how can they get away with this

garry1974

my neighbours today have cut back a hedge that is on the boundary line. what concerns me is that there was nesting birds in the hedge well there was but think they destroyed the nest with all the hacking they have done.
secondly the hedge is on my side of the boundary and my neighbours have a habit of letting it grow then once a year they hack it back. but this time they have hacked it back to far about 1 foot on our side of the boundary and have sawed out and removed large branches at the base on our side of the boundary line. all the honeysuckle has started to die on our side iof the bourndary also.
what do i do they have only done half the hedge so far i have taken pics i am so worried the whole hedge is going to die and im convinced this is what they are trying to achieve or they are upto something else.

we had problems when we moved in about 7 years ago there was basically no fence between our properties at the bottom of the garden and they built a one breeze block high wall on out boundary line they claim it was to stop flooding in there garden.

what should i do ? leave them to it or go round and risk them doing worse to the hedge

amcluesent

IF the hedge really is on your side of the boundary, then that's criminal damage. However, if the foliage was over 2m high, they may claim that you were deliberately growing a 'hedge from hell'.

garry1974

the hedge is not 2 mtrs high they have cut it back before but not like this. and its not the top they have cut its the width they have cut back as the highest bits are on my side of the boundary. with it being criminal damage should i go round and ask them to stop cutting it back or should i call the police. the police option seems a bit extreme.

TarunTaru

garry1974 wrote: »

my neighbours today have cut back a hedge that is on the boundary line. what concerns me is that there was nesting birds in the hedge well there was but think they destroyed the nest with all the hacking they have done.
secondly the hedge is on my side of the boundary and my neighbours have a habit of letting it grow then once a year they hack it back. but this time they have hacked it back to far about 1 foot on our side of the boundary and have sawed out and removed large branches at the base on our side of the boundary line. all the honeysuckle has started to die on our side iof the bourndary also.
what do i do they have only done half the hedge so far i have taken pics i am so worried the whole hedge is going to die and im convinced this is what they are trying to achieve or they are upto something else.



we had problems when we moved in about 7 years ago there was basically no fence between our properties at the bottom of the garden and they built a one breeze block high wall on out boundary line they claim it was to stop flooding in there garden.

what should i do ? leave them to it or go round and risk them doing worse to the hedge

Hi, we've had similar issues recently, and found out that it is actually illegal to cut hedges in which birds are nesting. I'm not sure who your best port of call is with this one, police or wildlife conservation, but just to pass on the info

JupObs

If it's your hedge then I think you should take responsibility for cutting both sides of it IMO.

garry1974

JupObs wrote: »

If it's your hedge then I think you should take responsibility for cutting both sides of it IMO.

lol you havent met my nieghbours i would happily go round there and cut it for them. they are entitled to cut the hedge upto the boundary line and they are suppose to offer me the trimmings also. might pop round tommorow and hopefully they will just say they got carried away with there hedge trimming and will not cut so much back on the remaining hedge.

harib0uk

I would talk to them personally.. when we moved in here almost 5 years ago there was (still is) a laylandi hedge.It's bang on the boundary line and our deeds don't state who is to look after which side. The leylandi trees were so wide the took up most of our garden path meaning we had walk partly on the grass.

We spoke to the neighbours who were at the time medical students, one of the guys father owned the property, they weren't bothered and said we could do what we liked. We chopped the trees right back to the boundary on our side and chopped the tops off to about 6ft. The fact the sides were chopped back so much it means they haven't really grown much over the past 4 years, but we have to chop the top twice a year to keep it under control - in fact there is one tree at the bottom that seems to have always been left to grow and it's huge! totally blocks the light of the house behind!

Ideally I'd like to get rid of them and put a fence up, but we are unfortunately not in a position to be able to afford to have them removed.