New fence and mature plants

[Nightwing]

My neighbours are replacing the fence on their side. They are replacing wooden posts and putting in a fence with concrete posts and gravel boards.
We both have mature plants along the border - theirs are probably bigger than mine and it will be difficult to do from their side but if done from mine will damage my plants.

Can this job be done without my plants being damaged, am I going to have to watch carefully?

I think it should be done from their side really. Difficult but not impossible?

Watch carefully. Make it a condition that any plants are dug up carefully, looked after (eg not left during out on a hot day) and replaced.

Our old neighbour asked "can our workmen come round if they need to". Which the workmen translated as hacking back and pulling up plants in a way that they could not be replanted. Luckily I noticed when they had just started and not after they had devastated my whole border. But that was typical of that neighbour!! My view was that as it was the neighbour who was doing the work then it should have been their shrubs that were dug up!!

Surely they remove the fence posts and replace with the concrete ones in the same place, so noissue

I had my fence replaced and that’s what happened, no damage to any plants

@Chloemol

Surely they remove the fence posts and replace with the concrete ones in the same place, so noissue

I had my fence replaced and that’s what happened, no damage to any plants

They'll need a wider hole (and maybe deeper) to pour in the concrete to hold the concrete posts in place. If there's few plants, that may be easy, but it there's lots of plants, it could well mean damage to roots and plants being trampled whilst they're doing the digging/pouring.

Re damage etc., sadly it's common/typical of many manual workers not to give a toss about being careful etc. That's why you need to keep an eye on them and stop them when they're ruining something.

If it was my dad's company doing it for them then it would be automatic for them to take care and cause as little damage to the plants as possible - although a small amount of root damage may be unavoidable.

But I know a lot of companies are not the same, my dad's refuses to cut bushes and trees in nesting season but there are plenty of others that will happily break the law, I suspect those would be the ones likely to devastate your plants

Keep an eye out for them and make it very clear that they are liable for fixing any damage caused, the company should be insured anyway

@Thecathouse your Dad sounds really considerate but I don’t think the builder they had for a quote this morning will the the same. He parked across my drive booking my car in - there was no need for this at all. He also asked what the neighbours are like which made me assume he was expecting to be able to work from my side as my plants are shorter so will be easier to work from mine.

I’ll definitely keep a close eye when the work does start!