Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

My neighbour chopped down my bay trees. Is this criminal damage?

130 replies

Yabbadabbadooooooo · 03/05/2025 19:36

I trimmed a hedge between our properties, only from my side of the garden. The hedge between us is high as I haven’t got long handled loppers so I took a year’s growth off. I just came home from a day out and the neighbour has chopped down two of my bay trees in retaliation! The hedge is meant to be trimmed, it’s part of the lease. He intentionally came on to my property to chop down the two trees that frame the front door entrance my house. Can I call the police? Is this trespassing? Criminal damage? Thank you so much for any legal input. Our children are all at the same school and our kids are so upset.

OP posts:
Hoppinggreen · 03/05/2025 21:24

Seeline · 03/05/2025 20:14

Of course birds nest in hedges!
I've got a robin and a wren nesting in the privet hedge outside my kitchen

Show quote history

I don't know if you are allowed to trim hedges in gardens at this tim of year but I went to do mine this morning and a sparrow flew out, I was a bit surprised but my neighbour stuck his head over the fence to say he thought it was nesting in there so I left it alone. he also said he thought i had a wren in my ivy.
Anyway OP, sounds like criminal damage to me

doodleZ1 · 03/05/2025 21:22

OP what is this neighbour like generally and why has he allowed you to cut the hedge in the past but this time it’s annoyed him? Did he say anything specific on how it’s now different? Coming on to your property and cutting bay trees round your door is an act of someone with no control whatsoever. How did the discussion with him end? I would certainly tell the landlord what happened and then contact the police. Community police if you have them. I would want the trees replaced at his expense. Any chance of a neighbour having a ring video camera? I would from now on report anything he does that’s on the wrong side of legal.

snowmichael · 03/05/2025 21:21

Yabbadabbadooooooo · 03/05/2025 21:08

He admitted he did it in retaliation for us trimming the hedge!

Show quote history

Send him a bill for replacements

Verbally admitting it (without a recording) isn't evidence

If you can find some way to get him to admit it in text or written form, or recorded phone call, then you can go to the police

MyDeftDuck · 03/05/2025 21:21

I would seriously lose my shit if he were my neighbour! What a bloody idiot……..definitely report as criminal damage AND he was trespassing to be able to do it too.

DraftLovely · 03/05/2025 21:21

Sorry, I seem to have voted you are being unreasonable but I didn't mean to press the button and was only trying to scroll down the page. It doesn't seem to let me change my vote but sorry, chopping down your trees is not on.

B0D · 03/05/2025 21:18

What a fucking arsehole.

Had to be a bloke didn’t it. I know what I’d like to cut off in retaliation.

Sorry that’s happened OP

Having said that, it does pay to have a “just to let you know, I’m trimming the height of the hedge as per my lease” conversation in advance. Especially with arseholes

Londonrach1 · 03/05/2025 21:18

Contact police and ask neighbour when he going to replace them like for like

IpsyUpsyDaisyDoos · 03/05/2025 21:17

AquaPeer · 03/05/2025 20:09

Hedges? Birds don’t nest in hedges. You can trim hedges whenever you want. Do you really leave your hedges all nesting season? They must look terrible

OP - def call the police

Show quote history

Birds 100% nest in our massive hedge and our small one....

JustMyView13 · 03/05/2025 21:15

harijes · 03/05/2025 21:12

Well I think you separate the issues.

you speak to landlady first. And confirm you have done what is required in terms of the lease.

and advise her what he has done, purely to keep landlord Tennant relations good.

then you contact the police, re trespassing and criminal damage.

Yes. This.

harijes · 03/05/2025 21:12

Well I think you separate the issues.

you speak to landlady first. And confirm you have done what is required in terms of the lease.

and advise her what he has done, purely to keep landlord Tennant relations good.

then you contact the police, re trespassing and criminal damage.

Original poster
Yabbadabbadooooooo · 03/05/2025 21:08

TheReturnOfFeathersMcGraw · 03/05/2025 20:48

Are these small trees in pots either side of your door? If he's taken the whole top off then yes Id say it is. Can we see what he's done to one of them?

He admitted he did it in retaliation for us trimming the hedge!

OP posts:
Sayshesheshe · 03/05/2025 21:08

Whose boundary is it?

CousinBob · 03/05/2025 21:05

I would say it is criminal damage OP, but the bay trees should grow back luckily.
I hope you did check for nesting birds though.

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 03/05/2025 21:04

AquaPeer · 03/05/2025 20:09

Hedges? Birds don’t nest in hedges. You can trim hedges whenever you want. Do you really leave your hedges all nesting season? They must look terrible

OP - def call the police

Show quote history

Eh!! Are you joking?

Stressmode · 03/05/2025 21:02

Call his bluff. Tell him that you have a witness/video

Give him a bill for new bay trees and your bank details

WhiteWashingSunnyDay · 03/05/2025 21:02

That’s awful!

keep hope though. They might grow back. They are quite resilient.

Original poster
Yabbadabbadooooooo · 03/05/2025 21:01

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 03/05/2025 20:49

To be honest I would talk to your landlady who it sounds like lives next door and leave it to her to deal with. Not worth you getting too invested in it all because it isn't your house.

But we have been growing the bay trees for three years and he has trespassed and cut them down. They framed the front door beautifully. He has been intrusive and petty.

OP posts:
rwalker · 03/05/2025 21:01

Who owns the hedge

JustMyView13 · 03/05/2025 21:00

Did you ask him why he cut your bay trees down? And if so, what did he say?

nyancatdays · 03/05/2025 20:59

AquaPeer · 03/05/2025 20:17

Landscaping/ horticulturalists/ any qualified gardener will cut hedges all year round, despite not touching trees in beating season. A standard border hedge shouldn’t have a nest in it. Presumably the bird in your hedge doesn’t have the option of a tree for whatever reason, which is a bit disturbing.

and of course, anyone with half a brain would not cut down a hedge they had observed a nest in.

Of course border hedges have nests in them. Dunnocks and other ground-feeding small birds always nest low to the ground in hedgerows - garden or field or in the city - that’s their habitat!

skirtingcurtain · 03/05/2025 20:56

This is classic MNs, ignoring the OP and getting into an argument about cutting hedges 😆

godmum56 · 03/05/2025 20:54

KIlliePieMyOhMy · 03/05/2025 20:47

Could we possibly try to stick to OPs question.

blimey, that would be an MN first!!

sophiasnail · 03/05/2025 20:53

AquaPeer · 03/05/2025 20:09

Hedges? Birds don’t nest in hedges. You can trim hedges whenever you want. Do you really leave your hedges all nesting season? They must look terrible

OP - def call the police

Show quote history

Birds definitely do nest in hedges and nobody should be cutting hedges back during nesting season. Not least because it is illegal to disturb a nest.

Genevieva · 03/05/2025 20:52

I suggest he buys some replacements asap. There are places that sell large ones and deliver.

AquaPeer · 03/05/2025 20:50

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 03/05/2025 20:49

To be honest I would talk to your landlady who it sounds like lives next door and leave it to her to deal with. Not worth you getting too invested in it all because it isn't your house.

I think although your neighbour does sound intimidating this is probably the best option.