Q: We live in Suisun City in the Dover South subdivision. The house was built in the 1980s. We bought in 1995. The backyard fence was here when we got here and now, 23 years later, it’s so dilapidated that a cat jumping on it would likely fall over. We’ve patched our site multiple times over the years, including lots of support braces, when the 4 × 4 posts rotted out of the ground.

The problem is that there are two houses behind us that share the property line. Both are now rentals. We want to replace the fence, but it’s about 100 feet of fence line and quite expensive. We got in touch with the owner of one of the houses but he said it was not his responsibility because he never built the fence. He said our house was built first and the original owners of that house built the fence. So it’s our fence and our problem.

We have been reading your column for many years and that doesn’t seem right to us. But we can’t remember ever talking about whether or not the person who built the fence was ultimately responsible for it. Can you explain something to us and maybe give us an idea of ​​what to do? Thanks in advance.

A: Sure, it’s easy. It’s such a common problem that I’m really surprised I don’t get any more emails about it. Given that Solano County is full of so many subdivisions that are more than 20 years old, the average lifespan of a redwood fence, you’d think this was a common problem.

In the olden days there wasn’t a very well established law about who was responsible for repairing or rebuilding adjacent fences. When neighbors sued a neighbor over the cost of repairing or replacing a fence, trial judges had little guidance on who was ultimately responsible. That changed in the 1980s when lawmakers passed a law known as the Good Neighbor Fence Act.

The law itself was incorporated into Section 841 of the California Civil Code. It’s pretty tedious, but you can use your favorite search engine to get it pretty quickly if you’re interested in reading the whole thing.

The Reader’s Digest version of the law states that homeowners who share a property line are almost always equally responsible for the cost of repairing or replacing the fence. The legal justification is that the fence benefits both properties, increases the value of both properties and is therefore the responsibility of both properties.

However, if you do make a commitment to fix the fence, there is a procedure in the code that you must follow to ensure you get a refund from the neighbor.

If you intend to repair or replace the fence, you must notify each of your neighbors 30 days prior to the repair. The written notice must include a description of the nature of the problem, e.g. B. that the fence is rotten and about to fall. It must also include what you want to do about the problem, the estimated cost of fixing the problem, how much contribution you want from the neighbor, and your proposed schedule for getting the job done.

With the average good neighbor fence, that’s about all you need. If you bring the money to do the job and your neighbor refuses to do their part, the normal procedure is to take your neighbor to the Small Claims Court and get a verdict. I spoke to an attorney friend who is also the minor claims judge on site and he says such cases are common.

Of course, the neighbor can raise some defenses. The neighbor can claim that you put up a “Cadillac” fence when you should have put up a normal fence. The neighbor could claim that you paid well above market value. Or that the job didn’t have to be done at all.

But it would be pretty rare for either of these defenses to work, as long as you made sure you gave the right pointers, waited 30 days or more, and received multiple bids so you could justify the price paid.

Of course, none of this guarantees that you will get paid. Getting a court ruling against someone doesn’t guarantee they’ll pay you, at least not without a lot of extra effort on your part. But that’s the law.

To answer your question directly, it can’t be less important who originally built the fence.

Tim Jones is a Fairfield real estate attorney. If you have any questions about real estate that you would like to have answered in this column, you can contact him at [email protected].

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