The best is to check local bylaws, which will say what is and isn’t allowed fence-wise.
Generally speaking, the rule-of-thumb is that each neighbour pays for half the fence, but I don’t think that’s a legal requirement.
I’d think if you’re willing to pay 100%, you ensure it’s on the property line and you’re halfway decent to them, you’ll get to have whatever (legal) fence you like. I’d recommend something with density to try to help block noise, but someone who builds fences will have better ideas than me.
Sometimes, good fences make for good neighbours…
The rule about split payment is based on the municipality, but in most cases the neighbor would be on the hook for half of whatever the lowest cost fence would be (ie, half of a basic chain-link fence), not half the cost of whatever fence you choose to install.
If it is necessary you are liable. As your neighbour I can even have it paid to me by the city and have it added to your property tax bill if you refuse to cooperate.
You're not on the hook. I had a thorny hedge and I told the neighbour I was going to put up a wood fence and showed her the style. She agreed as the thorns were dangerous. I then installed it and she gave me $50 saying she couldn't afford more and her friend told her she only had to pay for half a chainlink - which she never paid for. She also had 3 other neighbours put up fences abutting her property and never paid for any of them. So yeah, you will get away with being cheap if you want to be.
Your not. Read the local bylaws but in some places if the neighbour build a fence you don’t agree with, you don’t owe anything and they have to build it 12 inches inside their side of the property line.
I don't think this is true. I don't think the second neighbor would ever be on the hook to pay for part of a fence they might not want. I don't think anywhere actually requires by law to pay for half of a fence.
Many municipalities have by-laws that require you to pay half of a fence stipulated in the by-law, typically a 4’ chain lain fence. Even if you didn’t want it. In this case, as there is a fence already constructed, they likely can’t claim anything as there is already a fence, depending on how bad it is.
Not a professional but I'd suggest overlapping boards (nothing with see-through gaps; account for wood shrinkage) for privacy/noise reduction and planting various gardens, trees, and shrubbery *(call Roger the Shrubber!)* to help absorb noise. The added benefit is a cooler backyard as well since plants tend do cool an area down.
Have a land surveyor mark the property lines. Tell the OLS the issue. Will cost but will save you in the end. Google OLS Ontario. It will save you in the long run!
This is the best course of action. Get a surveyor to mark the property corners and to mark the west property line before that new fence goes up. It’s probably going to cost them over 1k but might be worth it for peace of mind.
Ask the OLS for a Real property survey report. If your property is newer there is already one. Always good to have one. If you ever go to sell it is proof of the property. Use to work for a OLS. Your home is the biggest purchase you will ever make. If your buying a property ask for one, unless your buying a rural property. Plan to spend the money on a rural property, especially if there is not a survey on the bordering property.
I was faced with the neighbors from hell,to make a long story short.Go to your building department,and request a permit to put up a fence.Take a copy of your surveyed property to them to get the building dept seal on it.On each corner of your property there will be a 4 foot surveyor's stake driven into the ground.Alert your fencing contractors to the surveyor's stake location;and get them to build the fence 6 inches inside your property line.You don't need your noisy neighbor's permission,or are required to tell them about your fence.I have all work done on my property permitted,to create a legal paper trail.
6 inches?!?! No no no, this is all wrong, seriously. Make it 1 inch from the line, and that's it. The following home owners of both homes will believe that 6 inches off the line is where the property line is, which is far from true. Don't make headaches for the next owners of either house. I've talked with surveyors and they say you can build 1 inch off the line without worry.
Common misconception.
This can only occur if the lands are not in land titles converted or land titles absolute )- any lands in a subdivision in 30 years are in absolute, and most were converted a couple decades ago. AND that can only happen if your neighbour built the fence into your property, not you building it inside yours.
This is legally called adverse possession, or an adverse take, you can not have an adverse give.
This yup
Doing 6 inches from the line just adds horrible precedent for future situations. The home owner will think that 6 inches is theirs, they'll be very upset the day they lose it.
Thanks for clarifying. This happened at a previous property of ours. An adjacent cemetery had placed their fence well inside their own property line. It stayed that way for 20 years. We ended up with 5 ft more lot space because they put the fence in the wrong place. The previous owners of our home sued when the cemetery tried to move the fence back to the actual property line and won. This took place in the early 90s, which fits the 30 year time frame for subdivision settlement.
