I'm devastated, any advice please ?

meer53

The hedge has been the same height for the last 6 or 7 years, no-one has asked me to trim it, it's kept neatly trimmed and doesnt encroach on my neighbours gardens or their properties. I never let it grow more than it is at present. My neighbours house is a good 5 metres from the hedge, their living room is at the front of their house, the hedge is at the back. By their actions today, we have BOTH lost privacy, i really don't understand their reasons for doing what they've done. I couldn't get any reply today when i went round, not to argue with them, just to ask why they hadn't come and discussed it with me. BUT, another neighbour has spoken to the neighbour involved and she says she doesn't know anything about the hedge being cut !!!!

I wouldnt have minded them cutting the hedge, it would have saved me some money !! But, to cut it as they have, there is absolutely no chance that it will recover and now i have to stand the cost of replacing it.

Scrummy Mummy, it won't happen again, there's no hedge left to cut down, i know for a fact that my other neighbours (there are 5 other neighbours whose gardens are bordered by my hedge) would never do this without speaking to me. There have been no issues at all with anyone else. The neighbour concerned has lived here longer than i have, i'm going to try to speak to them again tomorrow but from what i've heard this evening, they don't want to discuss it. Cowards.

meer53

gazza975526570 wrote: »

Maybe the bit they cut off was over their property. If so they are perfectly, legally able to do so.

For the neighbout to do this in the first place they must have been at their wits end with it. I cant see how going to the Police would do anything than lead to further problems with their neighbours. Do the neighbourly thing and cut the whole thing down to a reasonable level.

The hedge was a reasonable level, if they were at their wits end, i'm a perfectly reasonable person, they should have spoken to me first and i would have arranged for it to be cut for them.

walkers-crisps_are_evil

Your neighbour sounds like a right piece of work to put it politely. 2m hedge is normally sufficient for privacy but there is no law on what height it should be I believe. What ever hangs over onto there side of the fence is fair game for trimming off. If as it sounds, they have trashed the hedge to the stumps on your property then I agree that is criminal damage as you're right it probably won't regrow and now you have to fork out to start a new hedge. Shame they didn't read this useful government guide if they had concerns: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/overgardenhedge.pdf

Leif

meer53 wrote: »

The hedge was a reasonable level, if they were at their wits end, i'm a perfectly reasonable person, they should have spoken to me first and i would have arranged for it to be cut for them.

Was the part they cut overhanging their property? If so, then in a legal sense they have done no wrong. If not, then it is criminal damage, although I am not sure the police would be keen to intervene.

meer53

Leif wrote: »

Was the part they cut overhanging their property? If so, then in a legal sense they have done no wrong. If not, then it is criminal damage, although I am not sure the police would be keen to intervene.

The neighbour next door to them has the same hedge which she trims on her side, no issues, she doesn't sling the trimmings over on to my garden ! If anything was overhanging it would be because of the width of the hedge, not the height. If they were so upset by it, and had spoken to me about it, i would have asked my gardener to go round and trim it for them, it would take about 10 minutes.

I've called the Police, they're coming in the morning to see me. From what i can see, it's criminal damage, no discussion, no letter, no phone call, the hedge will die now. The fact it's half a hedge makes it even worse, i now have a hedge, half of which is 5 feet shorter than the rest.

It's not a small garden, it's a quarter of an acre, it now looks ridiculous, conifers on 3 sides with a huge gap where there is 5 feet missing !

Davesnave

The hedge is not necessarily going to die, but while it's recovering, could you not buy your daughter a trampoline and position it so that she & her mates can bounce around there all summer?

meer53

Davesnave wrote: »

The hedge is not necessarily going to die, but while it's recovering, could you not buy your daughter a trampoline and position it so that she & her mates can bounce around there all summer?

Funny you should say that, we have a huge trampoline ! My other neighbour suggests removing the hedge and the fence altogether and leaving the garden wide open on to their garden. I'm thinking about it !

I'm going to take a photo later for my records, i'll try to post it if i can. You'll see why i say there is no way the hedge will recover.

Leif

meer53 wrote: »

Funny you should say that, we have a huge trampoline ! My other neighbour suggests removing the hedge and the fence altogether and leaving the garden wide open on to their garden. I'm thinking about it !

I'm going to take a photo later for my records, i'll try to post it if i can. You'll see why i say there is no way the hedge will recover.

I think I misunderstood your original post. I thought they had cut the back side of the hedge, so that the front side remained. But they have cut the complete thickness of hedge, for half its length. That is criminal damage.

meer53

The Police have just been. The neighbour was very obstructive and not willing to do anything about the hedge so the PC suggested calling her daughter to try to resolve things as it was her husband who cut the hedge. It was only when the PC mentioned criminal damage that she was called !

She came round with the PC and she was really upset, she'd asked her husband to take a foot off the top of the hedge ! When i asked her why they hadn't spoken to me about it, she said "you weren't in" ! I was out for 2 hours yesterday, i'm in every afternoon from 3.45 onwards.

Anyway, they're going to arrange for the huge pile of trees to be removed and i'm going to wait and see how the hedge recovers. She was quite reasonable, i'm glad i called the Police, from what the PC said, there was no way my neighbour was going to speak to me.

scrummy-mummy

I'm glad you managed to talk to them and didn't mean to sound unsympathetic in my reply.

We have neighbours who are always complaining about people who infringe upon their privacy or garden but obviously feel no compulsion to keep their climbing plants and ivy bush in order.

They are also quite 'sensitive' due to the issues they had with the former owner of my house so it does make them difficult to deal with when we do want to trim their overhanging foliage back and often it is easier to trim back the overhanging bushes when they're not around.

I am in no way implying you are like this (you sound reasonable to me) but it is difficult to approach neighbours sometimes when you feel that they have already ignored an issue and are expecting you to ask for permission to enjoy your own garden.