This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Help needed!
We had the fence on one side of our garden fall down and although it's the neighbours fence, they claim it's because of what we had growing. Here are some photos...
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0V5GH8MqGf2E5A
Please can you let me know if these plants would cause a fence to fall? Advise greatly appreciated! I'm not quite sure whether he is simply trying to get us to pay or whether the fence did fall because of plants on our side?
Kind regards,
Henry
0
Posts
Henry, they're just trying to get you to sort it out.
From the photos it seems the plants were not even fixed to the fence.
If it's their fence, it's their problem. I'd suggest badly fixed posts might be the problem.
Thank you so much! I had a feeling he simply wanted to blame the plant. The plant did get pretty big, but I don't think it attached to the fence at all! I was just wondering whether the routes might have done it? If not, then there is no way it was done by the plant, which is honeysuckle?
I think that he did have family put the fence up, so they probably did an amateur job, I wouldn't be surprised.
If the experts at gardeners world tell me that it wasn't the plant, then I'll certainly believe you more then the neighbour!
Experts? Where?
Seen at least two so far!
Just wondering, would this definately not have been high enough to cause the fence to fall? I have no idea about this sort of thing, but from what I'm hearing, there is almost no chance that the honeysuckle caused it?
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0V5GH8MqGf2E5A;3B3C52E4-DC19-4090-A5B5-5F42ECF43753
Henry, from the photos, even the post right at the end, where the cut down panel is, is leaning over. Is your neighbour suggesting the honeysuckle caused that too?
He's winging it to get you to fix his crappy fence.
Don't have any of it.
At a previous house my neighbour had a beautiful honey suckle which grew over the top of my fence. It was lovely to look at and caused no problem to the fence at all.
I absolutely agree with Hostafan and Pansyface - that fence was not erected in a professional way.
The end of the fence should have been secured to that little shed.
There are no gravel boards at the base of the fence which would protect the fence from damp/rot and as Hosta says, the posts look as if they've just been 'stuck in' and not secured with concrete or metal post holders (or treated properly either).
The older looking panels look as if they've been fixed upside down, with the cut edges of the laps upwards rather than downwards in the newer looking fencing. They should be overlapping downwards to shed rain off the fence - doing it the wrong way will cause the fence to rot.
They don't have a leg (or a fence post) to stand on
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
From the photo's it's not possible to say whether the honeysuckle was growing over the fence before it came down or not. So on that basis every reply, including this one comes with a lot of "ifs" and "buts".
The comment about the cut edged of the laps being upwards really doesn't make sense as we are seeing the back of the fence so of course the cut edge is up - it's down on the other side. Also the fence does have a capping piece on each section and that is intended to be on the top which it is.
Is the fence a boundary fence or constructed on the neighbours property. If on his property you would have no right to grow anything up it.
An evergreen honeysuckle can have a lot of weight to it particularly given the heavy rain we've had lately so that on one side of the fence could have an effect.
I can't see anything which shows definitively how the posts were retained.
All that said, the fence posts do look pretty old and I would suspect that the failure is down more to weather and age.
If its their fence, its up to them to repair it, not you. I can't see anything attached to the fence, and if it was the plants I think they would have found a way through the gaps, and your plants aren't doing that. Could also be that the posts are now rotten, looking at the colour of the panels.
They're trying to pull a fast one, and if it bothers them so much they know what they should do.
If you wanted to be neighbourly you could offer to pay a third or half, but if they are not being nice about it, don't.