How to handle a neighbor who won't pay for a shared fence
Neighborly disagreements over cost can stall shared fence repairs, leaving homeowners stuck with rotten wood and security gaps like escaping pets. Sorting out replacement expenses requires comparing quotes together or offering flexibility so both parties can agree on a split.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1DIYing repairs or splitting material costs with neighbors
- 2Paying out of pocket for the entire fence installation
- 3Negotiating cost-sharing or labor contributions with adjacent property owners
- 4Using angle brackets to secure the panels
- 5Sistering up pieces of wood where the post meets the panel using deck screws
- 6Pulling the post, augering the hole out, adding new cement, and resetting the post
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“A couple of years ago, I got a quote for $6,000 to replace it from the ground up. Went over to my neighbor and said let’s go halves. He said it’s a little out of his budget so I said get some quotes and I’ll split it.”source ↗
“When we bought our house 14 years ago, the wooden fence between our house and the neighbors was rotten and falling apart. Plus our dog could escape through some gaps in the deteriorated fence.”source ↗
“I noticed that one of the fence panels is almost about to fall (first two pictures).”source ↗
“Also, noticed that there multiple other panels that have started to undergo similar separation, would the same angle bracket approach work or should I look into something else?”source ↗