Returned home to find neighbour in my garden

[OyO]

I don’t know what to think about this.

I’m supposed to be at work all day, as normal. Came home early with some kind of sickness bug to find my neighbour standing in my garden chopping away at a hedge.

I was completely startled and said ‘hello? Can I help you?’ To which she responded: ‘well you were never going to cut it’ and brazenly carried on. I asked her to get out of my garden, she took her time and then climbed a ladder to go over the fence and back to her side. She’s now leaning over the hedge into my garden and still trimming it.

I’m at a loss. She’s so brazen I’m not sure if I’m being unreasonable in thinking she’s cheeky or not.

We have a 6ft fence separating us half way then a 5ft hedge. The hedge belongs to her and sits on her boundary. It’s an unruly hedge which overhangs into our garden and has done for the last 3 years (since we moved in). Our cat lounges under the overhang as it offers shelter and we have a family of dunnocks that live in the actual hedge. They’ve been there for years and we feed them daily plus have a bird bath for them.

The cat is now terrified hiding indoors right now and the dunnock nest has clearly been disturbed due to how far back she’s cut the hedge.

It’s a private garden. She’s in her 70s and doesn’t speak to anyone except to police their gardens. She once collected up all of the blossom from her front garden that had fallen from someone’s tree and dumped it on their drive (it blew back again ).

She’s right, I was never going to cut it back because I didn’t want it cutting back. Is she allowed to do this?

I’m also worried that she may pop into the garden whenever she feels like because she really didn’t seem to fussed about me catching her.

Rogue I thought if a tree hung over your property, you were entitled to cut it? Or trim it?

Ajast normally the answer is yes. However where I live you need a license to touch any tress apart from fruit trees.

AjasLipstick

Not if it has a tree preservation order on it (TPO)

I suppose people won't always know if a tree has a preservation order on it though?

We cut a branch off the neighbour's tree last year because it was so low, it made a portion of our garden useless.

They didn't have an issue with it at all...and we never spoke to them first either. Didn't even occur to us to do so!

I had an interesting situation (in Australia) recently - a tree surgeon came to my back door to ask if he could cut my trees from my side of the fence because the NDN had commissioned him to take out the overhanging branches above his carport - but the tree surgeon wanted to do it decently and said he could do it better from my side.
So I let him and had a chat - he also said that, since I'd agreed for him to do it that way, he would dispose of the branches - but if he'd done it from the other side of the fence, just to the fence line, then he would have been obliged to put all the debris back into my garden.

No communication from the NDN, of course, but the tree surgeon at least had manners!

@monisoksmakeshardwork, would you really trim a bush etc. And then give the cuttings back to the neighbor? 😱 LoL!! I've never heard of such a thing, but that's hilarious!

@Oyo, it's a good thing she doesn't live in the USA. Her trespassing would have been treated quite differently. And she wouldn't have taken her time leaving your property either, LoL you have to confront her and strongly tell her that her trespassing will not be tolerated. Unfortunately, where you live it doesn't seem like you can use self help to reinforce this idea upon her. you may have to become litigious with the sot. Good luck

Bashun - that is what you are supposed to do.
As the bush/tree belongs to the neighbour, the clippings also belong to them, so you are supposed to return them to them, regardless of whether or not they want them!

I mean in the UK (and Australia, as it happens) but obviously not a USA thing?

Nope. In the US trespassing is a criminal offense, subject to prosecution and jail time. Likely in this case the NDN would just have gotten a stern warning never to go on OP's property in future or she would be subject to arrest.

As far as trees, in the US (generally, but it varies state to state) you can trim anything that overhangs your property line but you cannot reach over the property line to do so. You can keep any fruit (or veg) that is on your side of the property line. And you definitely do NOT put the clippings on your neighbour's side of the property. You dispose of them yourself.

@across... ABSOLUTELY!! LoL it would be quite odd and even considered aggressive to give the yard waste (aka garbage) to the neighbor. Just toss it and move on with life.lol
You also left out that in some extreme cases a tresspasser could meet with violence or being mistaken for a violent criminal (as opposed to a tresspasser criminal) and be shot. Best to stay on your own side of the fence.

I still think the cat water jet is the way to go.

In my experience the rspb will ask you to report it to the police as a wildlife crime. They won't take action themselves which is a pain as that will escalate tensions.

Re the schedule 1 birds. Their nests are protected at all times regardless of whether they are in use or not. All other birds are protected from disturbance during nesting and yes, that does include works around the nest.

OP, I hope your dunnocks are ok now.

v true Bashun, especially states that subscribe to the 'castle doctrine' or 'stand your ground'! Yikes!

Thsnks for the info on dunnocks....off to see if I can find them shuffling about on YouTube. Hopefully the mildly, everso slightly bonkers neighbour hasn’t disturbed them too much and they were about to fledge anyway.