Mcgregor

I live in a housing scheme where the houses are attached. I wanted to border my house by building a wall, so I notified my neighbour of my intention and asked if they are interested to fund half of the cost since it will benefit both of us. They agreed.

After five years, they still had not contributed to making the wall, so I have decided to proceed.

Does the neighbour have any rights to my wall, e.g., to hang things on it and even include their construction on my wall? Please advise me.

ANSWER:

The Dividing Fences Act addresses this question. This Act relates to all lands, except unoccupied lands, which are owned by the crown or vested in the commissioner of lands and zoned for a public purpose or a public road.

The following notes from the act should guide the reader:

1.	The occupiers of adjoining lands are liable to bear a half of the cost of erecting and maintaining a dividing fence between their properties.

2.	For the purposes of the act, a 'sufficient' fence may be a wall, bank or hedge, but it must be high enough, strong enough and close enough to prevent ordinary animals on one property from trespassing unto another. (Pigs and goats are not defined as ordinary animals under this act.)

3.	The owner of one property may give notice in writing to the owner of adjoining property to come to agreement regarding the kind of fence to be erected. If there is already a fence, one owner can send written notice to the other about repairs needed to make an existing fence 'sufficient'.
4.	If the parties agree and one fails to fulfil his obligation, or if they fail to come to come to an agreement within 14 days after the notice has been given by one party, the party who gave the notice may do what is necessary and demand payment of a half of the value of the work done from the other party.

5.	If payment is not made on demand, the owner who incurred the expense can sue his neighbour to recover half of the cost incurred. However, this cost must not be excessive.

6.	If one owner causes damage to the dividing fence, he shall bear the entire cost of repairing or reinstating such fence.

If the reader had given proper notice and attempted to reach an agreement regarding the kind of fence to be erected, she may now make a claim against her neighbour to recover half of the reasonable cost incurred in erecting the fence. However, it would appear that she will not be able to prevent her neighbour from utilising the fence.