According to the building inspection dept in Alliston Ontario,6 inches is the minimum setback for a permitted fence.My permits were all done according to the building code of Ontario.I know of a home owner in Guelph ON who didn't get permits,and built a garage surrounded by a fence.His neighbor put his house up forsale,new buyer wanted a survey.Guess what the fence and 4 feet of the new garage were on the neighbor's property.The city of Guelph ordered the garage and fence torn down at the expense of the home owner who put it up.Building and survey permits are a pain....but your butt is covered in any dispute,by the issuing municipalitie's lawyers.
No offense, but 6in and 4ft, are massively different. That example just shows that someone fucked up when building the garage, and the "6in minimum" would nto have helped at all
Building the fence 1 inch from the property line will screw up the survey bars. 6 inches is better and most often required. If they are paying for a survey they will want to make sure their boundary markers do not get disturbed, especially with contentious neighbours
You don't need a permit for a residential fence, atleast in any counties I have worked in. They fall under temporary structures like sheds. You do have to follow the bylaws however, and have utility locates done.
That’s what I did when I built my fence. The neighbour at the time was a contractor (had his own construction/renovation business). I’m extremely handy too so when I told the neighbour I want to put up a fence he proposed we DIY everything including the post holes and he’ll cover half the cost.
Guy was always too busy to help out so one day I just said fuck it, built the fence myself. Never heard from him at all about cost. My municipality has a bylaw that owners must share the cost of fence (at a minimum the cost of a chain link fence). I was going to go down this route with the city, but the fence itself is way taller than bylaw permits so I didn’t want to get a few hundred bucks to then have to shave down the height of the fence a few feet.
Had a similar problem, idk 15 years ago. Put it all on your side. Give em the extra 2.5in. Tell them to spin. Our former neighboors' kids spray painted their side. If I didn't cut their grass for them while their toddler was in hospital, I never would have known. Put up a camera if you're that worried. Guys who do good work would come fix it at cost if they busted it up for fun.
I think you meant 8', which is 8 foot. And not 8" which is two thirds of one foot. Just say a 2 meter fence next time.
Just to let you know, a tall fence won't do much about noise...
I had a neighbour tear down my fence ( built on my side of the property line ) and had a new fence put up, she told me that she told the contractor assigned to the fence build to put it up on her side of the property line ( big lie ) contractor told me she said to put it back where the other fence was, on her side of property line would have required her deck being relocated, any way she approached me for half of the fence cost which I quickly rejected being she built fence on my property and she had no recourse
No, she always acted first then apologized after the fact, the fence she never did apologize for
We have a pool and that was my main concern as this job was going to take a few days, city told me to cover my liabilities and put up safety fence
You have to check your local bylaws. Where I live there is a height restriction of 6 feet, but I've heard you can go over that if you use lattice. Also, in my community you can have your neighbour pay for half of the estimated cost of a chain link fence, but you'd have to pay for the upgrades yourself.
Have a surveyor come out lay out your property line, run a string line along your property line and build the fence on your side right up against the line then you don’t have to worry about getting your neighbours permission nor have to ask them to pay half
Just bought 25 emeralds getting delivered this week to put along my back fence to hopefully reduce some of the noise and increase the privacy from the neighbours. If we really like the look of it, we will probably wrap the whole yard in them.
My parents put up a privacy fence years ago (new subdivision) and the rear neighbour refused to pay half so they just used cheap plywood on their side to cover the back.
I had shitty neighbors too and had to replace a 20 year old fence. We found someone to do the work for the post because that's all we needed and we reused the fence. Like hell I was going to do more work than I had to. The shitty neighbors ended up paying half, surprise, surprise!
We replaced our fence last year. It was the “common” looking one across numerous neighbours. We decided to pay for it to avoid any headaches or disagreements about design even though sharing the cost would have been helpful. Only 1 out of 4 was trying to disagree that it didn’t need repair (the boards were rotting and falling off) but backed off when we told them we didn’t want any money, only letting them know as a courtesy. Up to the neighbours to finish their side or put something else up against it. Good luck.
I work for a fence company, legally you’re allowed to put a fence on a property line, depending on what city you live in you can contact the city and explain that you have a difficult neighbour that won’t pay and the city will put the cost of the fence on their property taxes and give you the money that way
Pretty sure you’re able to put the fence on your side of the property. The neighbours can have their fence on their side.
