Friend moved into a semi detached house recently. The old brick wall dividing the two gardens has collapsed. (There is no reference at all to the wall on the Deeds of both houses.) It looks as if the whole wall needs replacing and he's been given a quote of £2K. Who is responsible for repairing the wall - at the moment the neighbour is refusing to get involved. Thanks.
Whose land is it on? As I understand it you don't have to have a fence/ wall etc dividing your land so whoever owns the land its on is responsible. But if its on his neighbours land and they don't want to do anything about it thats up to them. He could always put a fence up on his land.
Don't know if it's the same everywhere but our deeds said you were responsible for the left hand side as you look from the back or front door. Our next door neighbour wanted to build a new fence between us. He popped round and asked me for half the cost since we were both benefitting. I duly obliged and paid half. I decided to match up the fencing on the other side, which wasn't my responsibility, and the neighbour on the other side said, "Nice one" but wasn't going to contribute. All depends on how much you want it and what type of neighbour you have.
thanks. I think the wall was built directly on the dividing line so it's not wholly on either persons land. The Deeds are no help as they don't reference the wall. I would guess both are jointly responsible and the cost of repair should be divided between them but may be that isn't the case.
thanks. The Deeds are no help at all. The wall is a mess and dangerous. In these cases is there an obligation for both people to contribute to repairs?
In my experience, usually one boundary is the responsibility of one neighbour and the one on the other side is yours. Should be possible for a solicitor to work it out on the deeds even if there was no wall previously. We had the opposite issue. Our neighbour took down our fence and built a wall instead - on the boundary which was officially ours. Didn’t object at the time because it was more substantial - but we also didn’t know they had built up to the party line with foundations of their extension well onto our land.
The wall is slap on the dividing line and no reference in the Deeds to who is responsible for it. Logically ?? I think the owners of both properties should be jointly responsible but the elderly neighbour next door is having nothing to to do with it.
The only way you can find out is a land registry search. (Unless tour neighbours happen to know) Like has been mentioned above ours is the one on the left as we look out. Even if the solicitor can’t find from this particular boundary, they can probably work it out from neighbours’ properties.
when did you buy the house? also do you have neighbours joining onto the garden on the order side? also if you have the deeds you will be able to see whose responsible wether there is a wall on the deeds or not.
I could be wrong, but I've never known a boundary to legally be the responsibility of both parties before.
As earlier I was always told to the left as you look out of your back door. That has been the case every house I have lived too. Also, as someone else said, I have replaced to the right with consent of neighbours, but at my cost as it was my choice.
We have a covenant written into the deeds of our house which states that the boundary to our left as we look out is the joint responsibility of us and the neighbour on that side. Over the years, living in three different houses, I can never recall a neighbour either building a fence on their side or sharing the cost of building one. In our present house we had a fence built on the side our neighbour is supposed to be responsible for, at a cost of £1400. We had to ask their permission as well
There is no fixed rule about whether its LH or RH side denoting boundary responsibility. The property deeds will show a T marker on any boundary that is the owners responsibility to maintain. If it is your boundary to maintain the T marker will be placed along each relevant boundary and inside the curtilage of your property. You could also check on Gov.UK for further advice.
Thanks for replies. Been in touch with friend who moved in 6 months ago. Evidently there are two walls bang next to each other running the length of the garden. Neighbour's wall slightly lower than friends. What seems to have happened is neighbour's wall has collapsed on to friends wall and knocked it down. I would think the neighbour is responsible and should sort out repairs. Problem is she is very elderly and doesn't want to be bothered - don't know if she has insurance.
good point. Think the solution is to remove both walls - build a low retaining wall on the boundary and install some wooden fencing on top of the wall. Whilst my friend may meet neighbour 'half-way' problem may be neighbour isn't insured and hasn't the money to do anything?
It should be on the deeds (boundary that is irrespective of who built the wall.).. . Shown with T mark. It is on mine. And on my previous one. Highlighted. Not a small expense so may be why the neighbour doesn't want to get involved. If it is his and dangerous. Why not suggest sharing a fence and do away with the wall altogether. Much cheaper.
A T mark on a plan is not itself determinative of responsibility in the absence of a document which states what the T mark signifies. Nor can responsibility be inferred even if everyone else on the street has it on their deeds that they are responsible for the left (or right) wall. If the neighbour's wall was located entirely on their land and has collapsed into your friend's wall and knocked it down then the neighbour will likely be liable in nuisance for the damage caused.
To know for sure whose boundary it is, you need to apply to the land registry for the info. We had to do it when we wanted to replace our back garden back wall, which borders onto the side garden of a property in the neighboring street. They objected to what we wanted to do, even though it was very reasonable - no prison sized wall or anything. Just a normal panelled fence with decorative lower panels. They argued strongly that the boundary was shared. In the end, we had to get clarification from the land registry to prove it was ours. But we wanted to remain friendly as there is nothing worse than being at war with the neighbours. So we agreed that the decorated side of the lower panels would face out their side. Your friend needs to firstly clarify who own it via the land registry. But its quite likely they will have to cough to resolve it and try to negotiate with the neighbour to best please both parties. Even if it the neighbours, or it can be proved that the neighbour's wall collapsed your friends, getting them to pay for it if they don't want to will prove very difficult and be very costly if it ends up in court. Easier to just take the hit.
