Property

How can we get our neighbours to maintain their side of our shared fence?

Property Clinic: Chartered surveyor Sarah Sherlock offers her expert advice

Photograph: iStock

Wed Apr 29 2020 - 06:00

We share a boundary fence with a neighbouring vacant site and the fence requires annual maintenance to protect the wood from rot. We have kept this up on our side but the same has not been done by the owners of the site. Is there anything we can do to compel the owners to maintain their side of the fence?

It appears you have established that the fence is certainly a shared fence and not owned exclusively by one (you) or other party (your neighbour) individually. If you are not sure you should engage the services of a geomatics surveyor to conduct a ground truth survey (GTS). A GTS is a precise and accurate survey of the plot of ground and relevant features, which will then be examined in greater detail to establish how it corresponds with your title deed(s) – the map(s) and property description.

The next step might be to try to contact and engage with your neighbour to see why exactly they are not maintaining the fence. As a first step, it may be that a simple conversation will alleviate the issues that you describe. If your neighbours are not regularly present at the property, their neglect may be a simple matter of oversight – they may be entirely unaware of the distress and concerns their lack of care is causing you.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland operates a dispute resolution service and can assist you in finding a suitable professional to help you if needed.

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If, on the other hand, they are aware of the problem and are simply averse to the notion of any fence maintenance then you will have to consider other measures. Depending on how strongly you feel about it you may be left with little option but to go to court to have the matter resolved.

Court-mandated “works orders” are a method of addressing disputes arising from neighbourly conflict that cannot be resolved amicably. They are covered under Sections 43-47 in the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act, 2009. Works orders may be applied for in the District Court by either the building owner intending to carry out works to a party structure or the adjoining owner requiring the damage caused by such works to be made good where the building owner who carried out the works failed to do so. You should speak to your solicitor as the District Court has wide discretion when deciding on the works order and indeed it may make further orders as it sees fit at the time of it making the order.

It is advisable that you have your survey information compiled in advance to assist your solicitor and/or the court.

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