We bought our house 40 years ago, and the deeds don’t say who owns the boundary fence at the back of the property. Shortly after we moved in we replaced the post-and-wire fence with six-foot panels, but our neighbours don’t maintain their side. What can we do about this?
The chances are that the original post-and-wire fence was jointly owned. You should probably have discussed this with your neighbours before replacing it, but whether you did or not it’s now your fence. And even if it was jointly-owned you couldn’t force your neighbours to maintain their side unless there’s something in the title deeds about this. You could ask your neighbours’ permission to go on to their land to paint it yourself. At least you have a fence of your choosing to look out on.