Fencing?

Hey everyone, not sure if you can help and i think we know the answer already but no harm in asking.

We just bought a block of land (settled Tuesday.. YAY) and i went by on Tuesday morning to see if the SOLD sticker is up.

The guy who bought the block beside us owns the house on the corner, and bought the block to extend his backyard, get there Tuesday and he has already fenced off his yard in COLORBOND (must have money to buy a 1/4 block to extend your backyard and fence it in colorbond).
Now as we hadn't officially settled and had not been consulted there is no way he can ask us to pay half is there?

On the down side the signage was on his land so couldn't even take a pic of our lot with a SOLD sticker, as it's now behind his fence :cry:

We are not having colorbond (can't afford it) and am wondering how the rest of our fencing will go now!

I am not 100%, but unfortunately, I am pretty sure that he can ask you to pay half costs. However you would only need to pay half costs of a 'reasonable standard' fence in the area. So even though he put in colourbond, unless you agree, you would only have to pay the half cost of a 'standard' fence (ie, wood paling, or whatever is standard in your area.

But like I said I am not sure....

You will have to pay half for it. My guess is that because your block hadn't settled yet, he didn't ask because he didn't know you owned the land. It's a bit cheeky, but you have to think of the upside...at least you don't have to organise that bit of fence.

I had a lot of dispute with a neighbour over a fence, and in the end it's not worth trying to fight it....they will be your neighbour! You don't have to pay for it till you move into your house (I don't think) and he has to provide you with the invoice to show how much that portion of fence cost, and your 50% share. If you can't afford it, then you can pay him off in installments.

IF he asks you to pay, you only have to pay half of what the standard fence in your area would be - so, normally it would be paling fences around your property, five foot (six foot is choice, five foot is pretty standard) - so you could get a quote on the costs of that sort of fence.

given he's done it before you built, i'm guessing he won't do anything with it in asking that you pay for it - he has erected the fence before you moved there and, as the land was owned by the shire at the time (or whoever it was) it shouldn't be your responsibility to pay half of it. in new estates, there usually isn't an expectation that people pay half of fencing if the block isn't owned at the time the fencing is done (gee i hope that makes sense!)

Thanks guys, i am not sure if he will even ask but i thought i might get a bit of an idea before we organise everything, the house prob wont be built for another 6-12mths anyway and our fences wont be going up until after it's all done (well most of it anyway.

He obviously has the cash as he just spent $130,000 to buy a 1/4 acre to extend his backyard, apparently he has been there a while and is quite nice and knows most of the ppl in the estate.
He might have wanted it done before we build so less noise/dust etc.

Am hoping he doesn't ask but if he does then will have to see what we can afford, we can't afford half of colorbond that wasn't our choice. Personally i wanted 4 nice wood fences around my house... oh well.. compromise is best.

Thanks again.

Good idea to compromise, and dont' worry about it till the time comes either! I had 4 different types of fence around my house I built (2 out of 4 houses surrounding my block were already built (different stage of the estate) and I still had to pay half for them).....nothing that a few hedges couldnt' fix :)

If you need clarification, either ask the vendor of the land (who you bought through) or ask the council for information on fences.

If he never comes to you with a bill....don't go looking for it!! :)

Ava ive not read any of the other replies but unless he comes to you first with the quote he cant send you a bill for half the fence if its already errected.

The company i work for had an issue with a neighbour that didnt want to pay for half of the fence so we simply didnt put it up, im sure when he goes to build he will be wanting a fence but he just didnt want to pay for it

is it possible he served the fencing order on the vendor anyway, and it's been included in the costs of the block

my understanding is that they can't expect you to pay for something unless you've been served a fencing order BEFORE the fence is erected - you have time to respond with a yes or no answer - if it isn't resolved within a set time frame (i believe a month), it can then be taken to the magistrates court to resolve it. if they build a fence without your go ahead, you're not obliged to pay for it.... and you definitely only have to pay for half of the minimum practical fencing for your area (being a 5foot paling fence if it's a side or rear boundary i think), not half of what they have chosen to erect for themselves.

as was mentioned, you can always dress it up along there for a better look - plants are your friend!

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IF he asks you to pay, you only have to pay half of what the standard fence in your area would be - so, normally it would be paling fences around your property, five foot (six foot is choice, five foot is pretty standard) - so you could get a quote on the costs of that sort of fence.

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Yep and get a few phone quotes to be sure you get a good average estimate.

I don't know what state you are in, but in NSW it's exactly what BG said. We had the same issue here. When we bought there were fences on 2 sides. One of the sides, the owner tried to get us to pay half. Like Hell. It was there when my block of land settled. You can print off the legislation and give it to him if he tries it.