fence and boundary question

[candide]

We have a 20m boundary with a neighbour.  It is at the front of our house, and the back  (garage) side of his.  It is, therefore, where he hangs his washing, parks many cars, does building work etc.  Obviously, I quite understand that he has a right to do all these things - and I have never complained - I would just prefer to screen it off so that we can have a pretty garden in front of our house. 

When we occasionally put something which doesn't please him near the boundary (temporary piles of tiles left by builder, piles of prunings etc.) he complains in a very  agressive way. 

Over the last 6 years we have gently broached the question of a fence, not wanting to fall out with our neighbours, but he is against it.  Recently he has pulled out some of our plants, half of which we planted on land belonging to a third party through ignorance of the French cadastral system.  However, the third party said nothing.  Had he pointed out our error, we would obviously have rectified it immediately.  It was the difficult neighbour who pulled them up and disposed of them when we were away. (It is a holiday house). I cannot accept that this was a reasonable way to behave, and I now think a fence is essential.

I don't think he will agree, because he likes to give the impression that he has more land than he has.  We will pay for the fence - this is not the issue.  My question is, how far does the fence have to be in from the boundary, to avoid any possible redress from him?  And do we have to get agreement from him, even if we are putting it in from the boundary?

I would be grateful for any advice from anyone who has come across a similar problem.  Thank you!

 

 

[Albert the infopikey]

First stop the Mairie! I was reading up on fencing because we'll have to fence our plot once the purchase is complete. I don't have the reference handy but I'm pretty sure that there's a specific type of declaration de travaux that covers fences, boundary walls etc.

I'd expect that a fence could go on (1 cm inside!) the boundary, whereas hedges have to be set in, depending on how high they are likely to get, to allow for trimming without going next door.

Do you have bornes to mark the extremities of the boundary? If not you'll probably need to get a geometre to do the necessary just to make sure Mr Nasty can't justify a complaint.

I've just done a quick Google on "declaration cloture" and come up with

http://www.gemeaux.free.fr/admin/docs/edifier_cloture.htm

and

http://www.castorama.fr/conseils/guide_juridique/sujet.jhtml?themeid=3&_requestid=55226

The Castorama one is a FAQ that covers most of what you're likely to need.

Best of British.