Responsible boundary ??

Hello

Just a question really, we have had a family with a young staffie ( big boy) move into the house behind us so their garden backs on to ours. Unfortunately the only fence seperating us is the one we have put up which is about 5 years olf and is a single layer fence ( over 6 ft high)

Over the last few weeks, this dog has been up at the fence and him and Bruno have been barking and growling at each other and have had to go and shout at them both and bring Bruno in, the owners on the other side have come and leaded their dog ( they are in an upper villa so they have to put dog on lead to get into their garden)

Anyway, was out there today and bruno went up at the fence and the dog was out there came charging at the fence and they were trying to eat each other through the fence, I grabbed bruno and sent him away as I turned round to follow him, the neighbours dog launched itself at the fence and Bruno doiubled back went up to the fence and I have no idea how but rammed his head between the slats and broke the fence slat from its nail and was throught the fence !! I managed to grab his back legs and yank him back through so no damage done to either dog but very scary as had it happened as I was up top of the garden it could have been very nasty indeed as they are both big strong dogs and both male.

Now - my question, I repaired the fence and have since put up a reed fencing over the repair until we can get it sorted. Should the neighbour have a fence on their side too??

I am thinking of going over to them and asking them to put one up for the sake of both dogs as I feel if they couldnt actually get to each other through the fence then it would make life much easier.... But I assume they dont have a legal responsibiliy to do that and they might tell me to get lost? I am just not comfortable repairing the fence and having a similar thing occur - I want to be able to leave Bruno in the garden unsupervised whilst i potter about and not have to feel any reason to worry.

I could just double slat our side but if their dog can still get right up then it might start chewing on their side of our fence and i wouldnt know until it was too late??

Any suggestions?? I was just going to go round and suggest that they might think about a fence on their side but do you think thats dead cheeky?

As far as I am aware it depends on the deeds of your house and who is responsible for the fence. If it is your responsibility then they do not have to erect a fence although they do have a duty of care to keep their dog contained.

When we moved into our current property we found that two of our fences were 'party' fences so we are jointly responsible for the maintenance and repair. However they were only about 4ft tall at the back and not high enough to keep ours in (although there are hedges all the way round the garden). We have a miserable neighbour over the back so we simply erected another fence on our property, it meant we lost a bit of the garden but it is big enough lol We then did the same on the other side as they have a GSD and whilst our dogs and the GSD are friendly, I didn't want to find them in their garden! They can't go through or over the hedge (it is about 8ft tall) but the could go under near the roots). It worked well for us and I didn't mind sacrificing some space. If we ever sell it though we will have to make the new owners aware that they own some land behind the current fence.

We ended up going with trellis fencing so that the hedges could grow through

hiya thanks the fence is on our boundary line so its on our property - they effectively have no fence on their property as the only divider is ours... There are neighbours gardens that back onto the other side but its not a problem as they have a double slatted fence on their side so their dog and ours cannot see each other so although they often have a bark at each other they cant actually get to each other.

With the current situation, it will just take one of the dogs big heads or strong jaws to get the fence apart and be at each other which would be horrendous - I now cant let Bruno in the garden unless I patrol the fence line !! LOL

I think i will go round and ask them politely if they are thinking of putting a fence up and if they say no we will just have to double our fence up on our side and hope for the best !!

That's not a good situation to be in Definately ask them if they are going to put a fence up but if they don't then I would be the same as you (well we did lol) and erect a second fence on your property - in the eyes of the law you wouldn't need to as you have a fence, but for my peace of mind I woudl want to be sure that the other dog couldn't get to mine, it's just not worth the risk

I hope your talk with them goes well and that they agree to put up a fence.

me too thanks for your help

That's really annoying. I think, like you, I'd want to be completely sure and would have to do something. It might be expensive, but what about having the boundary walled up to about 3 feet then wooden? It'd save you losing a bit of garden I suppose.

Oh what a nightmare for you. Would putting that strong green chain link fencing against the wooden fence help ? Something with small grids in it anything to try to stop Bruno getting through from his side and to stop the other dog in its tracks if it did break the fence.

In all honesty it might be your fence but if I was the new neighbour I would be trying to find a way to stop my dog getting to your fence and damaging it and causing much worse if the dogs got too each other, suppose a pleasant word wouldn't go amiss.

also, you said they live in the upper villa, which implies there is a lower villa?

which implies a shared garden?

in which case, which house is responsible for the end of the garden?

I`d just buy a fence panel and nail to the existing one TBH. It doesn`t really matter whose fence it is because if it`s theirs they don`t actually need one. It`ll be better once the dogs can`t see each other.

What a nightmare Dani.

Fingers crossed they wll put a fence up on their side.