Is it time for a new fence?

With winter coming fences can often get damaged.  The existing laws regarding fences for neighbors in California has been on the books since the 18702s.  Now the law has been updated. 

 The updated law states that unless both parties have an prior written agreement otherwise, neighbors share equal responsibility for maintaining fences.  They also share equal benefit from the fence.  Because of that they must share the responsibility for  the reasonable costs of construction, maintenance, or necessary replacement of the fence. 

When you decide to make repairs or replace the fence and are asking your neighbor to share the cost  you need to give 30 days prior written notice to all neighbors that share the fence.  The notice must include the cost of construction, maintenance  or replacement cost.  It has to include a a description of the work being done, what the problems are that prompting  the work, a solution for the problem and an estimate of the costs and how you want to split the costs.  Lastly it needs to include a timeline.  

 If your neighbor disagrees that they enjoy equal benefit from the fence, it must be proved that making them pay equally for the maintenance and construction costs would not be fair.  The following are factors that can be considered.  

• The cost of the fence is substantially less than the benefits that the neighbor gets from  the fence
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• The fence is would be more expensive than the difference of the property before and after it's installation.  Example:  If the property is worth $1000.  the fence costs 500 and would only bring the value of the land up to 1300 
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• If your neighbor can give proof that the repair or replacement of the fence would cause them financial hardship.  
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• The project is considered unreasonable, taking the following factors into consideration.  The costs are excessive or unnecessary, If the costs of the fence seem to be the result of the neighbor's personal choices ascetically,  or architecturally 

If,  based on the above factors, a decision can't be reached between the two of you.  You can go to small claims court and a judge will take everything into consideration and come up with one of the following scenarios.  The court can divide up the costs as it sees fit, which may be equal between both owners, having one owner pay more or even one homeowner pay all.