A woman has described a dispute with her neighbour over a fence that was installed before she and her husband moved into their new-build home. The neighbour is asking her to pay half the cost of the shared section of fencing, but she has refused after checking local laws.
Writing on Reddit, the homeowner explained that the property did not come with a fence, and buyers were expected to install one themselves. She planned to add a fence but had not made it a priority because she had not yet moved her furniture and belongings in.
The Demand for Payment
According to her post, the neighbour had their fence installed a couple of months before her house was finished. The Home Owners' Association (HOA) requires the two households to share the section of fence dividing their backyards, and it does not allow her to build a parallel fence of her own.
The neighbour wants her to split the cost of the shared length of fence and to get a new quote for that length, then give them half of that amount. However, the cost of materials has risen since the fence was installed, a point confirmed with the fence company. She asked for the original quote so the cost could be calculated per linear foot, but the neighbour refused to provide it.
Legal Position and Reactions
She checked the laws in her county and state and confirmed she does not owe the neighbour anything. Their handling of the situation has made her less willing to engage with them, and she asked other Reddit users whether she was in the wrong for not wanting to pay.
Commenters largely sided with her. One said, "They don’t have the right to take your money. If they won’t work with you, just forget about the fence for now." Another added, "You don’t act reasonable with unreasonable people." A third wrote, "They should have waited for you to move in to build the fence if they wanted to share the cost."
One user warned that paying could create future problems: "You would be foolish to give them any money. If their fence is properly installed, it is on their property, not yours. They own it, not you. If they sell their house and the new owner decides to remove the fence a year from now, there is nothing you can do. You have no ownership, therefore, you should not pay." The same user described the neighbours as "railroading and bullying" and asked what they would do if she refused, such as tearing out half of an already existing and paid-for fence.