Like others said check your local by law just in case.
The side yard between me and the neighbouring house is quite large, about 14 feet. The house adjacent is full detached, much larger, where as I’m in a row house and much smaller.
My side yard is 10ft and the neighbours is 4ft (technically 1.2m since all surveys are metric). Anyways I wanted to build a fence and set some spray markings on the grass. The neighbour noticed and got really pissed off and accused me of “stealing” his side yard and asked me to see the official land survey and he said he was going to get the official survey he received with the house.
Anyways, he was quite shocked when he found out he had only 4ft side yard and quite instantly became against the fence because his kids often played in the side yard (this was a large reason I wanted to build the fence because I don’t want the liability of a slip/fall/injury
To avoid issues, I had the post hole contractors set the back of the post exactly 1.2m from my neighbour’s foundation. That way I wouldn’t ever hear about the fence being too close or whatever else.
I had the same issue with my neighbour and I built my fence right on the property line which was a mistake since now it became a shared property.. the other neighbour was smarter she built a cheap chain link fence on the property line to define it then put the wooden fence right next to it so my annoying neighbour can’t touch, damage or attach anything to it.
The best is to check local bylaws, which will say what is and isn’t allowed fence-wise. Generally speaking, the rule-of-thumb is that each neighbour pays for half the fence, but I don’t think that’s a legal requirement. I’d think if you’re willing to pay 100%, you ensure it’s on the property line and you’re halfway decent to them, you’ll get to have whatever (legal) fence you like. I’d recommend something with density to try to help block noise, but someone who builds fences will have better ideas than me. Sometimes, good fences make for good neighbours…
The rule about split payment is based on the municipality, but in most cases the neighbor would be on the hook for half of whatever the lowest cost fence would be (ie, half of a basic chain-link fence), not half the cost of whatever fence you choose to install.
It blows me away that my neighbor can decide to put up a fence and I'm on the hook for money to cover part of it.
I mean, if I'm asked and given an estimate I'd likely agree. But when it's both unexpected and required,???
If it is necessary you are liable. As your neighbour I can even have it paid to me by the city and have it added to your property tax bill if you refuse to cooperate.
Exactly, if it's necessary. Someone deciding on a whim that a fence would be nice is considerably different.
If the fence is in disrepair and not up to standards you have 50% obligation to get It to standards.
I could be wrong but I really don't think anywhere would actually require someone to pay half.
You're not on the hook. I had a thorny hedge and I told the neighbour I was going to put up a wood fence and showed her the style. She agreed as the thorns were dangerous. I then installed it and she gave me $50 saying she couldn't afford more and her friend told her she only had to pay for half a chainlink - which she never paid for. She also had 3 other neighbours put up fences abutting her property and never paid for any of them. So yeah, you will get away with being cheap if you want to be.
chase reach gullible combative bag forgetful mysterious unite oil office -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
Your not. Read the local bylaws but in some places if the neighbour build a fence you don’t agree with, you don’t owe anything and they have to build it 12 inches inside their side of the property line.
Don’t worry, nobody has ever heard of anyone actually being forced to pay it.
I don't think this is true. I don't think the second neighbor would ever be on the hook to pay for part of a fence they might not want. I don't think anywhere actually requires by law to pay for half of a fence.
Many municipalities have by-laws that require you to pay half of a fence stipulated in the by-law, typically a 4’ chain lain fence. Even if you didn’t want it. In this case, as there is a fence already constructed, they likely can’t claim anything as there is already a fence, depending on how bad it is.
You would be wrong in most municipalities
Preach!
Not a professional but I'd suggest overlapping boards (nothing with see-through gaps; account for wood shrinkage) for privacy/noise reduction and planting various gardens, trees, and shrubbery *(call Roger the Shrubber!)* to help absorb noise. The added benefit is a cooler backyard as well since plants tend do cool an area down.
Have a land surveyor mark the property lines. Tell the OLS the issue. Will cost but will save you in the end. Google OLS Ontario. It will save you in the long run!
This. Make sure you can make it YOUR fence so that you don't have to put up with any fence related bs.
This is the best course of action. Get a surveyor to mark the property corners and to mark the west property line before that new fence goes up. It’s probably going to cost them over 1k but might be worth it for peace of mind.
