Our neighbors, whom we have a good relationship with, emailed about a month ago to say that they were having some other work done in their yard, and decided to add to the height of the fence between our houses. And that while the fence guy was looking at it, he noticed that some of the fence posts were getting rotten, and would need to be replaced.
This is a reasonable addition. Without it, we can see into each others’ kitchen windows. The houses are only about 10 feet apart. It doesn’t bother me at all, but I can see how it might bother people.
I said that was fine, and asked if this was the kind of thing we should split the cost of in some way. They didn’t respond.
The fence addition and replacement posts have since gone up, and it looks fine, and feels solid.
Yesterday, I was talking with them in the back yard over the fence (they were giving me some avocados from their tree, I was unsuccessfully trying to give them some lemons from ours), and they mentioned that they had the invoice, and that we could pay whatever we want, no hurry.
We can afford to pay half without hardship. On the other hand, that’s not necessarily how we would have chosen to spend that money right now, and we didn’t actually have a say in it.
Half the cost of replacing the rotten posts. That was going to become necessary sooner or later.
Maybe a little more if that would be a very small fraction of the total invoice. If that’s the case, you could consider paying the entire cost of replacing the rotting posts. That way you’re paying for the necessary work and the neighbor is paying for the elective work.
I would go half on the whole thing. The rotten posts are a no-brainer. The additional part fixes something that may not bother me but can bother others; so fixing it/correcting it could help the value of my place somewhere down the road if its getting sold. And if the money is no hardship it just seems good for future relations with the neighbor. And possibly future ones as well.
I’d just pay half and be amused someone got to it before I did. Consider it payment for whatever your share of the structure is, plus a service fee for someone else managing and fronting the money for the job.
A few years ago, I replaced the fence in our backyard. It was a wooden fence, well over 30 years old and was falling down. One evening, a severe thunderstorm came through and blew down sections of it. My wife and I were thinking of getting a dog and, besides, it just looked crappy.
I bought the materials and paid a couple of kids $100 a day each to sink new posts and put up the new fence sections (two or three days, this was about ten years ago). As kids will do, they also did a pretty shitty job. I ended up having to re-nail all of the rails and remove and re-nail some of the boards since the ground had a slope to it and the fence was jagged at the top. It took me a couple of weeks, working after coming home from work and doing a little each day. It wasn’t the best fence in the world, but at least it no longer looked crappy. All in all, it cost me about $800 out-of-pocket. I didn’t figure the cost of my time because I figured I did what I did more because of what I wanted to do than what I had to do; I could have just left is as the kids finished it.
Because of the way the lots were drawn up, there were actually two neighbors behind us, with one at about 80%, the other about 20%. It never occurred to me to ask the neighbors to pitch in (and nobody offered).
I might try to give my neighbor a little bit of a hard time by saying, “Oh, I remember saying that I would chip in something, but I never heard back. How much were you expecting me to pay?”
But for a neighbor I liked, and provided it wasn’t an outrageous bill, I’d probably be ready to pay half… though that’s probably kind of a dick move on their part to expect half. For a neighbor I disliked, I had an experience a while back of telling them that I would not share any part of a bill for a frivolous repair.
(They found a little bit of water in their garage below ground level, and assumed because we shared a wall that I cared about whether their below-ground garage was in such pristine condition that they wished to walk about it in socks, no shoes. Yeah, forget that.)
My impression is that they don’t really expect anything. If they expected me to pay a certain amount, I think they would have been clear about it. They decided to do it on their own, and maybe only bothered to give me the invoice because I asked if it was something I should pay part of. Me and my big mouth, maybe. But it seemed like the neighborly thing to do.
I have always assumed that neighbors split the cost of fences at the property line, but I have no idea. I’ve never owned a house before.
