Fence Removal When You Share a Fence With a Neighbor
Sharing a fence with your neighbor in Boise? Here's who pays for fence removal, where the property line falls, and how to get it done without starting a feud.
Last spring a guy over on the Boise Bench called us because half his back fence had come down in a windstorm. The other half, the stretch that ran along his neighbor's lot, was still up but leaning hard. He wanted it all gone so he could put in something new, and he figured the fence removal would be the simple part.
His first question wasn't about price, though. It was, "Can I even touch the part that's technically on the line?"
Good question. And it comes up more than you'd think.
Fence removal gets a lot more complicated the second another household is involved. The fence isn't just yours anymore. Sometimes it's not clear whose it is at all. So before you rent a reciprocating saw or call anybody, it's worth sorting out a few things.
Who actually owns the fence?
Here's the part people get wrong. Just because a fence sits on the property line doesn't mean you can rip it out on a whim.
If the fence is fully on your side of the line, it's yours. Do what you want. But if it straddles the boundary, or your neighbor paid for it, or the two of you split the cost years ago, then it's shared property in the eyes of most folks and most courts. You can't tear out something you both own without a conversation first.
Idaho also has a "good neighbor" custom baked into how a lot of these disputes shake out. Boundary fences usually get treated as a shared responsibility, especially when both sides have been leaning on the fence to keep a dog in or mark the yard.
So step one isn't demolition. It's a knock on the door.
The neighbor conversation nobody wants to have
I know. Talking to your neighbor about a fence feels like the setup to a sitcom argument. But it's the single thing that saves people the most grief.
Keep it simple. Tell them what you're planning, when you're doing it, and ask if they want in. A few ways it usually goes:
- They're glad you're handling it and don't care what you do
- They want to split the cost of removal and a new fence
- They like the old fence and want the shared section left alone
That third one matters. If your neighbor wants their side kept, you may only be removing the portion that's clearly yours and stopping at the property line. That's still very doable. It's just a different quote than tearing out the whole run.
Get whatever you agree on in a text. Not because your neighbor's shady, but because memories get fuzzy six months later when the new fence goes up two inches the wrong direction.
What fence removal costs when the fence is shared
Cost depends less on who owns the fence and more on what it's made of, how long it runs, and what's holding the posts in the ground. Concrete footings are the big variable. Those old posts set in a bell of concrete take real muscle to pull.
Here's a rough range for the Boise area so you're not going in blind:
| Fence type | Typical removal range | What drives the price |
|---|---|---|
| Wood privacy (100 ft) | $400–$900 | Post footings, hauling volume |
| Chain link (100 ft) | $300–$700 | Concrete anchors, gate posts |
| Vinyl or composite | $400–$1,000 | Deep-set posts, careful teardown |
| Old barbed/wire farm fence | $250–$600 | Length, tangle, T-post count |
When the cost is shared, the math is easy. You split the total however the two of you agree, usually right down the middle. If you're only pulling your half, expect roughly half the footage price, though the setup and haul-off costs don't shrink perfectly in half. You can see how we scope this kind of work on our fence removal page.
One more thing on cost. Doing part of it yourself to save money is fine, but it's not always the win people expect. We break down where DIY actually pays off in our post on fence removal in Boise: DIY vs. hiring a pro. Short version: the posts and concrete are where weekends go to die.
How the property line changes a fence removal job
When we remove a shared fence, the line dictates everything. If both neighbors want it gone, we clear the whole run and haul it off. If only your side is coming out, we cut clean at the boundary and leave their structure sound. No half-supported posts, no wobbly end sections dumped on the neighbor.
A clean shared-fence removal is a lot more than snapping the panels off. We confirm the property line before anything comes down, then pull the posts and concrete footings instead of leaving stubs in the ground. We backfill the holes so nobody twists an ankle, sort the wood, metal, and concrete for the right drop-off, and haul it all out the same day.
That last part matters more than people realize. Old fencing doesn't just vanish. Metal and chain link head to Western Recycling, clean wood gets sorted, and the rest goes to the Ada County landfill. You're not left with a pile of splintered pickets and rusty T-posts leaning against the garage for three weekends.
And if you're pulling the fence to put in a new one, timing helps. Getting the old fence removal done a few days before your new fence crew shows up gives the post holes time to be reset properly. Trying to do both in one afternoon is how mistakes happen.
Bottom line
Sharing a fence doesn't have to turn removal into a headache. Figure out who owns it, have the two-minute conversation with your neighbor, get the agreement in writing, and know where the line actually sits. Do those four things and the teardown itself is the easy part.
If you've got a shared fence in Boise, Meridian, or Nampa and you're not sure how to handle the line, give us a call at (208) 593-2877. Happy to take a look and tell you straight what makes sense, even if that's just pulling your half and leaving the neighbor's alone.
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