Living near your neighbors can present some challenges, but as long as everyone is reasonable, they can be overcome.

What would you do if the fence between you and your neighbor needed to be replaced, but your neihgbor didn’t want to pitch in to do it?

That is what happened in this story, so the homeowner decided to build a new fence himself well onto his own land, hoping that he would be able to maintain both sides of the fence. His neighbor, however, didn’t want him on their side of the fence, even though it was still on his own property.

Now that the fence is already built, the two neighbors need to figure out a way to live with it for years to come.

AITA for moving the new fence so I can go into their backyard?

I got my house 4 years ago, and when I did the fence on one side was in very poor condition.

Being able to do your own repairs and maintenance is a big advantage when it comes to homeownership.

I am very handy and have been making many improvements myself to both save costs and be up to my standards. I could pay someone but it would cost more and be well below the quality I like.

Just after I bought my house my new neighbor brought up the poor condition of the fence.

It is great that his neighbors are willing to split the cost.

We agreed to split the cost and rebuild it ourselves when the weather was nice in a few months. I reached out to him in November when it was nice and was met with excuses about money being tight and the economy.

So, no big deal we can wait. I reached out again a year later and was met with the same excuses.

Honestly, their finances aren’t any of his business. If they changed their mind, that is their right.

Though somehow they had no problems affording a nice audi suv for their highschool daughter and a brand new CRV when his college daughter totaled her beater.

In the meantime I learned that he liked to keep his yard “all natural” and did the absolute bare minimum maintenance.

You have to wonder if he was ever planning on helping with the fence.

He had old fence panels leaning against the rotting fence. Vines were growing up over from his side constantly.

He had a compost pile using 1 side of the fence as a wall for it. He also had a garden where green beans and other vines constantly grew over.

Leaving compost and other things against the fence will cause it to be damaged over time.

So this is his side, he is allowed to do what he wants with it, but once I learned this I didn’t want the new fence that I would be putting good money into treated the same way and reducing the lifespan and enjoyability of my own property.

I got his permission to replace the old fence and told him I would put it on my side, maintain and be responsible for the other side as well since it will still be mine.

He clearly put a lot of time, money, and work into this. It makes sense that he wants to keep it nice.

I pulled out the old fence myself and rebuilt the new fence 18″ inside the property line. I did all of the labor and paid for all of the new materials.

The nice side faces him, except I did leave a small gate in the back to allow me to keep my 18″ debris/vine free.

Can’t they work out a time or schedule that he can follow to do any work that needs to be done?

Now he is upset about this, with his complaints being about him having daughters/privacy. I partially understand it from his point, but also it makes almost no sense.

You could easily see through his old fence in the many gaping/rotting holes.

Privacy wasn’t a concern before. Why is it now?

I have a ring camera that faces down the length of my house, and it does capture some of his back yard, and our houses are higher than the grade so my kitchen window looks directly over a 6′ fence into the yard.

If anything the new fence gives him more and better privacy, with the caveat that I can access my property on the other side, but it will be apparent when I do.

This seems like a reasonable compromise.

He apparently expected me to notify him/get permission every time I went back there to maintain my property.

AITA?

All of these details should have been worked out before doing any actual labor on the fence. Putting the fence so far on his side of the property line could cause some problems in the future as well. I think both he and his neighbor really didn’t think this through.

Let’s take a look at what the people in the comments have to say about this unfortunate situation.

This would look weird and would not help improve the situation. The neighbor would still have privacy concerns.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a man who was so upset about dog messes in his yard that he involved the whole neighborhood in the solution.

This would have looked weird, but it likely would have helped to avoid conflict.

He needs to make sure that the true property line remains clear.

Here is someone who says he is just maintaining his own property. He is not just allowed to do that, but legally required to.

This commenter says that he should have left the old fence up to make the property line clear.

All of this could have been avoided with clear communication. He seemed to expect the neighbor to be ok with the arrangement without talking to him about it. It is always better to talk things through before taking action.