DH and I are getting close to our new home being finished and need to sort out fencing... we have three young kids (6, 3 and 10 months) and two large dogs, so need fencing sorted out before we move in and we are the first of our neighbour's to build. Here's an idea of the block and the neighbours blocks to start off with... (excuse poor quality - it's the only site plan I have with the neighbour's on it!)
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So, our house and the neighbour's on each side (blue lines) are in stage 2 of the estate, which was registered and settled at the end of last year. The blocks behind us are in stage 3 which is not yet registered or settled, and we have been advised by the real estate agent that they should be settling at the end of this month. Trying to get hold of someone at council to confirm registration though.
We have spoken to the side neighbour's already and have those fences sorted - there is no real covenant on fencing for some reason - only that the fences have to be lapped and capped timber or colourbond. We got lucky, and both of the side neighbours were thinking along the same lines as us for the fences, so it's pretty much done.
The back fence is my worry. The one in the middle (green border) is sold, but not yet registered or settled. The other two to the sides (red borders) to my knowledge have not yet sold. It's looking like we will be ready to move in around mid next month. The problem I have is, what do we do about the cost of fencing along the back boundry? I know that technically, the owners of the block that is sold are supposed to split the cost with us, however I am not comfortable with contacting a complete stranger and hitting them up for around $800 worth of fencing a week after their block has settled and they are around a year off moving in. In regard to the block's either side that aren't sold, it is very clearly written into our contract when we bought the land that the estate developer will not contribute to the cost of fencing if any of our neighbouring blocks are not sold / backing on to parks or reserves etc, so we will be paying for that part of the fence ourselves, and when those block's sell, the new owners score a free portion of fence.
So in regard to the block behind us that is sold, as far as I can tell, our options are:
- (1) Contact the neighbour and tell them we need a fence and here's the bill (I suppose this is technically what we should do, but I am not keen on that one at all - just doesn't feel right)
- (2) Contact the neighbour and tell them we are putting in a new fence, happy to pay for it ourselves, so they score a free fence, we pick the colour.
- (3) Hire some temporary fencing (like the construction fencing stuff) and wait around for at least a year for the neighbour's to move in - work it out then (not very happy with that as I would be concerned that it wouldn't hold my dogs in and also want some privacy and security in the yard).
Any thoughts on which way we should go?