We put in an inground pool a few years ago. We had chainlink all around us. We DID contact all of our neighbors and asked them if they would mind if we paid to have their chainlink taken down that joins our property so we could put the privacy fence on the property line. 2 of the 3 said no. We explained that we were in no way asking for any help paying for any of it. We would incur all the expenses but they still said no. We ended up putting up the fence anyway but put it about 1 foot inside the property line. Now they have a chainlink fence in front of a privacy fence. Fast forward to last summer. One of the families have moved and a new family has moved in. This new family informed me (didn't ask) that they were going to tear down the ugly chain link fence and put fence pickets on the back of OUR privacy fence so that it 'looks finished'. (Remember, the privacy fence is about 1 foot inside the property line.) I told them that if they wanted to pay to have the privacy fence moved to the property line, I would not have a problem with them doing that. We would consider helping pay some for moving the fence. I explained that if they just put up boards and then fenced the front of their property to our fence then they were taking over about a foot of our property. They didn't like the idea of moving the fence. In this conversation, I explained that we were going to do that in the beginning, but the previous owners wouldn't agree. I explained to them also that since we paid for all the fence, it was ours. They are a young couple so I don't know if they understood who owned the fence until I explained it.

Dh says 'it's no big deal. Let them put up the boards.' I told him that if we ever sell our house, it WILL be a big deal since the property lines will be off. We are in a small neighborhood, so it's not like it's acres of land we're talking about.

What are your opinions? What would you do?

We're still friendly with them, but they have not moved the fence or put up the boards.

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This is confusing, and I"m trying to visualize it. Ok, you own the original chain link??? The one that the new neighbors now want to take down?? Why not just move your privacy fence back a foot, so it butts up to the chain link fence??? That is still your property right? Who mows that one foot area between the fences??

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

We did not/do not own the chainlink. When we built our home, 3 sides were already fenced in because there were already homes on both sides and behind us. We just fenced across the front with chainlink. When we put in the pool is when we decided to change and put up the privacy fence. We have a nosey neighbor who has told us, "It's amazing what you can see with binoculars!" He lives right behind us and is the MAIN reason we put the fence up.

The new neighbors own the chainlink. I have no problem with them taking it down. It's their fence. I do have a problem with them putting up the boards on the back of our fence and fencing in the front of their yard to tie in to our privacy fence.

As far as who mows, there is no way to get a mower or weedeater between the fences. We either hit it with round up or if the neighbor won't let us in their yard, the grass and weeds just grow. (referring to grouchy old neighbor behind us who didn't want us to build in 'his extra yard' anyway! It wasn't even his property originally!)

We have learned that the saying, "Good fences make good neighbors." is true in some instances!

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If you move the back fence you will increase the length of the side fences and the aging of the new fence will make your side fences look patched and awful.

Ok...well personally, I wouldn't want the new neighbors to add fence pickets to the back of my fence. It wouldn't look good(at least *I* don't think it would). If the new neighbors don't like it, they can put up their own fence. If they wanted to connect to mine, they would have have to pay to connect...at least that's how it's worked everywhere I have lived.

Personally, I would pay to move my fence back the foot it was originally at so that the property lines were *correct*. I would keep it within my property line so that if the new neighbors decide to *try* to attach pickets to my fence, they would be in violation of the law: my fence AND my property.

If you leave your fence where it is, your new neighbors pretty much get a bigger yard by 1 foot. If it's left that way for too long, that property (1 foot you moved your fence within the property line) *could* legally become theirs. We have a friend who went thru a similar issue with property by a boat ramp and the judge granted the neighbor the property near the boat ramp. I had no idea prior to that.

So, move your fence back but keep it within your property line and it should all be good. If new neighbors try to do anything to ruin or connect to your fence, it's something for the law

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

when you put up your privacy fence why did you go a foot from your property line? If its your property couldnt you of went closer to where you property line quit and put the fence up?

steph

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The OP put the privacy fence one foot from the property line and the existing chainlink fence because the owner of the chainlink didn't want a privacy fence. Now the owner of the chainlink has moved and there's new owners.
I would not let the new owners put up privacy pickets on the back side of the fence. I'm assuming you have the flat side turned toward your property as it looks better that way. With pickets on both sides there would be virtually no wind circulation.
However, I would offer to split the cost with the new neighbor to move the fence to the property line. I would put the fence on the property line. There is a way of putting up a privacy fence that looks nice from both sides, however, the posts would still be on the neighbors side.

