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I am very picky about having a fence. I live in a suburban ranch land with standard quarter acre lots. We have a nice back yard, but my neighbors aren’t as interested in theirs, so I like having a nice 6 foot fence for privacy.

In my area, nearly everyone has one, and those who don’t are bounded by those who do, which is okay with everyone.

Our fence was old and rickety when we bought the house, and we made it 20 more years with constant patching until it couldn’t be patched and seemed to be held together by a lot of drywall screws and pieces of 2x4, then bit the bullet and replaced it.

Yeah, fences sure are expensive. We were bounded on three sides by our own fence, and one side by a neighbor’s fence that was nearly completely decrepit.

When it came time to replace, I asked that neighbor straight out if we could tear their fence down and put ours up instead...he agreed instantly.

Of course, these kinds of things are fraught with some minefields. Before the fence was replaced (and after I had signed a contract, made a down-payment and selected a date) I thought I would inform all my neighbors. It was fine until I got to a woman behind us who I had never spoken to, and she told us that she was going to raise hell because our back fence was on her property by four feet, and that also made our shed that had been there for decades before we moved in illegal.

My head was swimming a bit, and I had to look at the law for my area that said something like if it had been that way for 5 years and we were never informed there was an issue, then we were okay.

I also looked at my property map and measured, and there was no issue. But I could see where she made her mistake...she measured back from her side of the sidewalk, not the street!

Just to be sure, I talked to my other neighbor because she said HIS fence was on her property too, and he laughed. He said she told him the same thing!

I said “Screw it. I’m replacing the fence, and she can sue me if she wants to! Never heard a word...:)