Shared fencing - how to?

[Fancy That]

Just closed on our new horse ranch and want to improve the perimeter fencing, which is shared of course.

So my question is this:

Do ranch folk share fencing costs like city folk? I've only lived in the suburbs where fencing was always split between the neighbors.

However- I have a feeling that is not the case in rural areas. My neighbor is friendly, and he knows we plan to move our 3 horses here. Our fence is currently a shabby 3 strand barb wire with many loose/rotten wood posts.

It's a LONG fence (over 800 linear feet?) that I simply want to fortify by tightening the barbed wire, fixing/installing posts that need it, and then I'd like to put no-climb up.

Do I just pay for the whole thing, even though it's his fence too? I guess I'll find out when I talk to him, but thouht I'd ask here...what the "norm" is

[akrogirl]

Having a friendly neighbor is a good start.

Our neighbor to the south allowed us to reinforce the existing fencing, but at our cost. Our nieghbor to the north refused to share the fence line, even though he had originally built his fence on what should have been our side of the property line (done too long ago for us to challenge it), and forced us to build a separate fence just inches from the existing one!

[nightsong]

If you put in a fence, you might want to set it back a few feet for a riding path. Some counties REQUIRE this, as easements.

[county]

In this state legally when standing on your property you are responsable for 1/2 the fence thats on your right while facing the fence the other person is responsable for the other 1/2. You cannot force them to maintain it but they do have to pay for materials

[Fence2Fence]

I was told that it's a state law that shared fence must be paid and maintained jointly, but I've never bothered to look that up. And if it was, would it be worth the hassle of legally forcing someone to do that?

I inquired with both neighbors (one has horses, and the other lets a neighboring farmer graze cattle), and both declined. I figured as much.

Once the new fence is completely done, I plan to run electric on the outside of it to keep their livestock off my fence. The fence and electric wire will be clearly on my property. If they decide they don't like their livestock up against electric wire, then they will either have to put in a fence, or talk to me about working out a satisfactory joint ownership plan for the fence. I won't be holding my breath.

My advice is...Be prepared to pay and maintain the fence without any neighborly assistance.

[equusus]

It is the same here in our county in KY.
By law, the property line fence costs should be split half and half.
That said, enforcing it may just cause strained relations with the neighbors that you have to live with.
When we have put up property line fence, we have "mentioned" it to the pertinant neighbor and left it up to them if they want to "help" or not. We have had a couple neighbors step up to the responsibility(they are great neighbors!) and others have ignored us. We had a couple say "oh, sure! I'll split the cost!" and then nothing.....
We let it go, it's not worth having neighbor problems.

april

[Fancy That]

thanks all. That's what I figured. We'll talk to him some more about wanting to improve the fence (it's already there...just needs fixing to make it horse-safe)

We will plan to take on maintenance and cost since we are the ones wanting to do it. But of course, if they volunteer to help....that will be welcome!

Agree it's not worth straining neighborly relations over this :)

[ReSomething]

thanks all. That's what I figured. We'll talk to him some more about wanting to improve the fence (it's already there...just needs fixing to make it horse-safe)

We will plan to take on maintenance and cost since we are the ones wanting to do it. But of course, if they volunteer to help....that will be welcome!

Agree it's not worth straining neighborly relations over this :)

Yep. My nearest neighbors are having a back and forth - fella bought and either didn't survey or didn't notice/care that his workmen were off the property (and knocked out/buried a couple of pins) clearing woods. We have fence law here and I guess he figured to get half the cost of installing his fence out of the neighbor whose boundary line had been chewed up. Now they are at an impasse, since the surveyor's bill to clean up the line and put the pins back wasn't cheap, and furthermore the line runs pretty far over into the best spot for the driveway, which means more $$$ for grading.

The moral for us is before we even start clearing we are going to walk the line with the neighbor and/or get the surveyor out, and the fence law here specifies height and suitability for cattle so the most we could honorably expect is the cost of t-posts and four strand barbwire. We may ask, and if he comes up with it, wonderful.

[Thomas_1]

Over here, who owns the fencing is defined by where it is on the land. If it's on your land, it's your fencing and you're responsible for it. If the fencing on my neighbours land doesn't suit me then I need to talk to him and hope he might be willing to upgrade or improve it and with me maybe making a contribution to the cost or else I have to put a separate fence on my land and which does what I need it to do.

[shawneeAcres]

In our area we have "setback" requirements, meaning that ANY structure or fence must be set back from the property line a certain number of feet, which basically means it is on our property or on theirs, but never "shared" I really would not want a shared fenceline with a neighbor, so even if there as one, I woul dbe putting my own fence inside of my property line and maintaining it. Then if his fence fails, and his livestock was on my property I would report that. I make sure their is plenty of space to run my tractor around my fencelins to mow and I also spread manure there. Just how I do things (as well as how our laws are set up)

[CatOnLap]

It does seem to be a state or local thing. Its very nice when you can get your neighbours to share the cost, but here's the thing we ran into- when we moved in, we had 10 foot thick blackberry hedges all around the place. We removed the blackberries almost everywhere but the back line.