Are you me? This is basically what I did in 2011, except I knew better than to trust any of the kids with the work. I didn’t want the neighbors’ money in part because it would have been a fraction of the $500 the thing cost me and I’d just blow the loose cash on beer; and also because if someone pays, then they get a say in what they do and don’t like about the construction, what they want different, etc. Bah to them, I say. Do the work, eat the bill, retain some power & pride-of-ownership high ground. If anyone complains, well, they’re the ones that “won” the waiting game on the dilapidated fence so they can just adjust their attitude.
Seems like a weird way for your neighbor to handle it, as he/she has repeatedly failed to request/propose a specific contribution. I’m also not sure exactly what you agreed to share the costs on - the posts, or the extension, or both?
Since your neighbor had the work done, I assume it is his/her fence? I am entirely unfamiliar with communal/jointly owned fences.
What I suggest depends on your finances, your relations with your neighbor, and the cost involved. If this is a relatively minor expenditure for you, AND the changes improve the overall quality and your enjoyment of your property, AND if any $ figure is not worth straining neighborly relations, then just offer 1/2 of the bill.
BUT, if this is your neighbor’s fence, and if THEY wanted the addition, I’d probably let them pay for any changes. At most, I’d pay 1/2 the cost of replacing the posts. But if it is THEIR fence, they are responsible for upkeep.
Really lousy for you to ask a question as to whether it should be split in any way, you receive no response, and then neighbor just says pay what you want. Would be hard to style things in a way more likely to create confusion.
Likely poor analogy - I know my neighbor might prefer looking at my house if it had a nice new coat of paint, but just because I’m too lazy/cheap to paint my house oughtn’t obligate my neighbors to pay 1/2 the cost.
Every home I’ve owned (in regions where we grow neither alligator pears nor lemons ;)), fences are owned by one property owner or the other. All kinds of restrictions - posts should be slightly inside your property, “finished” side should be facing out, etc. Generally covered by local ordinance.
Oh, I see. Just for reference’s sake, my neighbor had a new fence put in a few years ago on his side of the property line. I was told that construction was starting on such-and-such date. The major reason was that part of the fence was damaged.
I wasn’t asked, nor did I offer, to share in the cost. Similarly, later I had a fence put in around other parts of my yard that would abut the neighbor’s fence. I just let him know that it was happening, just in case there were any objection to the style of the fences that would connect in a certain way. None heard, I paid for the whole thing.
The reason I say I might pay for half if I were in your shoes is that you sort of seemed to be on the same page in agreeing to the fence and the upgrades, and that you did offer to share the cost (but they should have either told you no or talked to you about it after you offered). The whole thing just seemed to start off on a different foot than the fence construction I dealt with a while ago.
We just got a new dog and am planning to have fence work done in the spring. Sections of the fence will bump up on two neighbors. One has agreed to go halfsies on the portion between our houses. (Actually generous on my part as some of the destruction of the old fence comes from his wife hitting it with her car…repeatedly.) Haven’t talked to the other yet. Anyway, I’m guessing that the builder would break it out for you as to how much of the costs was from what. Then decide what to pay from there.
I wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize the avocado harvest. As they said, “pay what you want”. Maybe invite them over for dinner. So they can see it from your side.
If the avocados stop coming, you didn’t pay enough.
I realized that I thought that because, as a kid, I remember my mom wrangling with the neighbors on 3 sides to repair/replace fences that were falling over.
And I did some searching, and found that in California (where I, the neighbors, and the fence are located), neighbors are supposed to split the cost of fences between them 50/50. There are some corner cases, but none of them really apply. So, that pretty much answers what I should do. I was leaning toward paying half before I found that out, anyway, but now it’s pretty clear.
This is basically what I did in 2011, except I knew better than to trust any of the kids with the work. I didn’t want the neighbors’ money in part because it would have been a fraction of the $500 the thing cost me and I’d just blow the loose cash on beer; and also because if someone pays, then they get a say in what they do and don’t like about the construction, what they want different, etc. Bah to them, I say. Do the work, eat the bill, retain some power & pride-of-ownership high ground. If anyone complains, well, they’re the ones that “won” the waiting game on the dilapidated fence so they can just adjust their attitude.