- An owner is under no obligation to maintain a fence except where the deeds contain covenants or conditions that the owner maintain fences in good condition, or local Acts or Regulations require it. These apply to house owners in some urban areas.
- However, an owner may be liable for damage resulting from a fence being in a dangerous condition. If a fence adjoining a highway becomes dilapidated, and a person using the highway is injured as a result, the owner of the fence may be liable. Action can also be taken for ‘nuisance’, where for example, there is detriment to a neighbour’s enjoyment of his land.
- The responsibility of a tenant to maintain fences will be set out in the lease.
- Where a fence is jointly owned, each owner must not dismantle or do anything to his half which could cause his neighbour’s half to collapse.
- There is no general right to enter a neighbouring property to repair a boundary fence, even if that is the most convenient or even the only practicable way of doing it. An owner who enters land to repair a fence without authority can be restrained by injunction.
Maintenancetcv-admin2024-06-08T12:52:27+00:00
