To feel that neighbours have “had me”

[Apossibility84]

Single parent and no support network at all.

I have a lovely garden. Small but just suits us. It’s simple, very well looked and green. There’s a hedge that divides my garden with my neighbours. He says the hedge is his (the land registrars diagram would suggest otherwise but I can’t afford a solicitor to pursue this).
He says he is going to remove “whatever my thoughts” and replace with a fence leaving me with a wide empty space of soil.

Let’s assume the hedge is his. Can he unilaterally remove and replace irrespective of how it leaves neighbour’s plot?

I’m cross with myself as I just nodded and accepted everything. His sweet wife had offered £100 months ago during initial chat so that I could do something to fill the space, but when I mentioned that to him “I am not going to do that”.

Any guidance would be appreciated although if you can remove a hedge boundary that is yours and don’t have any responsibility to how leaves neighbour‘s garden, then I will just remove it from my never ending “to-do” list and move on (probably a good thing!) and just deal with the empty bedding as and when I have money spare in the future?

Many thanks

Can you contact the Land Registry? (Caution - if you put it into Google, the first few sites that come up are not the offical Land Registry. You need the gov.uk one. If your property is registered with them, you should not need deeds. The LR should be able to check to see if the hedge is yours or not for a small fee (£3 last time I looked) - so much cheaper than a solicitor but the LR map is the ultimate arbiter of ownership.
Good luck OP - there are a lot of unreasonable neighbours out there,
If all else fails, you can buy young hedging plants when they are small, and they grow more quickly than expensive larger ones. But check your rights first.

What a lot of dramatics on this thread. Land grabbing, inheritance stealing and calling the police (!!)

If it's his hedge, which it sounds like it is, he can do whatever he likes. We had a hedge seperating our front garden from our NDN. It blocked out lots of light so not only was our living room always dark, but no grass or plants survived for long. We told NDN we were getting rid and would replace with a picket fence. Even though the (huge) hedge was over both boundaries, the roots were on our side, so we were well within our rights to remove it. Both of us were left with a big expanse of dirt in our front gardens so everyone chucked some grass seed down. We made sure we gave NDN the nice side of the picket fence. No drama. Job done.

Its a shame @Apossibility84 left the thread, I was going to suggest she look for her nearest Law Centre. They give legal advice to people who can't afford a solicitor.

Tell them brightly that you're looking forward to the extra space to put the kids' trampoline in

Yes, if it’s his hedge he can remove it and he doesn’t even have to replace it with anything.

It’s irrelevant how the removal of the hedge leaves your garden as long as it’s not unsafe to do so.

If it leaves soil on your side, then that suggests that it's your hedge/fence. Tell him to leave the hedge and put a fence up on his side. Then everyone is happy.

Don’t roll over or suck it up. You will lose the land, and why should you?

If your ex is willing to pay for a solicitor, why not take him up on the offer? If it ends up still being unclear you're no worse off than you are now.

And the one solicitors letter and visit might do the trick as you would appear serious - Id accept this offer!

Mature hedges take up quite a lot of width usually so maybe you will be pleased when you see the extra width you have to your garden once its removed.
If you can, have a word with his wife seeing as she's already made approaches once and ask he leaves it as tidy as possible.. in fact if she's a gardener ask her advise on planting.

But also do go onto the land registry to ensure your borders are retained.
You can then put that in writing to him once you are certain of your facts.

The fact that they offered you £100 is the biggest indicator that they KNOW the hedge is on your land. Why would they offer you anything if it is theirs?

I bet they would have followed this up with confirmation in a letter, so that they can prove in the future that you accepted compensation/consideration for the strip

Sow a few packets of annual flower seeds. Make it look pretty
Calendula grow easily

To be honest, if he’s paying for it and will put up a fence at his side then you will have more space in your “small” garden...

Could you do something with the new space? Planters? Flowers etc. It could work out good for you at no expense and maybe even an extra £100

My parents had a house sale delayed and paid thousands extra because of issues over 2 inches width of border. Don't back down and take up the offer of a solicitor.

Tell them brightly that you're looking forward to the extra space to put the kids' trampoline in

And a hot tub ... an outside bar ... a brick built barbecue ... why not get a wood-fired pizza oven while you're at it?

Imagine the torture of the lovely pizza oven smell wafting over your garden?

If removing the hedge leaves a Large patch of soil in your garden on your side of the proposed fence surely that implies that the hedge is actually on your boundary?? Therefore he cannot do it?

What is it with women today letting others make their lives stressful. Let the ex help. Stand up for yourself.

SunshineCake I wondered exactly the same thing!

It is indeed a criminal offence to knowingly disturb any nesting birds (Wildlife and countryside act 1981) and as such all hedge/tree removals should be undertaken from Sept earliest. It doesn't sound as though this will be a priority for him though, but it might buy you some time if you mentioned it. Such a shame to remove yet another hedge from our wildlife, desperate for places to nest, and replace it with a fence.

If the OP thinks the hedge is on her land and her NDN removes it and replaces it with a fence, and the fence is on her property then when she comes to sell the house there could be issues if what is there doesn't match either the Land Registry or the deeds.

Having had a minor issue of this kind once before, I'd definitely not buy a house where there was any kind of question about boundaries.

The OP has already stated that it's her hedge, situated on her property.

Oh don't just roll over, he'll try something else, and it'll never end. It'll cost you so much more in the long run.

Just let your ex pay for the consultation and letter. That won't affect your pocket and may be more than enough to stop your neighbour in his tracks.

Bullies are cowards. Often one little bit of push-back is enough for them to focus on someone else so this may be all you ever need to do to keep him under control.