Shared fences come with shared responsibilities, but not always shared visions for repair.

When a gust of wind brought down a fence, one homeowner’s plan for a budget-friendly fix clashed with their neighbor‘s desire for something more upscale.

Read on for the full scoop!

AITA for not helping to pay for our new fence that our neighbors installed?

The fence between our house and the neighbor’s directly behind us fell over on a particularly windy day.

Evidently the grass had overgrown the cement and it caused the posts to rot quickly.

My dad came over to help us assess the damage and we decided the slats were still usable.

Good news because we could repair this relatively easy on our own and save some money.

But then their neighbor showed up.

While we were out there our neighbor came out and introduced himself.

He was cordial, and said “I’ve already got a guy coming to look at it and give us an estimate. Then we can split the cost halfway.”

They both prefer to get their own estimates for potential repairs.

I said, “That’s fine, but we were thinking we could have my brother come over, fix it ourselves, and only have to pay the cost of materials.”

He didn’t really respond to that, other than just saying, “Ok, well how about you have your guy look and we’ll have ours, and then we’ll compare estimates.”

I was willing to hear the estimate, so we left it at that.

Here’s where their repair visions begin to clash.

Later, my brother comes over to look at the fence himself and start digging out the old cement. (I didn’t know he was coming, and my wife and I were both at work).

Evidently he met our neighbor who told him that they really wanted the new fence to match this premium wood they have their side fences.

My brother told him we were trying to save money, and neighbor apparently offered to set up a payment plan as a compromise.

Whether anything else was said, idk.

It seems their neighbor made a unilateral decision.

About one week after the initial encounter we come home and there is a proud new fence staring at me.

We never heard an offer, never agreed to anything, and obviously didn’t install it ourselves.

But the homeowner isn’t exactly mad about it.

At first I was mad because I thought they’d come by asking for money, but they never did.

We haven’t even seen him since.

I feel bad that we get to enjoy a brand new fence and didn’t chip in, but I also don’t think it would have been fair since he ignored what we wanted.

AITA?

What a strange situation.

What did Reddit think?

This user figures the neighbor probably wanted the wood so bad he just paid for it all himself.

The neighbor turned out to be a real stand-up guy.

Morally, it’s a gray area, but there are still ways the homeowner could show their appreciation.

As long as the homeowner’s luck doesn’t take a turn for the worst, it looks like they’re in the clear.

While the homeowner isn’t necessarily mad about a nicer fence, their lack of consent does create a complicated situation.

The neighbor’s attitude goes to show, if you want something built, you do it yourself.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.