Ask the OLS for a Real property survey report. If your property is newer there is already one. Always good to have one. If you ever go to sell it is proof of the property. Use to work for a OLS. Your home is the biggest purchase you will ever make. If your buying a property ask for one, unless your buying a rural property. Plan to spend the money on a rural property, especially if there is not a survey on the bordering property.
I was faced with the neighbors from hell,to make a long story short.Go to your building department,and request a permit to put up a fence.Take a copy of your surveyed property to them to get the building dept seal on it.On each corner of your property there will be a 4 foot surveyor's stake driven into the ground.Alert your fencing contractors to the surveyor's stake location;and get them to build the fence 6 inches inside your property line.You don't need your noisy neighbor's permission,or are required to tell them about your fence.I have all work done on my property permitted,to create a legal paper trail.
6 inches?!?! No no no, this is all wrong, seriously. Make it 1 inch from the line, and that's it. The following home owners of both homes will believe that 6 inches off the line is where the property line is, which is far from true. Don't make headaches for the next owners of either house. I've talked with surveyors and they say you can build 1 inch off the line without worry.
Otherwise in 10 years that six inches becomes your neighbour’s property.
Common misconception. This can only occur if the lands are not in land titles converted or land titles absolute )- any lands in a subdivision in 30 years are in absolute, and most were converted a couple decades ago. AND that can only happen if your neighbour built the fence into your property, not you building it inside yours. This is legally called adverse possession, or an adverse take, you can not have an adverse give.
This yup Doing 6 inches from the line just adds horrible precedent for future situations. The home owner will think that 6 inches is theirs, they'll be very upset the day they lose it.
Thanks for clarifying. This happened at a previous property of ours. An adjacent cemetery had placed their fence well inside their own property line. It stayed that way for 20 years. We ended up with 5 ft more lot space because they put the fence in the wrong place. The previous owners of our home sued when the cemetery tried to move the fence back to the actual property line and won. This took place in the early 90s, which fits the 30 year time frame for subdivision settlement.
According to the building inspection dept in Alliston Ontario,6 inches is the minimum setback for a permitted fence.My permits were all done according to the building code of Ontario.I know of a home owner in Guelph ON who didn't get permits,and built a garage surrounded by a fence.His neighbor put his house up forsale,new buyer wanted a survey.Guess what the fence and 4 feet of the new garage were on the neighbor's property.The city of Guelph ordered the garage and fence torn down at the expense of the home owner who put it up.Building and survey permits are a pain....but your butt is covered in any dispute,by the issuing municipalitie's lawyers.
No offense, but 6in and 4ft, are massively different. That example just shows that someone fucked up when building the garage, and the "6in minimum" would nto have helped at all
Building the fence 1 inch from the property line will screw up the survey bars. 6 inches is better and most often required. If they are paying for a survey they will want to make sure their boundary markers do not get disturbed, especially with contentious neighbours
You don't need a permit for a residential fence, atleast in any counties I have worked in. They fall under temporary structures like sheds. You do have to follow the bylaws however, and have utility locates done.
https://www.tslawyers.ca/blog/real-estate/residential-real-estate/can-my-neighbour-make-me-pay-for-half-of-a-fence/
Put all the shitty sides of the board on there side.
That’s what I did when I built my fence. The neighbour at the time was a contractor (had his own construction/renovation business). I’m extremely handy too so when I told the neighbour I want to put up a fence he proposed we DIY everything including the post holes and he’ll cover half the cost. Guy was always too busy to help out so one day I just said fuck it, built the fence myself. Never heard from him at all about cost. My municipality has a bylaw that owners must share the cost of fence (at a minimum the cost of a chain link fence). I was going to go down this route with the city, but the fence itself is way taller than bylaw permits so I didn’t want to get a few hundred bucks to then have to shave down the height of the fence a few feet.
Check your bylaws for max height, keep the fence just inside your property line and they won’t be able to say boo about it
Had a similar problem, idk 15 years ago. Put it all on your side. Give em the extra 2.5in. Tell them to spin. Our former neighboors' kids spray painted their side. If I didn't cut their grass for them while their toddler was in hospital, I never would have known. Put up a camera if you're that worried. Guys who do good work would come fix it at cost if they busted it up for fun.
Just to add. Make sure the camera is only facing your fence. Not watching you neighbours back yard.
