My Hedge, My Dogs and My Dratted Neighbour!

[ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm]

Just let my 2 Great Danes out in my garden
Was a bit quiet considering the puppy antagonises the older dog like mad and usually bombs up and down the garden. Then i heard him crying and screaming..
So i leg it outside to find puppy in next doors' garden, (his cries must have been due to getting stuck during his escape)and my previously 5ft perfectly capable of keeping the dogs in hedge has been chopped down to three foot in some places and under in one particular spot!
Luckily the dogs don't venture far as they're both deaf.. if it wasn't stupid o'clock i would be rattling my neighbours door right about now.
AIBU to be completely pissed off? Its taken me years to get that hedge how it is, used to be a raggedy thing.. now people could get in, because neighbours' garden isn't secure, and my dogs can get out (potentially killed or picked up by dog warden) I know i can supervise them, even though thats' narked me as well, but he knows i have dogs, and despite that still got a bit chop happy with his new hedge cutters.

Can i demand that he makes it secure, even if only temporarily until it grows back..if it does before winter, i know it won't gain the extra 2ft that quickly this side of growing season. Its left my home, children, and dogs unsafe now unless i'm out there 24/7 when they are.

Or am i being an arse as it was 'only' 5ft (maybe a little more) anyway and i should be supervising the dogs as a matter of course? If the dogs get out, run over/picked up/ god forbid attack someone (highly unlikely) i would be held responsible so i think this is why i'm fuming.. plus that he did it while i was out

So should i just suck it up, supervise the dogs till the dratted thing grows back, and tell him to stick to cutting his own god damned hedge and cut his sodding grass while he's at it

TIA for your opinions x

I just don't like them..plus puppy cries and wails if he's even tied up outside the shop for 2 mins .. i think its because now and again i will chuck them outside especially while the weather is nice, they love nothing more than dozing in the sun :) Think i was more annoyed that i had specified not to cut the top and not only has he cut it but not even neatly its all over the bloody place :(

Re fencing, i just coldn't do it, the hedge is populated by a lot of birds in the spring, plus it is was more aesthetically pleasing then the concrete monstrosity on the other side courtesy of my other neighbour !

And they won't get angry its me thats cross..to be honest they are lovely if a bit thoughless, can't complain really, i help them with their garden as i do with another lady whose house backs onto mine. think i'm being a bit englishwoman and her castle-y about it lol

Glad this is all i have to whinge about judging by some of the posts on here and stuff in my past have secured my shed and the kids outside toys, and will have to stand observing the dogs probably throughout the winter unless i find something to put up before then.

It's against the law to cut the top of someone else's hedge. You can trim back the side that encroaches your boundary, but you must not touch the height. If you trim any of it at all, you must offer the trimmings back. Your neighbour doesn't have to accept the trimmings. Tell him he has broken the law, and next time you will dump him in the shit! Cheeky fecker!
We had hedge issues for 20 years+ it's bloody annoying! Our neighbours were total arseholes!

Oh i didn't know that! They're ok though, i will slip it into the conversation when i see him if i was a nasty sod i would be at the cop shop right now .. only kidding, i wouldn't take it that far for a one off.
AIBU to be sore that he cut it wonky and not straight LOL

I can imagine having problems with neighbours but am fortunate with mine and don't want to start off a feud over the garden fence hedge already got into it with next door and their parking and its not like it won't grow back eventually..

Thanks for the info though!

1 am is much too late if they bark. I let mine out at 11pm, and in the summer there was always at least one enormous hedgehog that one of my westies - yes small dogs- attacked with lots of barking and screams as the spines covered her mouth and fleas jumping all over her head !!!!! But we had 1,500 square meters of land with wire fencing 60cms high, which they could not jump and had no incentive to as our garden was large enough for them. For large dogs, you must secure you garden, and morally/legally, neighbour should make his holes secure, especially as he has chickens. Dogs will chase and could bite them during the day. Keeping dogs safe in their garden in a priority, if not secure you will just have to wrap up warm and take them out on the lead in the dark, until it is safe and secure.

if you really wanted to be nasty which you don't you could do what our neighbours did, so they wouldn't have to look at our two Great Danes... Plant a conifer hedge and let it grow to 40 fucking feet high. When they are small, tie them to stakes, so that when they grow large, the string cuts into the trunks, making them prone to falling over at the slightest gust of wind!
Spread could rumours around the village about his wife, and stand behind your giant hedge, repeating everything your neighbour says to his kids, in a high pitched cackle!!!

there are two seperate issues -firstly whether your neighbour has acted within his rights trimming the hedge, you still haven t answered whether or not it is on the boundary or your lane. But whatever the rights and wrongs of this issue you are still responsible for keeping your dogs enclosed

She was keeping her dog enclosed. Until her neighbour cut down her hedge without her permission! OP already said it is her hedge!

but it depends what she means by 'her' hedge. Does she mean it's hers because she planted it? or does she me3an it's hers because the trunks are 100% on her land.
If the hedge is planted on the boundary, it is a party hedge, and the neighbour may well have some rights over it regardless of who planted it.

if the wife does not like dogs... and your dog pooed in her garden... she will give him hell anyway.

The trunks are 100% on my property sorry missed that
And i did speak to him and yes, everything was fine, as i let off steam in here i was nice and calm when i went round

Wife has berated him fully

And as they can't afford to put anything up even temporarily i'll watch the dogs, 1 am is not too late if you're a true dog owner, have walked them previously at 2 - 3 am before the murder happened and now DP won't let me out at silly times..

FWIW i wasn't so bothered about watching the dogs its just a minor inconvinience that i cant put them outside when someone comes

I'm sure i'll live lol
Thanks for the advice ladies x

Saggy i'm glad i'm not your neighbour

So am I Things! If I thought for one instant that the insane old witch from hell lurked anywhere on MN, Id decamp to NM! Ticker and all!

Oh nothing could be worth that torture sorry i told the midwife after DS2 was born to stick the NM leaflet up her jumper

Your neighbour has broken the law by 'trimming' your hedge. You would be well within your rights to insist that he meets the cost of making the boundary secure again at the very least.

If push really came to shove and you weren't bothered about maintaining neighbourly relations a court would probably decide that he had to pay you the full costs on new hedges to the same height as those that he cut down.

What an arse, can't believe he had the cheek to get huffy about it.