Who owns the old fence?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
The fence between our yard and our neighbor is badly damaged. It is wooden and over 30 years old. The house next door is owned by an out of state owner, who rents to several family members. We have an estimate to replace the fence and have tried several ways to contact the owner. Her response in the past has been to agree that the fence needs replacement, but "wants to use cinder block" when it is replaced in some vague future time. We cannot affort the cost for cinder block. We are in the process of sending her a registered letter, expressing our liability concerns over the fence. We indicate in the letter that any work on the fence could not begin without written permission from her. We are fully aware that we may end up paying for any fence that is finally put up. To save us the full cost of the fence, we are considering moving in 18" to erect a fence soley on our property, leaving the old damaged fence on the property line for her to deal with. This fence may be a combination of wood and hedge or chain link. Our question is, if the old "property line" fence eventually falls and injures a person or damages something, are we still liable, even though we have erected a seperate fence?

The fact that you have erected a new fence does not change your potential legal liability.

How much could removal possibly cost? Seems like you should just get the permission to remove it. In California you can also force your neighbor to share the cost of a joint fence. I don't believe that's true if you build it 18" into your property.

who owns the fence

Thanks for the advice. I figured we would be liable, just a faint hope that we could move fence in and solve our problem. Seems like we will need a lawyer to get this done, unless I hear from the owner with an ok to remove the old fence. Then the problem is, how much leeway do we have in what type of fence we replace it with? Can we document that the fence is bad, pay for whatever we think works, ie: using a cheaper chain link fence or a 4 foot in stead of a 6 foot wooden one? Can you tell me what the CA law is to "make" her pay her half? Small claims? Lien? Can we ask in a lien that if she doesn't pay in a certain time that interest incurs? We are retired and a $2000 fence bill is not a fun thing for us to think about!