Can a neighbour cut back Ivy that is growing up their wall but entirely on my side?

[lechatnoir]

we have a rather lovely brick wall at the end of our garden that backs on to a neighbouring garden. There is Ivy growing up the wall which the neighbour is not happy about. We have been very careful to ensure it doesn’t grow to the top let alone over into their boundary But they are insisting we must remove it and keep leaning over our wall and hacking it off the wall and chucking the remnants into our garden.

If it were against their house, I would absolutely understand but this is at the end of the very large and actually quite overgrown garden not even visible from their house so it really feels like they are doing this to make a point. Can they insist we remove it as it is attached to their wall?? It doesn’t seem right, but they are leaning into our garden and hacking away at what is essentially our plant
any advice?

It is their wall, you should not grow anything up it.
Ivy damages mortar and brickwork and can make a wall unstable. Will you pay when that happens, no of course you won’t.

Just take off the ivy as they ask.

I'm fighting brambles from one neighbour and bind weed the other. There will always be something to 'fight' in a garden, gardens aren't natural! But I don't do anything until it's on my side!

Ivy definitely can and likely will damage and weaken brickwork. Fair enough if it's your own wall, but in this case it's not. So I'd do yourselves and your neighbours a favour and just pull it out and grow something else. Saves a lot of aggro.

I didn’t choose to grow ivy- it just appeared and as it’s at the bottom of both gardens & looks nice I didn’t really think too much about it until I heard a noise in the garden and went out to find neighbour on a tall ladder leaning over the wall scraping down our wall with a hoe (this first time was about 6 months ago).
anyway, much as his approach has irritated me , it does sounds like I need to just get rid of it. I can strip the ivy off the wall and try to pull up the root, but it’s against a wall at the back of a raised flower & pretty inaccessible so suggestions how to kill the ivy without affecting everything else around it would be helpful.

You really don’t need to do anything other than pull it up. Maybe more than once.

no need for poison.

Cut it off just below ground level and paint the cut (that is rooted) with stump killer, wait for it to die then pull it off the wall.

Oh cool thanks - I had visions of it being some vast root system that would just keep coming back for years.

Well it might keep popping up, if it does, just pull it out or repeat the above and it will eventually run out of energy.

I like the way ivy looks too, but it really does damage walls if not kept in check. I share a garden wall with three different neighbours and on one side the neighbours have never cut back the ivy on their side, and the mess it's making on my side of the wall is horrible. Whole chunks of mortar coming out, and in places the ivy is practically holding the wall together. I cut the stuff back and it just pushes through again. To be fair, it's a very old wall and the ivy is clearly an old problem, but once it starts growing under/through the wall, it's an absolute nightmare. Best dealt with on both sides of the wall, for sure.

Ivy has done huge damage to our 100-year-old brick wall. We didn't realise until too late.

DH had ivy on his house when I first met him. He did exactly as @PeapodMcgee said, but also drilled a couple of holes into the "trunk" bit too and made sure some of the stump killer got into that too.

It didn't take long for the ivy on the wall to die and then it just pulled off in one very satisfying ivy peel!

The "very satisfying ivy peel" will quite possibly have done more damage than leaving the ivy in place & keeping it trimmed ... Do make sure you check the joints in the brick/stonework & get them repointed if necessary.

Like another thread I've just posted on about the same topic, there is a lot of misinformation being posted here. I don't think the RHS counts as some random internet poster ... see link below, anyone who doubts me!

OP - leave the ivy if the wall is in good condition & the wall is shared - just keep it trimmed a couple of times a year & ask your neighbour to stop invading your garden space!

www.rhs.org.uk/prevention-protection/ivy-on-buildings

Your ivy, their wall, they cut it and 'give' it you back as it's yours. Sorted.

Well it was done in 2008 and the house is still in good condition now, so I think we're good!

You're right though, of course. Definitely check your brickwork and pointing afterwards if you do remove it.

We have a neighbour who delights in breaking other people's property's.Ivy is just one of her tools .Our walls are old and being destroyed by it .I have explained it nicely to her,she now trains it with the use of cable ties up our walls !Some people are just unpleasant

Remove by hand and dig out the roots.
Go back and check next year and remove any "babies"

Fwiw OP ypu are doing the right thing

Trust me ,this is from experience my neighbours ivy has damaged an old brick wall. Fact!