To think you can’t just cut someone’s bushes down?

[FenceFiasco2000]

We’ve been out this morning and come home to all the greenary that made the back of our house private gone and the fence hanging off.

Weve been round the back and there is a wall sperating the two properties so even if it was growing onto their fence there is no need to have touched our part. No one has been round to speak to us.

Picture one is our view before. Picture two now and the others is the mess in our graden plus the space around the back.

Where we stand with this and what would you expect them to do.

If it’s relevant, ours is private, the house at the back is housing association and empty.

But it looks like the foliage is rooted on their side? In which case would you have preferred them to cut down all their bushes and leave you with the dying parts still looped over your trellis?

It’s hard to tell from the photos but it doesn’t look like any of the plants are actually on your side, aka you don’t own them? Unless I’m mistaken it looks as though the plants are actually on their side.

If the roots are on their side it's their plant and there's very little you can do. If the plants are rooted on your side you can take legal action to be compensated on a like for like basis.

Equally if they are their plants you can throw the rubbish back onto their land.

there is no need to have touched our part

There is no your part. The plants look to be growing from the neighbours side.

Who’s fence is it? Are the roots on your side or theirs?
I had gardening but I regularly trim stuff so that it doesn’t weaken my fences.

Most of it likes ivy which was rooted on your neighbour's side and has just climbed over the top of their fence, the wall and down your fence. It will have been damaging all three.
If your neighbour's have cut it from their side, the bits overhanging would just have died anyway.
Get some nice climbing plants - honeysuckle would be nice, and grow it up your side of the boundary.

Where are the roots? I can't see them in the photos. Are they on your land?

It's always really awkward when you are cutting back a climber that goes into a neighbour's garden. I have a jasmine that had got far too big and woody on my side but flowered beautifully on my neighbour's side. I cut it back (and pulled the parts that went into next door over to mine so I didn't leave a load of dead stuff in their garden).

If you enjoy having a climber there, could you plant one on your side?

Where we stand with this and what would you expect them to do.

Honestly nothing. The plants are not rooted on your property so they don't belong to you. If you want privacy you need to grow something on your side.

Sorry, @FenceFiasco2000 but it looks to me like they belong to the other property. Unless I'm looking at it wrong? If so, all you can really do is give them back the trimmings and plant something on your side. If they don't want the plants anymore, that's up to them.

However, if I am wrong and they're yours, you need to ask them to fix it.

I had foliage like this on a similar fence and it eventually collapsed under the weight. I'd get rid of all of it and plant honeysuckle or clematis. Both grow really well. I don't think the roots are on your side so as others have said there is not a lot to be done. It would have been courteous to have knocked though.

You can ask them to clear up the mess- they may, they may not.

The ivy was damaging the fences and needed to be done now or not til September, because of birds. I don’t think it’s affected you privacy as the fence is still in place

I'd chuck the cut off bits back over the fence but that's all you can do really.

As much as it's crap for you and you don't have the privacy you did, they are entitled to cut back anything that's growing on their land.

Like others have said, maybe ask them to fix your fence and then plant some evergreen climbers.

Looks like they’ve cut the bushes on their side and the mess in your garden is what’s fallen on your side , fwiw all that ivy on the fence looked a mess in the before photo as well . If the bushes belong to the people on the other side you can just give the cuttings back .

Let's be honest here, whilst it afforded you more privacy, it was an absolute overgrown eyesore.

It looks much better now and you can easily and quickly grown your own better looking climbers that will quickly restore your privacy.

It has effected the privacy as the street behind is much higher then ours. Behind ours is a drive and now the people getting in the cars are literally looking into the garden. We couldn’t see them or the cars before.

OP you haven’t answered everyone’s questions about who’s plants they are, where the roots are, which makes me think you already know they aren’t yours.

Those aren't bushes - it's looks to me like it was all ivy. It's very difficult to cut back generally, can be overly vigorous and damaging, and it looks tbh like they haven't 'cut' what was on your side as such but by cutting what's on the other side there was nothing left to support the growth on yours since it was not growing from yours. If your fence is damaged it will be because the ivy had damaged it or it was just old and rotten and the ivy had been holding it up - but I'd say they've done nothing wrong, annoying though the result is for you.

Agree with others - get some climbers for yourself and grow them up your side.

You'll have to plant something new on your side, or get a higher fence.

You can easily get that privacy back by planting your own climbers you can't rely on someone else's plants to give you privacy.

I do get it - it's a shock suddenly having your privacy removed like that with no warning. I once came home to find neighbour had chopped their hedge down to 3 feet tall and I felt like I was in the garden with them every time I went out. I hated it and felt annoyed but they weren't wrong to do it for whatever reason they chose to. Sorry

The plants don't appear to be yours - whose side were they rooted on?

If it was your neighbours then unfortunately you don't have a say, although it's not right that they've made such a mess.

What you can do is plant your own climbers to fill in the gaps.

Having spent the morning hacking back the ivy that killed our pyracantha, I'd say they did you a favour. That stuff is evil

Get some Virginia creeper its lovely when it turns red