Half of one side was a neighbour who had built a solid cedar fence years ago. As I didn't want our horses to chew down his expensive fence, I built my 3 bar horse fence about 8-10 feet inside our property line to keep them away from it, and planted trees in the remaining space. Came time for him to replace his cedar fence, he wanted me to pay for half. In our municipality, there is no law about cost sharing. My fence was already built- He tore down his old fence but he did finally rebuild at his own expense 2 years later. I did have to get him to move the first few fence posts though, as he started rebuilding on my land and was in the process of moving my trees to do it! The other half of that property line was on a vacant lot, which some nice people bought, and then proceeded to dump garden waste and chop down trees that I had planted on my land. I pointed out where the property line actually was and they removed their garbage from my property and replanted the 2 trees they had cut. The only problem I have with them is in summer when their grandkids climb inside to play with my horses. I explained the liability issues and that has now stopped.

The other side is a nice, but retired guy whose fenceline was originally built by both our previous farm owners and himself about 30 years ago. It was in the process of falling down. He didn't want to rebuild, so I paid for our fenceline (setback from the property line) to contain our animals, and we left part of the blackberry hedge at the back between his swimming pool and my pasture. Its a good thick barrier to noise, dust, kids and horses alike and we get along well.

Now here's the problem. We have a new neighbour in back who does not have animals and is setting up to become a market gardener. This weekend he removed all the blackberry hedge from about 50 feet of our common property line, so now my horses can easily cross into his property. The problem is, the 10 feet of blackberries that he cut were almost entirely on my property, as he saw when I pointed out the survey stakes. It will take about 2 years for them to grow back to hedge proportion and in the meantime I have used my portable electric fencing to keep the horses at home. He was disappointed to discover that his property did not go the 10 feet into my property as he had assumed when he eyeballed the place. It would have given him an additional 2000 square feet of garden! He was also mad that I like the blackberries. He is worried that they will invade his freshly plowed garden, which they will do of course, unless he puts in a soil barrier a couple of feet down. He refuses to share in erecting a livestock proof fence, which is his right. He said he will spray pesticide, which is against the new law here, so I let him know that even if they were on his land, that would not be permissable, plus, he wants to get his land certified organic, so that would be a big no-no. I think we'll get it worked out. He seems ill-informed, but not mean.

I think the setback law is a good one. It would allow for wildlife corridors between properties as well as eliminate some of the problems I have encountered.

[Fancy That]

Wow....these stories are really making me count my blessings. Our fencing is 100% shared on the three sides of the property. Only the front of our property is "ours only"

And I'm really glad that the neighbor I'm sharing with is super nice. I'll plan to just pay for and initiate the improvement to the fence. Don't want to set back and create my own fence.

Thankfully the other fenceline was made for horses with no-climb already and in very good shape! The back fence is old barbwire, but currenty contains the neighbors' horse with no probs. So we may just leave that one alone.

Interesting to hear how others' fence laws work, etc.

[Holly Jeanne]

I was told that it's a state law that shared fence must be paid and maintained jointly, but I've never bothered to look that up. And if it was, would it be worth the hassle of legally forcing someone to do that?

When I moved to my farm I was told that was the case. I have a back field that I have not used for pasture because of poor fencing. My neighbor has been cutting it for hay for his cattle (not great horse hay). Well, a few years ago his cattle starting helping themselves to the field. He tried patching the fence but they always made another hole. So, he replaced the half of the fence where they were going through. He came to me first though and I asked him not to use barb wire. He wouldn't accept any payment but I bought and delivered a bunch of fence posts to him to make up some of the cost. Since I hadn't been using it as pasture, it was pretty clearly his cattle who had damaged the fence.

Fast foward to this winter. His cattle have started coming in from the other direction (where it was still barb wire). I didn't say a word and allowed his cattle to graze the field all winter but we did talk about replacing the fence when possible. So, after I got my tax return I gave him a check for some fencing supplies (he was willing to accept it this time). I haven't checked progress for a couple of weeks but, when all is said and done, I should have a new pasture for the cost of some fence posts and some mesh wire. He did all the labor himself! I love my neighbor! :D

[Equibrit]

Around here you're lucky your neighbour doesn't shoot you for looking at the fence line. I had to get the surveyor in twice, (he had to peg the whole line) set the fence 2 feet inside the line and sue my neighbour to make him remove the garbage he had been dumping on my property.

[Holly Jeanne]

I really am lucky! When my neighbor did the half a fence a couple of years ago, he used his tractor to push some garbage the previous owners of my property had left ONTO his property. Don't think I'll be that lucky with the stack of tires on the other side of the field. Unfortunately, the dates you can take tires to the dump for free are in the summer and, as long as those tires have been in the field, I'm not sure I want to argue with the snakes as to whether or not they should be moved. I wish the dump off day was in the middle of winter. ;)