To build a fence and chop their hedge.

[Sportynotspice]

There's a laurel hedge between our garden and next doors and it's only 5 foot at its highest; the garden slopes towards the back so there are sections even shorter and we can see straight into next doors garden and theirs ours. We have asked them politely to allow us to grow the hedge up as we'd like more privacy but they have refused and continued to cut the hedge ever shorter. They have extra long hedge trimmers and cut our half as well because apparently the previous owners never kept it neat enough for their liking and never protested when they started taking over the trimming. We've been polite but very clear that we don't like the height and would like it to grow up an extra foot but they have once again cut it too short and cut our side. The hedge actually sits much more into our boundary than theirs so DH, who has reached his final straw after coming home to yet another few inches off the hedge tonight, has declared he's ordering fence panels this weekend, chopping the hedge back right to the boundary and putting up the fence. The hedge will look utterly rubbish on their side because of how little actually encroaches their side of the boundary so I said to DH maybe we should just build the fence from when the hedge finishes now but DH, rightly, points out that means we lose a foot of our garden because the hedge takes up so much space as it is. As we have tried to be reasonable with them, DH doesn't care about upsetting them by chopping back so much of the hedge.
We have only lived here 9 months and they have been here 20 years plus and their argument for not letting the hedge grow is this is how its always been and no one that's lived here before has ever had an issue with it. But this is our home now and I really don't think it's unreasonable to have a proper barrier between our garden and next doors!
I will go speak to them tomorrow to advise that this is what we are going to do but we're not asking permission, just informing as a courtesy. Are we being unreasonable? I don't think they've really left us much more choice.

[quote Porcupineintherough]@PinkSparklyPussyCat fencing your garden to keep your cat in is one of the best possible things you can do for wildlife and I salute you for it. Probably best not to add a bird feeder tho.[/quote]
^^ this deffo

I'll be honest it was more to do with keeping the cat safe than anything else but I'm happy he's safe, the neighbours don't get pissed off and the wildlife is safe, although they've lost my garden. Then again the garden is tiny so I'm sure they haven't missed it!

DH even changed the netting on the fence to make sure it was big enough for bees to get through as we have hibiscus bushes next to the fence and the bees like them and I was worried they'd get caught when they flew away.

I don't know what the fence haters would make of the netting on my fences though...

I wonder if having the hedge at a particular height gives the impression from their house that their garden is much larger than it is… so your garden appears as the end of theirs? If they allow it to grow higher that cuts off your part of the garden from their perspective so theirs looks smaller. Definitely go for the fence BTW

if you've only been there nine months, if you don't have any detailed plans detailing who owns what boundary, could you go back to your solicitor who conducted the purchase? sounds a bit remiss of him/her not to have explained detail like this at the time.

@Warmduscher

when I go out doors I like to be able to access light

Do you not have sky where you are?

Made me properly lol

@ThinWomansBrain

if you've only been there nine months, if you don't have any detailed plans detailing who owns what boundary, could you go back to your solicitor who conducted the purchase? sounds a bit remiss of him/her not to have explained detail like this at the time.

not relevant. Neighbours have been asked to let the hedge grow higher. Neighbours have refused. OP is entitled to put in their own fence to make their garden more private (or even just because) and to cut back the hedge, both root and branch, to the boundary line in order to do so.

If you like the hedge, I would be tempted to cut their hedge back to the boundary, put up a 6ft wire fence and plant a laurel hedge on your side. Then you have a barrier to stop them trimming it and could potentially grow it higher than 6 ft (assuming you’d like a bit more than 6 ft of privacy if their garden slopes down).

@Warmduscher - what a superb username.

[quote LillianGish]@Warmduscher - what a superb username.[/quote]
Ah, thanks @LillianGish

Do you like them too?

Having lived in Berlin for four years, I’ve always found this to be the most amusing German insult and one we regularly use in this house to this day.

LillianGish, well you can’t leave it at that!!! What’s the insult? I LOVE a good foreign language insult.

@LillianGish

Having lived in Berlin for four years, I’ve always found this to be the most amusing German insult and one we regularly use in this house to this day.

I had no idea it was an insult!

It’s the name of one of my favourite bands at the moment and I can see now why they choose it

I always thought it meant piss, a bit like orange snow but I was wrong.
Turns out it actually refers to praise I.e. that warm glow you get inside when you get recognition.

Warmduscher means someone who is weak like a wuss or something, its definitely an insult, but not the worst.

Did you speak to the neighbours? @Sportynotspice