High Hedge law

[Suzi888]

Has anyone ever used this and won a case and was it worth it? How were neighbourly relations afterwards..

I’ve never heard of it. What is the hedge law? We looked at a house that had a hedge next door to the height of the roof of the house…..was one of the reasons we didn’t buy it.

The right hedge can be an ideal garden boundary but the wrong hedge may bring problems. This guide explains the powers that local authorities have to deal with disputes between neighbours about high hedges, and how home owners and occupiers can complain to the local authority about such hedges.

This is a simple guide and not a statement of the law.

The law and high hedges

1. What does the high hedges legislation do?

Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 allows local councils to deal with complaints about high hedges whose area contains the land on which the hedge is situated.

When councils are determining a complaint they must first decide whether the height of the high hedge is having an adverse effect on a neighbour’s enjoyment of their home and/or its garden or yard. If it is, then councils can order the owner of a high hedge to take action to put right the problem and stop it from happening again.

The legislation also allows councils to set and charge fees for handling these complaints.

There is a lot more on the government website that I can’t seem to copy and paste.

I suspect that was brought in to deal with the scourge of the dreaded leylandii hedges, which can get truly gigantic and are a monstrous nuisance.

Yes. That’s what’s we are dealing with- Leylandi trees.

Our neighbour is growing them close to but not on the boundary. All the way down a deeply sloped, North facing garden. Due to his existing massive Leylandi tree we already lose a chunk of sun, his garden is higher than ours, so 2m his side is much higher on our side due to the gradient.

He planted more around three years back, they are just over 2m high. He’s now had more bloody Leylandi delivered.

Nothing grows that side of our garden, it’s damp, mossy. No biggie at the moment, he’s entitled to his privacy and can grow what he wants.

We do worry that we will have trouble selling the house though, that our garden will get no sun at all, that our washing won’t dry (line already partially in full shade due to his shrubbery).

Its annoying as he grows nothing the other side of his garden because he knows full well he would have no sun.

That is very antisocial of him
Esp then not planting any on the other side so that side he prefers sun to seclusion.
Is there any backstory that means he is especially keen to cut your side off completely from view?

I hate leylandii- thuggish plants.

If you have to go to court, relations aren't likely to be good after tbh - definitely a last resort. And you'd then have to declare it on your conveyancing forms as a dispute if you sold.

I'm assuming you have already tried a friendly chat approach to explain the problems their hedges are causing you?

We had a similar enormous hedge here when we moved in that blocked out loads of light. It was at the from though. we had a friendly chat with neighbour and it transpired they were v happy to remove it. So we now have a communal (and rampant!) bed of perennials and small shrubs at the front, with no discernible dividing line....

But my hunch is that those who plant leylandii are generally very keen on dividing lines.

that our washing won’t dry Washing needs air flow rather than sun.

Legal route is last resort. Difficult to imagine how neighbourly relations could recover after that.

Leylandii are a good plant in the right situation. They were strongly advised on Gardeners’ Question Time when they first became available 😉

@MereDintofPandiculation - I'm intrigued- unless you need a massive windbreak asap for your remote Scottish castle, when are leylandii ever a good option? 😉

I think they were introduced in the 1970s - appeared to be a great fast growing option for new housing estates.... and have been rued ever since - but I'm no expert. That's yet another hunch😁

2 metres for leylandii is tiny, they can easily grow to 25 metres or more in about 20 years. I feel your pain.

@MereDintofPandiculation On a sloped, North facing and damp garden? He already has Leylandi over 25m at the bottom of his garden… and he waters them - as high as he can get which soaks our washing and I’ve heard his wife telling him off. We’ve said nothing. Why doesn’t he grow them the other side if he likes them so much!

@CorsicaDreaming His tree died which fell on our fence and tree and killed the tree. Came home to find him attempting to tidy up, bought him whisky and presumed all was well.
He did mention that I should buy a new tree but I didn’t as we back onto a wood. DH and I worked full time and were never really at home.

Time went on and we got older, had DD. We put a lock on our side gate, which I think annoyed him as he used to come over to our house and trim his hedge and could no longer do this.

