Can I remove this hedge?

[VoleThenFerret]

I rent a Housing Association flat. It is a fairly big estate but only a few buildings are Housing Association. The rest of the estate is managed by a private company.

There is a boundary hedge between our block of flats and the car park. The car park is managed by the private company. They say they are not responsible for the hedge. The housing association also says it is not responsible for the hedge. As a result nobody has done anything with it in five years. It is an eyesore, it has grown over the parking spaces and in the summer there are a lot of wasps' nests. It also just gets in the way in that you have to walk around the thing when you go in and out of the building.

Given that no one apparently owns it or wants it, could I just pay a gardener to come and remove it? I know I could pay for it to be cut but I'd then need to keep doing that.

I would tell the housing association and the management company what I am going to do, obviously, but if it's not theirs they can't object. If it is theirs (whosever it is), they can sort out the maintenance.

Cheaper to buy a £30 quid electric hedge trimmer from b n q, do it yourself then flog the trimmer.

@SirVixofVixHall

Bird Nesting season now so you can’t legally remove it. Wasps don’t normally nest in hedges, so I am confused by this . Surely the best thing would be to simply prune it back a bit at the end of the Summer ?

We've had two wasps nests in our hedge (separate years).

I would write to both organisations telling them that you are going to remove the hedge by x date due to all the issues with the hedge that you have listed. I'd give them a few months as housing associations can be very slow. And then see what happens....

I bet that someone claims responsibility then you can push them to maintain it.

I'd also contact your local council to ask who owns/is responsible for the hedge. Could be someone else entirely (including the council themselves!).

Why not just pay £1 for the deeds and see whose hedge it is?

Is it ivy? They could be ivy bees rather than wasps and not something to be concerned about.

You mention that your rent includes an amount for gardening, but that there is only a tiny patch of green space. What is actually being done by way of "gardening"?

Good luck getting this back into someone's control and management.

Write to everyone you can think of and say you are planning to have it cut down on September. This gives them plenty of time to find out who it belongs to.

If no response they've had a few months of written notice.

Send proper letters and send them by post and "guaranteed delivery".

@Useranon1

Why not just pay £1 for the deeds and see whose hedge it is?

I've never noticed ownership of flora mentioned on deeds. Is this common?

@VoleThenFerret

I shouldn't have got anything done over winter because it's not my hedge!

Well if it's not yours, then you should not be looking at hireing anyone to trim it at all, even if others are not taking ownership of it.