[IshKebab]

Usually there is nobody to ask though, and if you're refactoring a mess then the code won't give you a clear answer. The only way to find out if the was a reason the fence is there is to remove it and see what goes wrong which is what you were going to do anyway.

[dotancohen]

Actually, the right place to ask is the unit tests or integration tests. Though there seems to be an inverse relationship between the code that needs refactoring and the prevalence of proper tests.

[shabbyrobe]

... which is a form of questioning why it's present. "Attempting to change it" in this situation is more like "submitting the pull request[1]" than "editing the code". The PR tends to only come together after one or more rounds of "git stash, try again".

[1]: or merging your branch, if you're solo.

[darepublic]

Short of doing that, talking to the stakeholders could help? I feel like if you understand the actual requirements you can safely make those refactoring decisions