Many people asked me lots of questions about fences and boundaries so as a result there
are lots of frequently asked questions lots of myths and lots of confusion and that's
what I'm talking about today but first of all forget to hit the subscribe button because
if you got questions of your own I'm a barrister who helps you understand law so let's start
with the question as to whether or not there is a general obligation for you to fence in
your land garden or property that may surprise you to learn that there is no general obligation
for somebody to fence in their land although there are some circumstances where the law
does require certain areas of land to be fenced in these scenarios are usually to do with
safety such as railways which in a very old law is the railways consolidation act of 1845
disused mines for example under the mines and quarries act of 1954 underarm building
sites that are linked to the highway and this is under the highways act of 1980 but what
will be relevant to most of you is that in most currencies or transfer deed there is
a requirement on the purchaser and his successors to erect a fence around the land this then
leads into all sorts of questions as to who owns the fence who was responsible for the
fence which way round the Fed should go whether somebody can be forced to repair or replace
the fence and all these sorts of questions first of all it is a very old myth that you
own the fence on the left-hand side of your garden there was this might very well be the
case in lots of areas this is usually decided when the landing is originally split up by
the developer and they draw on the plans who was responsible for which boundary this is
usually indicated by a T mark or some other mark which is denoted on those plans to tell
the purchaser of that particular property or land which boundary they are responsible
for there is no rule to say that this should be the left or the right in fact some people
believe also that a corner plot is responsible for all three that is also not necessarily
the case you would need to look to the plans to see whether that is the case or not and
if there are no marks on the plans at all it may not be a straightforward question to
answer another old myth is that if your neighbour is responsible for a particular boundary that
they should put the good side of the fence or the smooth side of the fence facing you
this is another myth there is no general law that requires that the neighbour does exactly
that and if that neighbour is responsible for that particular boundary he or she can
choose the colour and the style and the height of the fence within the height limitations
which are compacted but there is no general obligation that the good side of the fence
as it were is to face you other questions surround whether or not you can hang things
on the fence if it belongs to your neighbour the general position is known because if that
fence belongs to your neighbour then you will need permission because ultimately you will
be causing at least some superficial damage to the fence by mailing to it to hang something
off it for it like a plant for example so you will need permission if you want to do
that so word of warning here if you do such things to what is ultimately your neighbours
property without permission you may well be causing criminal damage to that fence the
same principle applies if you wanted to even paint or stain the fence even if you don't
like the colour that it is you would still need permission from your neighbour if you
wanted to paint the fence but of course most neighbours are not going to object but that's
not to say every neighbour is going to be happy about you painting even though it's
facing your side and not less so then the command to the issue of heights of offence
and height above which you may need planning permission that remember planning rules can
differ slightly around the country so it is always best to check with your local council
or a specialist in your particular area and this generally applies across England and
may differ in Wales so with that said the general position is that you would ordinarily
not need planning permission to make a new fence takedown offence improve or repair offence
if the following things apply if it is next to a highway used by vehicles or a footpath
such a highway so long as the height of the fence from the ground level does not extend
above 1 m from ground level and if the fences anywhere else but it doesn't extend above
2 m from ground level if there is already offence in place which exceed those limits
and so long as your work is not going to increase the height of that fence then ordinarily you
will need planning permission for that I've just lost on the subject of planning permission
just a few headline warnings if that fence is on the site of a listed building or within
the curtilage of a listed building when you are going to need planning permission for
that equally if it forms the boundary of any listed building site or within the curtilage
of any listed building site boundary then again you would be urged to seek planning
permission first equally in a conservation area many of them have very particular rules
and there can be offences committed if you're doing anything to anything in a conservation
area which is against those rules or without permission so as a general of them anything
within a conservation area if it were me I would be seeking permission before I do virtually
anything as for hedges there is no general need for planning permission again so long
as there is no planning condition or other covenants or restrictions but again if it
were me in a conservation area I will be checking the rules and even as a barrister I would
be checking with a specialist planning consultant that is dealing with these restrictions in
such conservation areas and I would be seeking that specialist advice before I do anything
when it comes to hedges and particularly high hedges they can often curtail the amount of
light coming into a garden and adversely affect the amenity of your property in other words
it can cast your garden into shadows and stop you from enjoying if you to make a complaint
to the council about such a thing they would look to part eight of the antisocial behaviour
act of 2003 when the council looked at complaints under this legislation they will look at the
effect that this hedge has on your enjoyment of your garden and land if the council formed
the view that this hedge is simply far too high casting your garden into shadows stop
you from enjoying your property then the council can order the owner of that hedge to take
action to put it right this will usually entail cutting it down to a reasonable level to allow
the light back into your garden but I would urge you to speak to your neighbour politely
first because the council are not likely to look at your complaint unless you've taken
reasonable steps first but if you have a neighbour that simply won't talk to you or is simply
outright refusing to do anything about the head then you can take the complaint to the
council it is also important particularly to save embarrassment to determine that it
is your neighbour that owns this hedge to look for the owner of a hedge or in fact anything
that is growing out of the land you look to the soil out of which this head is growing
if it transpires that this head is in fact on your site which has happened and it does
cause confusion on occasion if the head belongs to you then you are within your rights to
cut that hedge down because the hedge belongs to you but again I would say that it is worth
taking a little bit of advice just to ensure that someone else agrees with you that that
is your head growing out of your land and you have the right to do so because again
if you cut the head down and it doesn't belong to you then you are going to be responsible
damage if it's a single tree however then the council is not likely to get involved
in this way unless it is two or more trees or two or more individual shrubs the tar to
more metres above ground level a single shrub or single tree is not likely to qualify for
this type of date instead if there is a single tree that is growing very tall and overshadowing
your garden and so long as your property has received continuous light for 20 years or
more than you may well have a claim under the right of light act of 1959 again you will
need to seek specific advice for your circumstances because every situation is different as some
more tips and information on overgrown hedges overhanging branches and so on see my other
video link in the description in the meantime leave your questions, stand below tell me
about the situation you had they might make their way into new videos don't forget to
check out my other stories on blackout secrets and in the meantime thanks for watching and
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