Overgown hedge

Filey

I have been letting a house with the same agent for about ten years. It's a smallish company and they have been very good. I leave most things to them and have had a good relationship. As I have been living abroad I haven't been near the property for some years.

However, it turns out that a Leylandi hedge in the back garden has been allowed to grow out of control and is now at least 15 feet tall, so I've been told, and neighbours are complaining. At first I was going to have it reduced in height, but it seems to be a problem widthwise as well, so I have decided to have the whole thing removed and replaced with a fence.

Access to the street is only by a passage between my house and the next so it will be quite a difficult job removing everything. Obviously it is not going to be cheap.

It has occurred to me that shouldn't the agents have picked up on this sooner. The tenancy agreement simply says something about keeping the garden tidy, so I assume when it was inspected as long as the hedge had had a haircut then the height and width was not taken into account.

If the agents bear any responsibility hedgewise I would be happy to reach an agreement with them about sharing the not insignificant costs of the proposed operation.

I am wondering what members think.

AnnieO1234

Personally I feel "keep a garden tidy" both as a former tenant and current landlord means exactly that. Keep it tidy, sweep up, trim, mow the lawn etc but don't start messing with planting, layout or major works with trees. I wouldn't expect a tenant to be responsible for Leyland Cypress hedges. Plus if your tenants have been short term lets there's very little chance it will have been picked up on by the tenants concerned.

X

stator

Just because the neighbours are complaining doesn't mean it's a problem. They naturally grow talls and there's reason to think it wasn't intended to grow that tall by the owner (you)

pinkteapot

AnnieO1234 wrote: »

Personally I feel "keep a garden tidy" both as a former tenant and current landlord means exactly that. Keep it tidy, sweep up, trim, mow the lawn etc but don't start messing with planting, layout or major works with trees. I wouldn't expect a tenant to be responsible for Leyland Cypress hedges. Plus if your tenants have been short term lets there's very little chance it will have been picked up on by the tenants concerned.

X

Agree completely with this. I would see tree and hedge work as the landlord's responsibility and not falling under "keep the garden tidy" unless specified. An annual conifer maintenance trim by a tree surgery company is pretty expensive, and I wouldn't expect to bear that cost as a tenant at all. The wording is so loose too - the tenant could simply argue that the hedge is tidy in their eyes.

Whether you can try and hold the letting agent responsible depends on the wording of the contract you have with them, and what exactly they're meant to keep an eye on for you, but seems unlikely you'll get far.

Dan-Dan

Hold the agent responsible for your tree ?

Yep , good luck with that one

princeofpounds

If you stay there for a year as a tenant, the tree isn't going to grow a vast amount and you wouldn't really even know that anything would need doing to it, even if it were your responsibility as a tenant.

Given it is a multiple-tree row of leylandii, it probably comes under hedge control regulations. If your neighbours complain to the council then you might be forced to sort it out and pay a fee, so you might as well address it now if it is a problem.

Let's be honest, the agents have probably never sent around anyone to inspect who remembers your house from the last time, let alone a tree. And they wouldn't even know what you were planning to do with the thing.

AdrianC

I can't see it being THAT expensive to remove - or even trim-back drastically. How many actual trunks are there? No need even for a chainsaw - although it will make it easier. One half-way competent gardener for half a day will have it sorted, with change.

Installing a decent fence is going to be the more expensive bit.

dimbo61

Good Luck with that one !
We had about 7 Leylandii trees in our back garden so one day I decided they had to come down.
Four hours and one very full car later and I had only removed the branches on half of one tree.
In the end we got a tree firm in to cut down all the trees and drill the stumps out,
With the right tools it is easy, chain saw, large van ,ETC


http://www.leylandii.com/leylandii.html


Good website about overgrown trees


http://treechoppers.co.uk/tree-surgery/tree-surgery.html


Get in the experts


You can put the cost against TAX

kinger101

If you pick inappropriate plants for your garden, it's your fault. It would be fair to expect a tenant to trim a box hedge, but not a Leylandii. It simply becomes unmanageable.

G_M

You cannot claim the cost off the tenants. Major tree work is not 'keeping the garden tidy.

Can you claim off the agents? Yes, of course. provided your contract with them specifies that they must

* pay (from the rental income) for annual tree trimming which they've failed to do or

* inspect the trees anually (or whatever) and give you a report

* or similar

Filey

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

The hedge was already planted when I first bought the house. Not my choice of hedging plant! While I was there it was kept under control. It has been let under the care of agents since 2002. There was a fashion for Lleylandii some years ago and I think a lot of people came to rue the day when they found out how fast they grow and how often they need trimming. Not so many about these day as a lot of people have had them taken out.


My thoughts on some of your replies

Stator. If the neighbours are complaining I consider it my problem and the last thing I want to do is fall out with them which is why I am taking action.

G_M. No way am I expecting the tenants to foot the bill. What made you think that? Had the agents mentioned a problem to me earlier I would gladly have authorised an annual hedge trim. And of course paid for it. However as I wasn't informed there was a problem it didn't occur to me to take any action.

Dimbo61. Thanks for the links.

AdrianC. It's definitely a chainsaw job! And you can't drastically cut back Lleylandi as if you cut into the wood they won't regenerate, unlike hedges such as beech, hawthorne or privet.You can only trim the green part which is able to regrow. I have now been told the 'hedge' is about 8 feet wide as well as 15 to 20 feet high, so it is likely to be more than an afternoon's work I would think.

princeofpounds. As you can see from my post, I AM addressing the problem now.