What is the etiquette on painting the backside of a fence My neighbors have a fence and are only planning on painting their side- expecting us to choose whether to paint the backside. Is this proper?

Answer 1

This brings up lots of questions, do you own your property and the land with the fence? Does the neighbor own their property, land and FENCE? This is important because this will help determine who has maintance of the property. If you own your property, you need to check your map and deed for reference to the fence. Once something is established, such as your neighbor controlling the maintance of the fence, it is harder to change it later. You need to get some info. regarding who has property rites to the fence. If it is the neighbors alone and your land doesn't abutt or even come close to the fence, then it would be up to you to talk with your neighbors. You might need to show them the maps etc. and explain that the fence is not your responsiblity. But if the fence is on your land only, which would show on your maps then you have a different problem, your neighbors feel that it is at least partially theirs to maintane and control. Then you would need to straighten that out. Last, if your maps and deed shows that the fence is on the property line, you will need to decide how you want to handle this issue. The way you said "MY neighbors" makes it sound like you feel like it is their fence, get the info together and then talk with them. It would be best if you can make some settlement. Proper or not, you need to move forward and the best way to do that is knowledge. It doesn't sound like etiquette is the major problem, knowledge will solve alot or your problems. Then just use that information with courtesy, and respect. Once you have the information you need and can show you neighbors, solving the one sided painting, can start with a joint meeting, hopefully done as a small get to together, to look at your data, and talk over everyone's options. Keep things casual and friendly, have an open mind. There are many solutions to the painting issue, but you didn't ask about that, so I'm not addressing any of those.