Good Fences Make…Jerks Out of Us?
Last year we bought a house, new construction (like all the houses on the street — we’re all original owners). We’ve been slowly improving the property. We wanted to put in a fence, and neighbors on both sides said that they couldn’t afford to chip in. However, they both offered that, if they decided at some point down the road that they wanted to link to the fence, they would pay to do so. By the way, this is what you are supposed to do. If you want to link to someone else’s fence, you should offer to pay.
We built the fence entirely on our property so that there would be no dispute over whose fence it is. Good thing we did.
After less than a year, one of the neighbors moved out and less than two weeks ago we got new neighbors. Recently, we noticed fence posts set up. It was clear that the new folks expected to hook onto our fence. We waited for them to come over and do the right thing. They didn’t.
Last night, they started nailing boards to the bottom of the fence. So, even though they haven’t hooked on yet, it became necessary to have a conversation with the neighbors. It went something like this (awkward):
Us: “Um, that’s our fence you’re nailing boards to, and if you want to hook in to our fence, you should probably pay us.”
Neighbors: “But the fence was already here.”
Us: “On our property.” We gestured to the corner stake that obviously indicates that the fence is entirely on our property.
So we laid out how the former neighbors didn’t help pay for the fence, and how we put it entirely on our property, and how they planned to help offset the cost if they ever decided to hook in.
After glaring like we were some sort of jerks, they asked how much we wanted. We just said that we wanted half the cost of the materials on that one side. We didn’t even charge them for part of the labor we were charged for putting in the posts, or for the work we did putting in the panels. We showed them how much the materials cost for that one side, and then divided it in half. The total was $320 for them.
Neighbors: “Maybe we’ll put in our own posts and fence.”
Us: “That’s fine with us. But you’ll have to take the boards off our fence.”
The neighbors realized that putting up a new side of the fence would cost a lot more than $320. They wrote out a check. We gave them a receipt and told them they could do whatever they wanted to that side of the fence, and feel free to hook in.
What we should have done differently
When the neighbors moved in a week and a half ago, we probably should have gone over to introduce ourselves. Putting a little in the emotional bank account probably would have made the whole fence thing less awkward. And our first meeting with them probably would have gone better.
image credit: Miranda Marquit
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12 opinions for Good Fences Make…Jerks Out of Us?
brainy
Aug 15, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Wow. I hope this isn’t the start of a long and tumultuous relationship with the neighbors.
We’re not exactly in the same type of situation, but our newest neighbors have been known to give us the cold shoulder — which has lead to confrontations just like yours.
For us, it was cutting down limbs on trees that had their trunks on the other side of the property line. Awkward, for sure…
miranda
Aug 15, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I don’t think it will be tumultuous. I’m hoping that they’ll just continue ignoring us for the most part. They didn’t seem that interested in meeting us at first, and I think they just want to forget that we exist.
However, you should be okay. If the branches are hanging over your property, you should be able to cut them off.
Hope the tree situation turned out okay.
Kendra Schofiled
Aug 15, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Yeah, neighbors can really ruin a good thing can’t they? When we decided to put in a fence, we approached our nieghbors to help offset costs. However, they both wanted wood privacy fences. I didn’t want that type of maintenance, so we opted for the black steel re-inforced aluminum. They really didn’t want it until it was finished, and the both came over an thanked us for helping to beautify their yard–at our expense!
miranda
Aug 15, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Niiiiiiice…Did you build it entirely on your property? If so, make sure that you charge them if they try to hook on.
Lucky for us, the neighbors are doing vinyl privacy — just like us.
Sean
Aug 16, 2008 at 5:44 pm
IMHO $320 doesn’t seem like it’s worth it to start off on the bad foot with your neighbour, especially since you saw this coming and didn’t do anything, and you’re not actually out of pocket anything. Now that you’ve established that it’s “your fence”, I’m guessing he won’t be too sympathetic to you asking for money down the road if repairs are needed. I’m guessing you didn’t have a written agreement with your neighbours about this, and that they didn’t mention it to their realtors who could have taken care of it at sale time.
You might want to check if this has to be put on your title or survey. IANAL, but I remember this coming up when I bought my current house. If you sell your house it could cause problems for the next buyer because of the neighbours fence on your property, or for the neighbour if the new buyer doesn’t like the fence. (Trying to remember back 6 years when I bought my house, a survey wasn’t available so we chose the “we’ll hope it never comes up” option :)
Sean
miranda
Aug 16, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Happily, it doesn’t have to be put on the title survey, and we do have an agreement with the new neighbors (not with the old): They are responsible for that side of the fence. With the other neighbors on their other side, they apparently just put up another post for their front part, and aren’t planning on doing anything to that side of the fence.
We don’t expect to see much of the neighbors, since we did sort of wave at them when they first moved in and make small attempts at some sort of connection, but their response wasn’t encouraging, so we just decided not to go introduce ourselves. The fence posts appeared only a day before they started nailing wood to the fence. We were trying to give them some time to talk to us rather than just run over there.
We’ll see how things turn out. We don’t really say much to any of our neighbors, just waves in passing. But we do realize that we will have to make sure that we are crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s from here on out. Won’t be having any sorts of trees that overhang into their yard.
Mercedes Levy
Aug 17, 2008 at 9:27 am
I thought the same things as Sean, what will happen if you ever sell your home and the new owners are not happy about the fence situation. We had a similar situation. One of our neighbors had a fence but the one that didn’t didn’t want a fence put up. So he was very pouty when we put it up. We have dogs and small children and we don’t care what he thought because their safety is most important to us. We put the fence a foot in our property. Months later he finally conceded that it was actually nice because it gave THEM more privacy. They are out of the children face and they have big dogs, I think they are happy they don’t have to see our kids running around or into their yard and possibly getting in trouble with their dogs.
miranda
Aug 17, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Thanks for sharing, Mercedes! The good news is that most homes in the subdivision eventually get fences. Suburbia.
At any rate, our neighbors are quite happy to have a fence. They made it very clear that they want a fence. They just don’t want to pay for it. They expected everyone around them to put up fences, and then not have to pay for it. They just planned to pay for the bits in the front of their home to totally enclose the yard.
Eric Eggertson
Aug 18, 2008 at 5:20 pm
It’s certainly hard to maintain neighbourly relations unless people show a bit of friendliness, or interest in you.
When a contractor bought the house next door, split the lot and put up two houses, including a monster house that takes up the maximum space legally allowed, it didn’t fill us with goodwill. Especially when the contractor didn’t mow the lawn, clean up broken glass from the demolition, or put up a safety fence around the hole where the old basement was dug up.
The folks who bought the new houses weren’t to blame, but we still felt imposed upon for a while.
miranda
Aug 18, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Thanks for sharing, Eric. We feel the pain of development as well, since we are in a new subdivision. It’s just about filled up by now.
I hope you are feeling better about your neighbors now :)
Wisequeen
Aug 19, 2008 at 3:24 am
this brings back memories, bad ones. Us cleaning and paying for our private road that the municipality dont maintain. The road is the access for 8 families. only 5 pay the maintence fee and participate in the monthly clean. we are the only ones who don’t actually use the road that we border on, but pay nevertheless. Guess who uses the road the most and litters it up?
So Miranda build a higher hedge with thorn bushes behind the one you have :)
Miranda
Aug 19, 2008 at 7:44 am
Ug, Wisequeen! That’s not fun. Interesting the types of people we run to in the world. Good luck with your neighbors!
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