they want us to pay the damage in the fence caused by our tree

Make sure you take picture of the damaged part of the fence. Don’t let your neighor make more damage on it.

I dont think you should pay anything, I mean its not like you damaged the fence, its an accident caused by nature.

At most, you should pay to repair the damaged portion, but even that’s questionable.

It sounds lile your neighbor is trying to coerce you into buying a whole new fence. A neighbor like that deserves to be skrewed.

Tell them they can pay for a whole new fence on their own if that’s what they want, because you are perfectly happy with the current one.

toadaly is right if a bit of a fence breaks, it can easily be repaired, only an idiot or someone with money to watse would bother getting a whole new one and no, you should not pay for a whole new fence because you didnt break any of it, let alone all of it I wouldnt pay them anythhing at all and the tree…its a tree, its not you, its not your car, you didnt ride a motorbike through it or anything a tree that has probably been there for many years suddenly ruined a fence with its ruits thats an act of nature, its not your fault

Offer to pay for the damaged part - that is your responsibility. If he insists on getting a whole new fence, tell him to take you to court.

The judge will see what your neighbour is trying to do, and just may even throw it out of court on account of the neighbour’s scam. Either way - you won’t be paying for a whole fence.

You need to do your part, though. make sure you keep track of when you talk to the neighbour, what was said, and try to have witnesses. Get a few estimates on the cost of repairing the damaged part of the fence. That way, if you do have to go to court, you’ll have done your homework.