We had a quote for a deck which he overheard and said he didn’t want us to have it where we had chosen. So we put it where he chose, incidentally he wouldn’t have seen us where we wanted it, but it involved cutting down /working around OUR apple tree. In any event we moved the deck where he chose and where he can view us- we never use it. Mainly as when he hoses his garden he soaks it and once told us to move or get wet! I admit I huffed and got up and went inside. He will hose every day, even if it’s rained. DH suspects mental health issues as he’s told us people can see us and DD and to be careful of sexual predators. There is no one there!

As we are on a slope the Leylandi travel down the very deep slope and boundary. From his balcony he can view us though and interestingly trims as much of his shrubbery as he can from the top end, no Leylandi there. Yet! He will stand there, chat to DH and watch us so I don’t think he’s trying to block us to be honest. We don’t have parties, we aren’t loud, DD doesn’t have friends over. DH mentioned trimming his Leylandi but he said no. End of conversation.

I think I’ll ask the council for advice and see what they say.

That’s the height of the new ones! He’s since ordered more.

We do want to move eventually, perhaps the time is now. Worried the wall of conifers will put buyers off if we try to sell once they’ve grown.

I think I'd bring forward your plans to move .Meanwhile contact council,ask a local councillor for advice ?

I wouldn't start a legal dispute if you are planning to sell as you need to declare it.

I'm intrigued- unless you need a massive windbreak asap for your remote Scottish castle, when are leylandii ever a good option? If you are prepared to keep them to a reasonable height, and trim them regularly, they make a dense evergreen hedge, with small leaves which many people find more attractive than the large leaves of laurel. The only similar alternative is yew, which is slow growing and poisonous.

Left alone, a beech hedge would get pretty tall. The problem with leylandii is not the capacity to get large, but the fast growth meaning it is high maintenance.

Groan- good point.
@Kocduw
It’s finding a suitable property, in the same area and DH is reluctant to move just because of the neighbour. Our next home needs to be a forever home really. We contacted an estate agent during lockdown., perhaps it’s time to put the house on the market. I just think it puts buyers off if there’s a chain. Plus we have a few bits to do, freshening up paint work mainly nothing major.

High hedges applications are done through the planning department. You pay up front and there's no guarantee that the result will be that they need to be trimmed. I've worked in planning since 2007 and never seen a single application. As soon as people hear the price you never hear back.

@ItsJustASimpleLine I’ve heard it’s around £500. I’d happily pay that. Disheartening to hear you’ve not had one application, Seems pointless putting one in as there seem to be so many clauses/get outs. I guess the council won’t be interested in my inability to dry washing. We can’t grow any plants that side, but most of the trees aren’t that tall yet. It’s just the incline.

We also wouldn’t want a dispute, he’s elderly and we don’t want to seen as bullies. He’s gossiped to us about other neighbours - don’t want to be the brunt of it ourselves.

The legislation doesn't really give us a lot of power which is why they rarely come to anything and usually not what the neighbour wants. (I've looked this us when questioned before but ikea I said never had one).

If it beces untidy you can. Report that to the council its a different department with different powers however what you have described doesn't sound untidy

*becomes untidy sorry

I wouldn't worry about starting a dispute on this matter, any potential buyers are clearly going to be able to see the problem with their own eyes. At least by starting a dispute you may be able to reduce the problem.

Over £300 for our Council. Not surprised there aren’t many applications!

@ItsJustASimpleLine Thank you for your post. No it’s not untidy, but if he becomes unable to get to it then it may. They are quite hard gardens, ours was layered before we moved in thank goodness!
There are ways around it, quite a few of the gardens here have elderly residents and unless they pay for a gardener they have jungles. A few have had huge balconies put on. Ours isn’t that big at the moment, but we can sit on it luckily.

We had bind weed when we first moved in. Another plant our neighbour likes to grow.

@RIPWalter disputes worry me. I’d just get stressed!

I found a lot of background info on the law and hedges (who knew there was that sort of thing?!) here:

propertydisputes.lawyer/2022/06/30/hedge-law-uk/

We used it. Filled in all the documents and wrote a letter to the people at the back with 2 80ft leylandii at the end of our south facing garden. We threatened reporting to the council if they didn't trim them to the height we calculated on the form. They initially went bonkers but then told us they were selling the house so legally had to declare to their buyers. Funnily enough they were trimmed pretty quickly! No council involvement needed.

This one didn’t end well for the complainant

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11091611/amp/Woman-locked-20-year-battle-neighbour-awful-50ft-leylandii-hedge-admits-defeat.html