Danger from neighbour's garden

Elsewhere

My friend's house is built on the side of a very steep hill (it was once a stone quarry). Her back garden rises extremely steeply - it's terraced at the bottom, but the top is an almost vertical grassy bank with an untidy hedge at the top.

The houses behind are on the flattish top of the hill and face in the opposite direction, so the back garden of the neighbour who shares my friend's back boundary just slopes gently down to the straggly hedge.

Last week my friend decided to prune the hedge to tidy it up. After a while, when she could see the larger branches at the base, she realised that the hedge was leaning into her garden - because a large old garden roller belonging to the neighbour was resting against it and is obviously pushing the hedge over!

Should the hedge give way that roller will hurtle down the bank and destroy my friend's greenhouse and shed (though she thinks it would miss the house) - and if anyone's in the way they are pretty certain to be killed, I reckon.

My friend has been round to the neighbour (an elderly lady) to ask if the roller could be moved - and offered to find a couple of strong people to do so, but the neighbour refused - she said she didn't have anywhere else to put it.

My friend is going to go again this week and try to persuade her to change her mind, but if she doesn't succeed I said she should write the neighbour a letter describing the problem so that the lady can't say she didn't know of the danger if the hedge fails. Should she copy the letter to anyone else, for instance her insurance company, or the Council's Environmental Health? Is there anyone official who could force the lady to move the roller? As most such problems are with trees, or dangerous buildings we don't know who to approach if the lady is uncooperative.

SidP

It might be advisable for your friend to speak to someone in a professional capacity regarding the likelihood of the roller actually doing what your friend is concerned it might—someone with the relevant qualification who can speak with authority of the possible outcomes of the roller continuing to press against the hedge. Their opinion should be offered in writing as well as verbally. I can't stress enough how vital it is that the professional have valid and relevant credentials. Who you would go to exactly I'm not sure, but I can't imagine it would be an expensive thing.

In doing this, your friend stops this from turning into a mere battle of opinions between two residents. Those never end well.

paddyrg

Has your friend got/can knock up a couple of wedges to stop the problem becoming a problem?

pollypenny

The council should be able to help. Ring their Environmental Health Dep.

dacouch

paddyrg wrote: »

Has your friend got/can knock up a couple of wedges to stop the problem becoming a problem?

The neighboor must have miss heard when someone recommended wedges as hedges

paddedjohn

Drive a couple of stakes into the ground on your side of the boundary to stop the roller. There you go problem solved.

mixedwrestling

pollypenny wrote: »

The council should be able to help. Ring their Environmental Health Dep.

This would be the best course of action. Get it logged officially - make a record of any contact you make with them too.