully received