Homeowner removes neighbor's gate after discovering they cut it into the fence he paid for himself: ‘I got my drill out and left the gate leaning against their car’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Oct 1, 2026 7:15 AM EDT

Why do people think they have a right to touch private property they didn't pay for?

The rules of property should be easy enough: If you haven't paid for it, it's not yours, and you have no right to it. When it comes to homeownership, this rule shouldn't be harder to comprehend, but since some lines are not actually physically visible, people tend to make things a lot more complicated. 

We used to think the border was very straightforward. People buy a house with a fence so that everything within that fence is theirs, and everything outside of it belongs to someone else. However, we never considered the fate of the fence itself… If one fence separates two properties, then who owes the fence? Is it the owner of the house on the left, or the owner of the one on the right? That is exactly the line where people simply love to make everything a lot more complicated than it should be.

If you're wondering how neighborly relationships can go up in flames because of a fence, the story below is the perfect example. Technically, both homeowners in this story are also the owners of the fence, since it sits exactly on the property line between the two houses. However, after a bad storm, the fence was ruined, and only one owner paid to get it fixed. By that owner's logic, the new fence now belongs to him, since he is the one who paid for it. The other homeowner, however, begs to differ. He still believes he has a right to the fence since it's partially on his property. This line of thought led him to cut a gate into the fence, without even running it by the first homeowner.

The first homeowner, the one who paid for the new fence, got really mad when he saw a gate cut into his fence and decided to confront his neighbor about it. The neighbor claimed he had the right to build the gate and refused to take it down. Is that the end of the story? Don't be so sure…

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  • Homeowner drilling into a fence.
    via NATALIA NOSOVA

    Homeowner drilling into a fence.

    Individual pictured is a model used for illustrative purposes.

  • Am I wrong for unscrewing the gate my neighbors cut into the fence I paid for and leaving it on their driveway?

    Our back fence came down in the storms in February. I asked the couple behind us about splitting it and they said they could not justify it this year,
    via No_Price6028
  • which is fair enough, so I paid the whole thing myself. It was $1,400 for 6 panels and the posts.
    via No_Price6028
  • 3 weeks ago I got home and found a gate in it. Somebody had cut an actual gate into the panel at the far end of my yard, hinges and a latch and
    via No_Price6028
  • everything. It lets them out to the alley without walking around the block. Nobody asked me and nobody
    via No_Price6028
  • mentioned it afterwards. I only noticed because my dog went through it.
    via No_Price6028
  • i knocked on their door and the husband was completely relaxed about the whole thing. He said the fence sits on the boundary line so legally it's
    via No_Price6028
  • half theirs, and that a gate doesn't hurt anybody. I said I had paid for every panel of it and that I would like it taken out and the panel made good.
    via No_Price6028
  • He said he would look into it and then did genuinely nothing for 2 weeks.
    via No_Price6028
  • So on Saturday I got my drill out. I unscrewed the hinges, screwed a new board over the gap, and left the gate leaning. against their car. Am I wrong?
    via No_Price6028
  • A man building a wooden fence.
    via duckycards

    A man building a wooden fence.

    Model for explanatory purposes only.  

  • Wrong_turnipp You handled that fine. They didn't pay a cent for the fence, then just cut a gate into it without even asking you. That's wild. If they think they have
    via Wrong_turnipp
  • some legal right to do that because it's on the property line, they can actually prove it instead of just making sh up. You gave them two weeks to fix it and they did nothing, so taking the gate off was fair
    via Wrong_turnipp
  • Eggplant|||4927 so they can trespass? through your yard at their will? H I no! you need a camera back there for their next move because we all know they will make a new move.
    via Eggplant4927
  • Help_meToo I am confused. Did they put a gate to access your yard so they could get to the alley? Or did they attached a the hinges to a post for a gate in their yard?
    via Help_meToo
  • xptx Only mistake is leaning it against the car. They could. claim damage. Putting it flat on the lawn is more inconvenient to move
    via xptx
  • sarcadistic75 Being a boundary fence I am pretty sure only means they are allowed to attach to it in most municipalities. But I would pull up the regulations
    via sarcadistic75
  • that apply to you. Assuming that's the case if they damage it again, I would take them to small claims for the cost of both repairs.
    via sarcadistic75

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neighbors neighborhood fence homeowner fences back yard property property line entitled people
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