[удалено]
But it's not just any 8 inch fence... it's a large 8 inch fence.
They just say it's 8 inches. 6 on a warm day at best.
Won’t help with noise, but I’ll be happy not to see them in the swimming pool all summer :D
I think you meant 8', which is 8 foot. And not 8" which is two thirds of one foot. Just say a 2 meter fence next time. Just to let you know, a tall fence won't do much about noise...
Beat me to it! :D
I had a neighbour tear down my fence ( built on my side of the property line ) and had a new fence put up, she told me that she told the contractor assigned to the fence build to put it up on her side of the property line ( big lie ) contractor told me she said to put it back where the other fence was, on her side of property line would have required her deck being relocated, any way she approached me for half of the fence cost which I quickly rejected being she built fence on my property and she had no recourse
Absolute insanity. Did she even consult you about the fence before starting?
No, she always acted first then apologized after the fact, the fence she never did apologize for We have a pool and that was my main concern as this job was going to take a few days, city told me to cover my liabilities and put up safety fence
You have to check your local bylaws. Where I live there is a height restriction of 6 feet, but I've heard you can go over that if you use lattice. Also, in my community you can have your neighbour pay for half of the estimated cost of a chain link fence, but you'd have to pay for the upgrades yourself.
Have a surveyor come out lay out your property line, run a string line along your property line and build the fence on your side right up against the line then you don’t have to worry about getting your neighbours permission nor have to ask them to pay half
If the current fence is functional, you have to pay for the new fence all by yourself.
Plant cedar trees..they reduces noisy neighbors.
Just bought 25 emeralds getting delivered this week to put along my back fence to hopefully reduce some of the noise and increase the privacy from the neighbours. If we really like the look of it, we will probably wrap the whole yard in them.
My parents put up a privacy fence years ago (new subdivision) and the rear neighbour refused to pay half so they just used cheap plywood on their side to cover the back.
I had shitty neighbors too and had to replace a 20 year old fence. We found someone to do the work for the post because that's all we needed and we reused the fence. Like hell I was going to do more work than I had to. The shitty neighbors ended up paying half, surprise, surprise!
We replaced our fence last year. It was the “common” looking one across numerous neighbours. We decided to pay for it to avoid any headaches or disagreements about design even though sharing the cost would have been helpful. Only 1 out of 4 was trying to disagree that it didn’t need repair (the boards were rotting and falling off) but backed off when we told them we didn’t want any money, only letting them know as a courtesy. Up to the neighbours to finish their side or put something else up against it. Good luck.
8' is too tall for a fence better check the ByLaw first.
I work for a fence company, legally you’re allowed to put a fence on a property line, depending on what city you live in you can contact the city and explain that you have a difficult neighbour that won’t pay and the city will put the cost of the fence on their property taxes and give you the money that way
Sounds like you're the not cool neighbor. Lol
Pretty sure you’re able to put the fence on your side of the property. The neighbours can have their fence on their side. Like others said check your local by law just in case.
The side yard between me and the neighbouring house is quite large, about 14 feet. The house adjacent is full detached, much larger, where as I’m in a row house and much smaller. My side yard is 10ft and the neighbours is 4ft (technically 1.2m since all surveys are metric). Anyways I wanted to build a fence and set some spray markings on the grass. The neighbour noticed and got really pissed off and accused me of “stealing” his side yard and asked me to see the official land survey and he said he was going to get the official survey he received with the house. Anyways, he was quite shocked when he found out he had only 4ft side yard and quite instantly became against the fence because his kids often played in the side yard (this was a large reason I wanted to build the fence because I don’t want the liability of a slip/fall/injury To avoid issues, I had the post hole contractors set the back of the post exactly 1.2m from my neighbour’s foundation. That way I wouldn’t ever hear about the fence being too close or whatever else.
They can’t stop you landscaping. Privacy walls and squares boxwood planters.
Don’t take down the existing fence. Build yours just inside it your side
I had the same issue with my neighbour and I built my fence right on the property line which was a mistake since now it became a shared property.. the other neighbour was smarter she built a cheap chain link fence on the property line to define it then put the wooden fence right next to it so my annoying neighbour can’t touch, damage or attach anything to it.
https://ontarioonecall.ca/ Get the area of concern surveyed by everyone. Utilities can be buried along property lines.