Who is responsible for fences between buildings

purpleaccount

Hi ,

I own a town house and my property neighbours 3 properties. Have fences separating all 3 properties. 2 of the fences are badly in need of a repair. They won't last another winter.

1 of the neighbours is refusing to pay , saying she doesn't have the money. is there anything I can do in this situation?

Thanks

TheBoyConor

You can't make her pay if she doesn't want to pay and you can't get blood from a stone if she simply can't pay.

If you push too hard you may find that she will fall out an refuse because of x, y, z being wrong with the new fence or damaged her plants or whatever. I think you have to pick your battles and in this instance making a neighbour into an enemy over a few hundred euros worth of fencing would be a bad idea because she might hold a grudge and object to any planning applications you might submit, or try to put off potential buyers in the future.

She mightn't care about the fence as much as you do. I'd say just let it go.

iamtony

My old fence was falling down. I wanted to put up a wall and the neighbour couldn't afford it so I just paid myself, no big deal and we're all still friends. On the plus side I was able to have the nice flat side on my side and their side had the pillars that stick out.

Moral of the story is life doesn't have to be that complicated.

Calahonda52

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/27/enacted/en/print#part8-chap3

If she can but wont, just wants to free load

TheBoyConor

All well and good in theory CH, but unless it is a very long fence that costs a substantial amount of money a person would be mad to take a neighbour to court over what I assume is a dividing fence between semi-d or terraced houses.

1. the costs of the case would probably exceed the value of her share of the fence many times over
2. gain a reputation in the neighbourhood as the sort that will take you to court at the drop of a hat
3. all well and good getting a judgement for the money, but not much good if she genuinely doesn't have it to give or refuses to.

s7ryf3925pivug

Sometimes the title map has an arrow on the boundary pointing to the property it is considered a part of, and therefore who is responsible for maintaining it. Our title map doesn't have this though, so I could be wrong.