I don't see why the new neighbors should front any of the costs of moving the privacy fence to the property line. If the move isn't made, the new neighbors have basically gained 1 foot of additional yard space. If the OP wants to move the fence to the property line to retain the property, OP should pay to move it. If the new neighbors want to add to and/or connect to the privacy fence then yes, they should pay to do so.

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

here in our city, the "ugly" side of the fence has to be facing into your yard. You aren't allowed to put the ugly side facing your neighbors.

It seems to me that if you don't allow them to make their side look nice by facing off the ugly part of your fence, then they can always put up their own fence, which in essence will stop your air circulation that you seem worried about, not to mention that that unmowed foot of land can be host to all sorts of vermin that you might not want in your yards and probably really ruins the view from their side. Not only do they have to look at the ugly side of your fence, they have to look at all your weeds. Some municipalities would not allow you to do what you have done. They insist that you leave enough space for access for maintaining the land. I think you should move your fence back to your property line and allow them to attach if they want to. That's what keeps neighborhoods happy places. Find something else to start a feud over.

I thought that was the case everywhere. You put up the fence, you get the ugly side.

Do not let them put pickets up on your fence. If you do, you are "allowing" them to take over 1 foot of your property. It could be hell to get it back. We had friend who lost ten feet in nearly the same circumstances. Get a bid on the job. Find out what the cost of moving the fence is vs backing the fence with pickets vs erecting a second fence. I do not have any idea what those costs would be. If they offer to pay for half of the cost of moving the fence, would you offer to turn the panels around?

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Lyn Clarke

1) I never said anything about being concerned about air circulation. That is not an issue. The issue is property lines being off.

2) We spray roundup between the fences on 2 sides of our yard. The neighbor behind us won't let us spray from his side and we don't want to lean over the fence to spray. We would end up killing parts of his grass if we did that.

3)The only vermin we have 'problems' with are the rabbits that run down the fenceline from the dogs. The hawks keep mice and rats to a minimum.

4)I NEVER said anything about 'feuding' over this. We are still very friendly with them and they with us. I believe it was a simple misunderstanding but I wanted to see if my thinking was wrong. I did not want issues to arise over property lines if we ever move. We are EXTREMELY considerate of ALL our neighbors. We even make sure that we take care of the man behind us if he needs anything (even though he is grouchy). To accuse me of starting a 'feud' is unfair ESPECIALLY if you don't know me!


We did offer to pay some to move the fence to the property line but they didn't seem to like that idea. If the fence is moved, I have NO problem with them putting up pickets on their side. That though would be their expense.

Everything we did with the fence was approved by the city. We had to get permits and the city had to inspect the job at the beginning, middle and end.

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I think you are being reasonable. Am I right in thinking that they have the "wrong" side of the fence? Is that why they want to put pickets on it?

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Lyn Clarke

[quote=2liltexans;3022879]1) I never said anything about being concerned about air circulation. That is not an issue. The issue is property lines being off.

2) We spray roundup between the fences on 2 sides of our yard. The neighbor behind us won't let us spray from his side and we don't want to lean over the fence to spray. We would end up killing parts of his grass if we did that.

3)The only vermin we have 'problems' with are the rabbits that run down the fenceline from the dogs. The hawks keep mice and rats to a minimum.

4)I NEVER said anything about 'feuding' over this. We are still very friendly with them and they with us. I believe it was a simple misunderstanding but I wanted to see if my thinking was wrong. I did not want issues to arise over property lines if we ever move. We are EXTREMELY considerate of ALL our neighbors. We even make sure that we take care of the man behind us if he needs anything (even though he is grouchy). To accuse me of starting a 'feud' is unfair ESPECIALLY if you don't know me!

1. Sorry about that. I must have read that in someone else's post and thought it was you.

2. Having to look at the wrong side of someone's privacy fence, (if this is indeed the case), set a foot from a not so nice looking chain link fence with dead weeds and grass in between is not my idea of charm. So I can see why they want something done.

3. The vermin are what will come when you have two privacy fences a foot apart. And depending on your climate, perhaps mold and mildew in places where the air does not circulate well.

4. I didn't mean to imply that you were feuding but that this is how they start. I just think that it always pays to go that extra step to keep peace.

