Neighbour dug up boundary hedge without even discussing

[meandthem]

I know there are terrible things going on in the world right now, and in the big picture this may sound petty, but today I have been reduced to tears of frustration as my bloody neighbour has hired a digger and totally uprooted and removed our shared boundary hedge (around 6 metres) at the front of our semi-detached property. He doesn't actually live there and has kept it empty and derelict for years but from time to time has a spurt of action in weird directions. It remains uninhabitable with no functioning bathroom or kitchen, but he is basically planning a carpark for 2 cars at the front, which he told me about ages ago. The environmental vandalism was done on Thursday but I only really saw the damage fully this morning, in the horrible light of day. I was taking photos when he arrived this a.m. and started casually chatting like nothing was wrong....The upshot is he is convinced the roots were in his garden, but now we will never know as there is nothing left of them. It looks like a battlefield and we have lost all privacy that the well established hedge afforded us - it has been there around 40 years we think, having discussed with last owners of our property who moved in in the 80s. Do I have any legal recourse as I know boundaries and hedges can be a nightmare to rule on from an ownership perspective or do I have to just accept its done and tolerate his planned iron railings (which he probably picked up from a skip somewhere knowing him). He thinks he is a builder but is an A-grade bodger by the way - I have seen his other "work". Any thoughts or advice appreciated.

Is he creating off road parking when there previously wasn’t any? As he may have needed planning permission to do this.

If it's been left empty for that period of time the council can apply to take it over - anyway if you remove a hedge it should be replaced with a fence (my neighbour did this)

Check your home insurance and see if you have legal cover. If you do then ring the helpline (they are free to call and are usually open 24/7). If the hedge was yours you should be able to get a solicitor's letter covered by your insurer instructing him to replace the hedge like for like. It's possible to buy mature plants but they will be expensive - but that's his problem. Have a look at your land registry docs and see where the hedge fell.

I would go down the legal route on this because he sounds like an arsehole who will interpret stunned silence as consent. You need to - literally - establish your boundaries and make it clear that him breaching them will draw consequences.

If the roots were in his land you can’t do anything.

You can plant your own hedge - it’s recommended to plant two to three foot from boundary

It’s cheaper than any other action and not a lot he can do about it

She can - the presence of roots in his land does not give him the right to dig up the hedge without her permission.

I had a new fence installed at the start of the year. My neighbour's line of tree roots where well over on to my land and had to be dug through in order to sink the posts. Neighbour was fine about it because the trees are well established and cutting through a few of the shallow roots would not cause issues - and it hasn't.

A well established mixed shrub hedge would not have been that shallow-rooted. So it begs the question why he "needed" to dig the whole lot out at all, as the chances are that most of the roots would have been deeper down than the level needed for his driveway (assuming it will be tarmac).

www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/fences.html

This website maybe helpful

There is no requirement to put a fence on a boundary

If you decide not to go down the legal route OP, I can recommend Thuja Plicata (Western Red Cedar). You can plant at this time of year, it's evergreen, fragrant when you brush against it or when the wind blows through it and great for wildlife. It's also reasonably fast growing (up to 2 feet p.a.) but much more controllable than Leylandii because it responds well to pruning and you can cut back into the brown wood (the dead zone) and it will re-shoot (whereas Leylandii doesn't). It's also very hardy and does well in sun or shade.

Horrible and infuriating, but he is clearly a bit unhinged, and the hedge is now gone. Either the hedge was 'his' in which case you have no redress, or it was 'yours' in which case you do have redress but you won't get your old hedge back and goodness knows what nonsense you'll get from him, or it's disputed in which case you might as well just give up now.

One thing I would check is that his new boundary is correctly on the boundary line.

A new hedge will take a few years to establish but that will go surprisingly quickly and if it's definitely yours you will have control of it. You can buy wildlife hedging www.best4hedging.co.uk/wildlife-hedging-c121 and put something lovely.

Has he had planning permission to pave over the front garden? Get on to your local planning dept tomorrow morning - though it may suit you better than having an over-run untended garden.

I can only assume he dug it up because he's pretty confident it belongs to him - but to not even talk to you about it?

^Sorru but why on earth should the neighbour have talked to the OP about removing HIS hedge?

If he cut up to the boundary line and it's all gonenthen it was his hedge. If there is no upheaval on your side of the soil then it was his hedge. Get a fence fitted in the interim and plant your own hedge.

I have seen so many neighbour legal disputes start small and end up with £60k of costs. I would leave that side of it and start now with getting cover back up. First find exactly where the boundary is and put something along there eg get a builder to put a couple of steel wires on posts at exactly the boundary point so you and the neighbour know where it is for future reference - you might be able to follow a wall or other big of edging or find the middle of the hedge.

Then plant on your side only. If it were I I would pay for mature large trees to go in immediately at quite a high height just to make the point but that's a cost issue. If you can't afford that then you could put up some kind of immediate plants in a few pots (I don't know how long the area goes down) whilst planting your fir trees or whatever to start the hedge.

On making parking in his front garden he probably can but it depends. In our conservation area you cannot and one man had to undo £25,000 of a large expensive paving area as he could not get retrospective permission. That is quite rare. Most people prefer a bit of green as water can soak away. If you can't see his drive once your new hedge goes up I would not worry about it.

if you plant your hedge on your own land a bit further in do put something up first to show the boundary. I had my hedge trimmed this week and noticed inside most of it is what must be the original short metal fence, all rusted and broken in places but in the middle of the hedge but a very useful indication of the original boundary.

Find out where the boundary is and put up a fence in the first instance. Then replant a hedge in your side.

Ffs don't plant laurel as a replacement. Ghastly stuff.

Hoop, I am with you on that although my extremely long laurel hedge doesn't look too bad but it is very very thick. I am not a fan and constantly am cutting back laurel in other bits of the garden to allow other things to grow. then my neighbour gave me of all thins a laurel in a pot to plant in a gap in the hedge when we had to take down a lovely old flowering cherry. I didn't tell her I dug it up later. I planted new cherries instead.

I cannot offer advice (others have), but I would be very upset in your shoes and offer my sympathy.

It would be a lot cheaper to just plant your own hedge. Think about what you would get from a legal challenge - probably just a large bill and you still won't have a hedge.

As someone mentioned further up the thread, get a load of those bare root hedging plants and stick them in. They'll grow in no time.

Echoing pp - very first thing is to establish the boundary with a fence, as he sounds like an encroaching bugger.

Which side of you is he? The convention is usually that uiinown the fence to your left.

He sound an arse

I'd put up the tallest fence I legally could while I decided what to do next, whether to put a hedge back or not.

greendale17 Because it has a big impact on the OP, and having a conversation beforehand is the polite thing to do. It can make all the difference between neighbourly relations and frosty relations.

We had the same. Our neighbour ripped out his boundary hedge with no warning. We'd just paid (literally a few days beforehand) a gardener £X00s to neaten up our side and bring it under control. If our neighbour had given us a heads-up, we wouldn't have bothered. We're now on polite/civil terms only.

greendale17 - a little thing known as common courtesy. Obviously you set no store by it.

So he told you about his plans a while back and you said nothing. He comes over to chat to you today and you said nothing.

Why would your first step be legal action? Just talk to the man.

Download your title deeds from the Land Registry website for £3 (and his if you can stretch to £6) and see if that offers any clues as to who is responsible for the boundary.

Whilst I understand and sympathise with you immensely, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Don't let him see how upset you are; in fact, keep away for a while until you establish the facts.