Where do i stand?

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abbieandfiona

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Ive been renting a few fields from a farmer long term one of the horses i have coming is from a charity so had home visit and they said which is right the barbed wire which is across the floor of field needs to be sorted out. Now theres two fences up on fine and this one on the floor. Spoke to farmer said it was his part of land and i said is it ok just to cut the wire down and leave the posts in. Which he said was fine so thats what we did. Now turns out this wasnt his fence people with land next door said it was there fence (its down on ground all smashed up).

Now my girls have sweet-itch so have a electric fence around as well. But as one is a shetland can get under fence and could have been seriously hurt by loose barbed wire on the floor.

So now argument over who owns fence and that bit of land. We have said we will put some rope across the posts but not really sure whos fence it is? I dont want to end up paying a lot of money for a new fence to go up. All the wooden posts the wire is on is rotten anyway. So where do i stand?
 
Could you contact the council planning office and find out where the boundaries lie? And once you have establised who actually owns the fence try and compramise on getting it safe and secure with minimal cost?
 
I think you can download copies of title to land, which will help indicate boundary from the land registry site for about £3 each. Theoretically you should be able to tell where the boundary is from that I would imagine.
 
As a stock owner you have a legal obligation to fence in your stock! but in your first post you said you cut the wire surely you picked it all up?
 
Yes we cut all the wire that was stuck on the floor they are fenced in via a electric fence anyway however as you all know shetlands can get through that very easy! We moved all the dangerous bits away. As we checked with farmer before doing, however have been told it wasnt his fence to touch in first place and was to be left down on the floor which is dangerous to any animals plus public footpath runs through the area as well so people would have walked on the wire on the floor. I know i did when putting up my electric fence!

Had a look at who owns area and it is right borderline between the farmers field and peoples next door. So dont know who was responsible for it?
 
Well if it was down and a danger then it needs replaced. And if it was down(and unusable) then technically it was damaged and sounds dangerous by how you portray it. Soall you have done is remove dangerous material from your field that is the responsibility of a neighbour.

What might be best is to take that fence 2ft in, new poles and a new fence. We have that on out field. Were you planning on refencing it?

If the fence is right on the border, then do they not have a joint responcibility to the fencing? Like whem folk share a boundry wall?
 
You need to identify who the barbed wire fencing belonged to and this will be down to the different klandowners to sort out. (Land deeds will normally not help) If you have cut down fencing that did not belong to your landowner then you will be resposible for replacing it or paying the other landowner compensation. (Did you take any photographs prior to cutting it down)?

If it was their fencing then you should have put up your own stock-proof fencing to prevent your horses contacting it.

You are responsible for any damage that your horses cause if they escape so make quite sure that you have 3rd parting public liability insurance to no less than £10,000,000(Ten million pounds). (BHS GOLD membership includes insurance cover to this level)
 
We are putting up post and rail where our electric fence is but didnt plan on replacing all fencing its right in middle of land and yes pics were taken thanks. All 3 are fully insured for everything esp as one is worth a lot of money.
 
Keep the pictures safe in the event of any disagreaments between the landowners as to the state of the fencing.

The horses may well be insured but check your policy very carefully that it insures to no less than £10,00,000 (Ten Million) third party public liability.
 
OWLIE185 said:
Keep the pictures safe in the event of any disagreaments between the landowners as to the state of the fencing.

The horses may well be insured but check your policy very carefully that it insures to no less than £10,00,000 (Ten Million) third party public liability.
Click to expand...

That's one million, which I think should be sufficient.
 
Who owns the fence should be on the deeds, so it is between the two landowners. But it is the owner of the stock who should fence in their own animals, so to put up a fence inside the other one would seem to be the best idea.
 
I think its the responsibility of the person you rent off to sort it out, he said it was ok for you to cut it down
 
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