Hedge and neighbours

Mrs_Imp

I hope I can get this to make sense, so I'll go slowly, and hope I don't bore you.

We moved in 3 years ago. There is a hedge on our land between ourselves and the neighbours. They have already told us that they don't like the hedge. I like the hedge as the flowers are pretty, as are the berries. We want to grow the hedge a little taller to about 6ft. We don't often cut it so it can look a little scruffy, but we have a baby, which takes up a lot of our time, and we're trying to renovate the house, so the garden is taking a bit of a back seat.

Last year they cut through one of the main branches to the hedge about a foot off the ground causing a large chunk to die and the hedge to thin out. It looks like the branch curved slightly on to their property (about 6inches or so) and it was cut off so it didn't encroach on to their property. Today I went out in to the garden and they'd lobbed a load of hedge clippings on to our lawn, including some sizeable brambles (I do try and keep the brambles tamed) and trimmed the top off the bit we're trying to grow taller.

Are you still with me??!!

Anyway, to my questions...
I know it's our hedge, but is it right for them to trim their side and lob the bits in to our garden? Had my 7 month old been playing on the lawn when they did it then he could've been hurt
Are they allowed to trim the top off?
Can I return their cats poo from all over our lawn to them?

I'm annoyed, because they could've just said 'the hedge is looking a little scruffy, would you mind trimming it a little' and we would've done.

If you got this far, thanks for reading

sirbrainy

Local councils' advice varies black & white one way and the other.

Neighbours ALWAYS have an absolute right to cut back branches & roots from anything growing into their property (listed trees: seek advice though).

It seems neighbours MUST always offer the cuttings back to the owner.

Many councils also advise placing the cuttings carefully into the owner's property as a default.

Others say: offer the cuttings then if the answer is no, neighbour must dispose.

I would say: 6 ft is fine so who cares if your neighbour doesnt like your hedge? But trim your hedge neatly - it takes 20 minutes. Brambles should be cut out by you, takes 30 seconds a stem. Ignore idiot neighbours - but politely not with anger/rudeness/disdain/speech.

muskoka

Sorry, dont want to take over thread, but any idea of neighbours are obliged to remove an elder tree from 'their' hedge? i.e. neighbours house is a council house please? and thanks

sirbrainy

muskoka wrote: »

Sorry, dont want to take over thread, but any idea of neighbours are obliged to remove an elder tree from 'their' hedge? i.e. neighbours house is a council house please? and thanks

They don't need to remove anything.

It's up to you to remove anything that crosses the boundary.

If there's an unsightly elder tree in their hedge (that might spread suckers into your land) they are under no obligation to do anything.

amcluesent

If you got this far, thanks for reading

TBH you sound like a neighbour from hell. A hedge 6 foot high is ample for anyone and having a baby is no excuse for letting brambles grow rampant. Just saying.

sirbrainy

amcluesent wrote: »

TBH you sound like a neighbour from hell. A hedge 6 foot high is ample for anyone and having a baby is no excuse for letting brambles grow rampant. Just saying.

That's very unfair. Here we have a mild mannered request for advice, somebody who does not perhaps understand their obligations regarding the hedge nor the neighbour's rights - and you are labelling them the neighbour from hell.

They may be the neighbour from hell.

They may NOT be the neighbour from hell.

I simply do not know.

But what I do know is that this is the Grenfingered Moneysaving Forum where we are friendly, we share advice, we help each other.

So: with all due respect to you, my friend: please pipe down a bit and stop the horrible rudeness, we all get too much of that these days and no call for it here.

WeegieWumman

Some councils regard a 6 foot hedge as too high because items of washing which are hanging out to dry often catch on the hedge causing snags in the material. This is one of the reasons why councils/landscapers usually don't erect high fencing between gardens

Patchwork_Quilt

The best thing to do is be apologetic - even if it doesn't feel like your fault - and promise to keep the hedge trimmed in future. They don't really have the right to trim the top of it if it's yours so the best thing to do is trim it very slightly every year so that it gets taller whilst looking neat.

Good luck.

muskoka

sirbrainy wrote: »

They don't need to remove anything.

It's up to you to remove anything that crosses the boundary.

If there's an unsightly elder tree in their hedge (that might spread suckers into your land) they are under no obligation to do anything.

I get on extremely well with my neighbour & I know she has said to me she needs to get it removed, but as she's in a Council house I just wondered if they may have done it for her. Bless, her shes also just lost her baby, so whatever we can do to help, we will be doing AND yes, we'll probably end up getting the elder out for her - whilst we got to remove some from our own garden also. I didnt even notice the one in her hedge, she pointed it out to me. Its only since moving here, neighbours have advised me (nicely) to remove the elder trees as suffocating our other trees.

jackieb

We have a large tree in the corner of our garden. We moved in here 3 years ago. We've cut down or trimmed back all our other trees but can't do that one as the neighbour over the back has put his greenhouse right under it. No idea why he did this as he has a big garden and this tree and house were here at least 20 years before his was built. He cuts branches and just chucks them over our wall. I've no problem with that. Just wish he'd move his greenhouse so we can get in and do it ourselves. Why would you put a greenhouse under a big tree anyway? It'd be in the shade!

Mrs_Imp

Thanks Sirbrainy. Useful info. I'm trying very hard to keep my mouth shut and keep the peace, especially as I know it's going to take longer to clear up than if they'd asked us to cut it in the first place. I know that it's going to be better to keep the peace than to fall out with them. So I'll probably just let it go this time and grin and bear it

I have been trying to keep the brambles well trimmed on our side, and attack them whenever I get the chance as I'd hate for our son to be speared by a thorn, so I found it very annoying to be faced with more to clear up from our lawn. I have no way of knowing if the brambles originate in our garden or their garden to be honest.

Amcluesent - nowhere did I say that we have brambles running rampant. The only 'rampant' brambles are those from our neighbour's front garden encroaching in to our front garden, which we regularly trim back.

We would like a 6 foot hedge as they like to peer in to our garden to see what we're up to.

I'd love to let my son play on our lawn while I do gardening, but can't risk it as their cat poos all over the grass.

Weegiewumman - if there was a chance of them snagging their washing on the hedge then I might do something about it, but there's not. There's more chance of snagging our own washing on it!

I will be thinking twice about posting on here again, as it's really not nice to be accused of being a neighbour from hell when I'm just asking for advice on what my neighbours can and can't do to my hedge.