Advice on neighbours hedges

kell87

Hi all
I'm looking for some advice regarding my neighbours hedges, we have hedges surrounding our property, ours all the usual front garden fence size as are my other next door neighbours except the one that's on the boundary line of my other neighbour which are around 10foot tall, it looks completely stupid and is cutting my garden off from the rest of the street, they have all there hedges that size so you basically can't see their property.
I would like them cut down to a normal size as I look out of my window and all I can see from my sofa is these hedges.
What are my rights regarding this? I live in a council property and they do too.
Can I ask for them to be cut down to a normal size? It's really anoyying me now, I know if I ask them I'll probably get screemed at by them, but surely this is too over grown for a front garden? I could understand if it was the back garden.
Please can someone advise me as I'm clueless as to wether I can ask them to be cut to a reasonable height.
Thanks

marleyboy

I had my front hedges around the same height in my last house, as I did not want people to be able to leer into my windows.

If you were talking about 20ft then maybe there would be a height issue with light being blocked, but at 10 feet they are well within their rights to keep it that way.

Old_Git

anything more than 2 meters high they can be forced to cut down .
first approach is to ask them to trim the hedge ,then refer it to the landlord (your council )


https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9411/highhedgescomplaining.pdf

sheramber

Is there anthing in your tenenacy agreement about keeping the hedge trimmed.

ellie27

I would much rather see a hedge than other houses/folk peering in etc.

Davesnave

There is no magic bullet.

The council will only look at this if you discuss it with your neighbour first and reach deadlock.

Then, you will have to pay the council to mediate and, if necessary, come to a binding decision, as per Old Git's post and link.

Finally, if they agree that your enjoyment of your property is severely compromised, the council will act to reduce the hedge.

Then, possibly, time will pass and you might well find yourself back where you started.

This might not be what you want to hear, but it's as close to a real world outline as I can write.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

There is no magic bullet.

The council will only look at this if you discuss it with your neighbour first and reach deadlock.

Then, you will have to pay the council to mediate and, if necessary, come to a binding decision, as per Old Git's post and link.

Finally, if they agree that your enjoyment of your property is severely compromised, the council will act to reduce the hedge.

Then, possibly, time will pass and you might well find yourself back where you started.

This might not be what you want to hear, but it's as close to a real world outline as I can write.

I would say that about sums it up accurately - apart from the last paragraph. On that last para. I'm optimistic enough to think the neighbour would realise that they'd be put through all that hassle again (ie of having the Council judge against them - and black mark there mentally against them for wasting the Council's time) and wouldn't want the Council set onto them again. So - after their hedge had been sorted out once, then quite possibly they wouldn't let it grow that high again - to save themselves that hassle.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I would say that about sums it up accurately - apart from the last paragraph. On that last para. I'm optimistic enough to think the neighbour would realise that they'd be put through all that hassle again (ie of having the Council judge against them - and black mark there mentally against them for wasting the Council's time) and wouldn't want the Council set onto them again. So - after their hedge had been sorted out once, then quite possibly they wouldn't let it grow that high again - to save themselves that hassle.

Securing council agreement that the OPs enjoyment of their own property had been significantly compromised, seems to be a hurdle you're placing less emphasis upon than I would.

Although the hedge upsets the OP and blocks the view from her sofa, this doesn't mean that the council will see fit to use their powers.

Further, people who have, effectively, been bullied into doing something by an official authority, would tend to show acquiescence at the time and then, later, revert to their preferred behaviour, otherwise known as being bloody-minded!

martinsurrey

Davesnave wrote: »

Then, possibly, time will pass and you might well find yourself back where you started.

This might not be what you want to hear, but it's as close to a real world outline as I can write.

If the council find in your favour the order will include a maintenance condition which lasts as long as the offending hedge is in place (generally it will say how high the hedge can get).

fail to stick to that and the council can go straight to court to fine the person, so no need to complain more than once.

Davesnave

martinsurrey wrote: »

If the council find in your favour the order will include a maintenance condition which lasts as long as the offending hedge is in place (generally it will say how high the hedge can get).

fail to stick to that and the council can go straight to court to fine the person, so no need to complain more than once.

Thanks, I didn't realise that.

It's still quite a big "if," and the OP has to shell-out to discover just how big.

And the order will relate to a single hedge, so there is probably still plenty of scope for the bloody-minedness I mentioned.

specialboy

If the hedge is on the boundary line then surely you have as much right to trim it as they have to leave it.