With spring comes the do-it-yourself season. And with the DIY season, inevitably some neighbours are going to put up a fence. But beware — even good neighbourly relations can turn sour in the shadow of a fence. Such is the case with Lawrence Park neighbours James Naughton and Neil Davies.
When Davies moved into his Glenforest Drive home five years ago, he said he knew he had work to do. There was no fence, and the back lawn was wild. “It didn’t even look like a backyard. It looked like an overgrown jungle.”
At the time he had two small children and said the fence was a priority. As a builder and a host on HGTV, Davies knew what he was doing. So he asked Naughton if he could build a fence between their two properties. He said he was happy to pay for it. Naughton agreed, but offered to split the cost, giving Davies an initial $500 to help cover the cost of materials, with the plan to give an additional $1,000 once the boards were up.
While Davies finished his side of the fence, Naughton said the other side was never completed. “I kept asking him, ‘When are you going to finish my side of the fence?’ He never did,” said Naughton. Davies said the fence was a project conducted in his spare time, which is why completion kept getting delayed. However, their relationship remained amicable enough. That is until Davies started building a tree house at the fence line: “When I started putting it up, basically everything changed from there.”
Naughton said the tree house was far too large and far too close to the fence. So he called the city’s bylaw officers, and Davies was served a notice of violation: both the tree house and the high fence contravened bylaws. Since then the two haven’t been talking.
In an attempt to keep the tree house and fence, Davies said he’s been spending his days at City Hall filling out forms. He has also paid more than $1,000 in different application fees. “I put my heart into building that thing,” he said. “To have it taken away just at the drop of a hat, it’s soul destroying.”
Bryan Byng, a manager with municipal licensing and standards, said the city sees about 90 to 125 fence exemption requests every year. He said neighbour complaints are one of the main reasons fence problems come to the city’s attention. “We do get a fair number of complaints. Mostly they have to do with the type of fence or height of fence,” he said.
“I’m happy now. I don’t have to deal with the neighbour any more.”
For Mary Ellen Tristram, building a fence was her attempt to solve the problem she had with her neighbours, whom she said had no respect for property lines. For example, she said the weekend she moved into her east end home, her neighbour walked right over and hung laundry on Tristram’s clothesline. So she put up a fence.
As a result, a new set of troubles began. The neighbours held blaring parties at all hours of the night and they would flick their cigarette butts over the fence. “I’d be sitting out on my back deck, listening to my little CD player, and their music would be so loud I couldn’t even hear it.” Tristram said it got so bad, her only option was to sell the place.
David Peattie said his fence problems have been resolved, although his neighbours might disagree. He lives in a west end neighbourhood full of wartime houses. A common design from the era is the wall-to-wall driveway. Thing is, none of these driveways are privately owned. The homes have 18-inch easements around them, so that, if any repairs need to be done, the owner of the house has a strip of land (or driveway) to work from.
That meant 18 inches of Peattie’s lane was owned by his neighbour, which wasn’t a problem until Peattie renovated his garage and then took down the old fence. Peattie said the move upset his neighbour, who began to threaten to reclaim his piece of lane. Eventually the feud was settled in court, and now there’s a fence running right through the driveway. “I’m happy now,” said Peattie. “I have my own driveway and don’t have to deal with the neighbour any more.”
While the city has an arbitration program, Byng said it costs $1,100, which is likely why so few people use it. When fence problems specifically relate to property lines, he said the most common means of resolution is to hire a surveyor to draw the line.
As for preventing fights in the first place, Byng said there are a few key rules. When building a fence, he said the first step is to tell your neighbour what you propose to do and why you want to do it. He said it is also important to clarify who pays for what.
By keeping an open line of communication, the worst can be avoided.
“Honestly, it’s destroyed our going outside,” said Davies. “You can’t pick your family and you can’t pick your neighbours.”
