Trimming a Hedge, Who is Responsible?

st999

A friend of mine who is in their 80's has a privet hedge dividing his garden from next door.

The hedge roots are in the next door's garden and previously the owner, with my friends permission of course, would trim both sides of the hedge and the top, keeping my friend's side to the boundary line and clean up the trimmings, after all it was his hedge.

The owner sold up and the new neighbour shows no interest in keeping the hedge trimmed and it has become overgrown.

Because the front door is only 2 feet away from the boundary the hedge is actually growing over the front door and my friend is not able to trim the hedge.

He mentioned it to the neighbour and he said, not my problem, if you want to trim your side you can.

Can the neighbour be made to trim the hedge? or as I suggested to my friend, spray his own side with weed killer after all, he thought it was a hedge growth suppressant :rotfl:.

missile

You friend can trim his side as often as he wishes. He is supposed to return cuttings to neighbour.

carlislelass

Trim your side plus halfway across the top, we've never returned any clippings just put in garden recycling

Davesnave

st999 wrote: »

Can the neighbour be made to trim the hedge? or as I suggested to my friend, spray his own side with weed killer after all, he thought it was a hedge growth suppressant :rotfl:.

The neighbour cannot be forced to trim the hedge, nor should the OAP commit criminal damage, if only because it will be very obvious who's done it and the consequences could be worse than those of a legal nature.

getmore4less

Shame he does not have a friend he can call on that will help him out and cut his side for him.

Cut back to the boundary should keep it in check for a while, any new growth could be attacked regularly with lightweight tool like Secateurs.

indesisiv

Cut the hedge, it sounds that it is in effect now the boundary between the 2 houses.
My neighbours don't cut their side either (or the one that borders the road) so I just keep the one inbetween the houses at a reasonable height for as far as I can reach.

armchaireconomist

Why don't you just cut it for him?

ChrisK....._3

My neighbour is 85 and she has a hedge down the middle of both our driveways - She takes in my parcels whilst Im at work and I trim the hedge (both sides) - Works for us

st999

Why don't you just cut it for him?

For the same reason he can't cut it, age.

Davesnave

If your friend cannot cut the hedge for physical reasons and there's no one else who will do it for free, a jobbing gardener or handyperson must be employed.



It's maintenance and part of home ownership; something one doesn't become exempt from when reaching a certain age.