Who Owns the Fence?

[flawless101]

H,

We have lived in our property for 20 years.
Recently we have been contemplating having a side extension to our house.

There is a fence that runs between our house and our neighbours. The fence posts appear to be on my side (I said 'appear' as it is always difficult to tell where a boundary lies) and the nice side of the fence is towards the neighbours.

An architect visited my property - I had asked him around to start the process of putting some plans together for planning permission. While he was here he said that we could remove the fence and build up to the property's boundary. He said the fence was ours because the posts were on my property and the nice side of the fence was towards the neighbours. I was not too sure he was right.
The fence is not the type where you have concrete posts and the panels are slotted in.

I downloaded my property title and deeds from the land registry. These are not helpful at all - they just show a red line as to where my property is with no marking as to who owns/maintains the fence on the side in question.

My question is, how do I find out who owns this fence - myself, the neighbour or is it jointly owned? Is there any authority that may be able to help?

If it is my fence then I can remove it and build up to the property boundary.
I am unclear as to what my rights are if it is jointly owned.

Even if the fence is owned by my neighbour or jointly owned, I will have to replace it - if the extension goes ahead - as when the extension foundations are dug, the fence will collapse.

Thanking you for your reply.

[atticus]

Have you considered discussing this with your neighbour? Presumably you are intending to pay for the fence to be repaired or replaced.

[PallasAthena]

The Land Registry have a series of short videos on YouTube about boundary issues that might be helpful

Introduction: Boundaries part 1 - YouTube

I don't believe that what your architect told you is true either. Whenever I have had to look into this in the past multiple sites say that it is a popular but incorrect myth that you can tell whose fence it is by which side the panels face or which side of the garden it is. In any case it seems odd to me that someone building a fence in their back garden would have the 'nice' panels facing out towards their neighbours. If you are paying for ther fence you'd have the 'nice' panelling facing you.

Also, the question who has the responsibility to build/maintain a boundary fence is a different question from who owns a fence that is already there. I recently put up new fencing in my back garden. There are no records from when the terrace of houses was built in the 19th century to indicate who, if anyone, has a responsibility to erect fencing. So I had a builder put up a new fence on all three sides of my garden (nice panels facing me!) along the the boundary line. As far as am concerned I put the fence up and paid for all of it so it is my fence.

The most important piece of advice on every site I looked at is to discuss it with your neighbour and try to reach amicable agreement before you start doing any work.

[flawless101]

Thank you for your responses. Since I put up my query I have done some digging and uncovered the original papers that were sent to me when I bought the property.

The 'Property Information Form' completed by the surveyor states that the fence on the right (the one in question) belongs to me - see Fence Picture 1.

But I cannot see this marked on the 'Property Deeds' though there is a mark where the information could have been rubbed off.

The reason why I am trying to find out this information is that - if the fence belongs to me - I can remove the fence and in its place have the outside wall of the extension. If the fence is jointly owned, I can build up to the fence but not replace it with a wall.

I have not as yet discussed this with my neighbour as I want to know where I stand before having that discussion. My house is plot 102 (in red).
The funny thing is that all the properties where there is a mark, show the fence on the right being owned by that property.