I would move the fence myself and not involve them. Do you have the survey of the property? Double check the property lines and if you aren't sure, have someone come out and remark them--this will also give your neighbors a heads up about your property line if you don't want to have a verbal altercation with them. Or you could just show them the survey. We were told that if a new property owner moves in and they did not get the property surveyed (even if previous owner had a survey), and the other neighbor had one, that neighbor trumps the one without, until that neighbor pays for his/her property to be surveyed. A VP of a real estate office told us that, he is also a construction company owner (built our house). I have no way of knowing if that is 100% truth, etc., but he knew what he was doing and treated us right, so I tend to believe it. In the state I'm in, if the fence has been there 7 years or more, the property on the other side belongs to the neighbor anyway, so you may actually already be out of luck. If they are young and unwise to these sort of laws, you may luck out and get it moved, but I'd do it ASAP. Or, they may just be fair and nice and let you move it without incidence if it is past the alloted time, etc. Most people don't realize how crucial it is to get fencing issues/property line issues corrected quickly. There is also an issue with who is taking care of the property if you let it go and the neighbors are mowing it, etc. This is also over a period of time so I'm sure you are ok if they haven't taken the chain link fence down yet and it hasn't been years of course. You may have inadvertantly given that foot away when you placed the fence a foot inside the legal property line; check the laws in your state though.

We built an acre of privacy fencing here when we built 4 years ago, met with a few nasty neighbors, never did have one offer to help pay for theit backyards being fenced or help us do the work (we built it ourselves as my husband has this skill). We sorta took offense when it was happening (and we were shelling out thousands to fence), but now we see it was a blessing in disquise. WE own the fences and have the say. Also, we put the 'ugly' side (as everyone calls it--but we actually like how it looks as it seems more country and rustic, etc., as we have a few acres) on the inside of our property for this reason: When we lived in our 1st house, we made the mistake of putting the 'ugly' side into our neighbors' yards. Well, we constantly had their hoodlem kids climbing up on the fence looking into our yard or throwing things into our yard. Boy, did we learn our lesson. I'd gladly look at the 'ugly side' any old day rather than a bunch of kids (or worse adults--yep it happens too--aren't neighbors lovely) up on the fences looking into our yard/watching us. I'd just go ahead and move the fence back as soon as you can. If you don't want to do that and you decide that you don't mind losing that foot, you could deed that strip to your neighbors for a price--but I don't think that is the route you want to go. They do not have the right to add anything to your fence (legally they aren't even supposed to 'attach' to your fence without your permission--but most people do) without your permission. Sounds like they are just looking for a cheap way out. I wouldn't split the cost as then you are going to lose control of your fenceline, and like I stated earlier, not all neighbors are tidy, clean, nice, etc. Think about what could happen if THESE neighbors move--who might you get next time? I would just move the fence and chalk it up to keeping the peace and your good luck. Have the neighbors thought about just putting in some evergreens to 'fill' that foot after the chain link is gone? That would fix the problem and give them privacy.

Ok, I am quite confused by the whole fence issue, but, I'll weigh in again. All around the perimeter of your privacy fence is a one foot gap....this goes around your entire property??? Kind of like this.... U , that is the chain link, and this, u , is inside of that and is the privacy fence. Now, the people on the bottom of the U want to take down the bottom of the U and basically move it to the bottom of the small u ??? Do I have that correct??? If so, I don't understand why you didn't just put your privacy fence an inch or less from everyone's chain link??? That is still on your property, right???

Also, you said your neighbors behind you want to put up a fence of sorts on the back of yours??? Won't they need a permit for that??? I don't see how that would get approved since they want to technically put the pickets up on your property.

If I were you, I would move the fence to be an inch from the chain link fence(s).

Hmmmmm, all this makes me wonder aoubt "my" fence.....it was here when we moved in, and all sides are shared with our neighbors. So, who's fence is it then????

and, to the poster who said "aren't neighborhoods great???" well, no, I'd prefer to be out in the middle of the woods, actually ....LOL.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

The reason the fence is not closer to the property line is that the company that built the privacy fence put it as close as they could to the chainlink and still have room to install our privacy fence.

All sides of the chain link are still up. I hope the young couple has given up the idea of the fence. They were new home owners and have now realized how expensive it is to own a home. I'm hoping this is WAY down on their priority list.

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll do research to find out if we have goofed up by not putting the fence on the line.

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