Fence dispute

[paul_am]

Hi, I have an issue with my neighbour over ownership of the boundary fence between us and I'm after some advice and if anyone else has had a similar issue.

Our neighbour wanted to replace the fence panels, I stated that I believe the fence is his responsibility as it is on his land (fence posts start on the back wall of his garage, going straight down the garden) but I suggested we still go halfs on it.  To note, he replaced the original boundary (tall bushes) with concrete posts and fence some time ago before we moved in.

Our neighbour then stated a week later saying he believes the fence is on our land but that he owned the panels and posts because he paid for all the materials when he did the work originally several years ago.  Because of this, he then told us that we had to pay for the panels, with him still doing the work, and that he had the right to remove the panels any time he wanted to as they were his property, even though they are on our land according to him.

We said yes to this as we didn't want him to take the panels down and remove our privacy.  As our side is painted we bought more paint for him to coat the panels with on our side.  He then bought more panels (which we would reimburse him for) but then cancelled the order after one day because he said we never took the paint over and so voided the agreement (we tried to take the paint over twice to him, one time he refused as he didn't have time, the other time he said he was asleep at 7:30pm.

After that, we said to him that we will get someone in to do the fence but he wanted to "vet" whoever we got before agreeing to this.  We said no to this as we would be paying for the panels, therefore its solely our decision who we get in to do the work.  He refused to accept this and said that because the posts are his property we would need to get permission from him before putting panels in.  As we couldn't agree we told him we would leave it as it was too stressful to deal with him.

A month passed with nothing happening until we came back from a weekend away to find that he had removed the panels and burned them without giving us advanced warning.  I spoke to him the following morning to ask what his plans were, he replied saying he would get more panels "in his own time".  I said again we would sort it ourselves and pay for everything as we wanted our privacy back but he re-iterated that he wouldn't let us put panels on his property, even though his property is on our land.

As he states he's built something on our land, can he legally still claim to own it if its on our land and not his?  For the record, I think the fence is on his land as everything points towards that fact, however without the deeds no-one can say for sure.