Is there anything I can do to make our neighbour maintain her garden?

[heylottie]

We live in a row of cottages that slope up a hill. We have a courtyard at the back (it's our only outside space). The neighbour's house comes with an elevated garden that is L shaped, and stretches across our back courtyard . Because we are on a hill, this garden is raised, so essentially it sits above our back wall (are you still with me?)

Hers is a second home, which might explain why she is half arsed about maintaining it.

I have never, in 8 years, known her to do any garden maintenance. We get on ok, so whenever she was down I would gently nudge her to do something about it. She plays it dizzy : oh yes, I know, it's terrible, really I will sort it. She never has.

Last year it was a jungle, with vegetation stretching about 15 feet high. Years and years and years of growth. Add that to the height of our wall and it was about 25 foot of darkness. We trimmed back all we could but it needed to be done at source. So we said 'look we have to do something here' and she just nodded. So we paid a man £250 to clear all the weeds, and take all the crap away.

Neighbour then had a usable garden, and lo, let there be light into the back of our house. The courtyard was no longer damp and muddy, and I could sit there and have a cup of tea.

But its growing back again! At such a speedy pace. She is down this weekend and said 'oh yes i will sort it.' But I don't think she will, and we can't afford to keep on paying to have it done. I have kept it 'nice' because I don't like confrontation, but I would really like to be able to use my space.

I don't know about her finances - but as I say this is her second home, and her main one is on the Kings Road Chelsea, so I think she can afford it - but equally we offered to buy the garden off her if it was hassle (and she couldn't afford to get it done) and she refused. Not sure what else I can do.

Is it possible for you to do it yourself? You could offer to do it just to keep it down and there would be no cost to you or her. As it's been cleared, it should be much easier to look after and you could just keep it down to a level that works for you.

She might not want to sell you the garden as having a garden will be an advantage when it comes to selling it. So perhaps she doesn't want it but doesn't want to get rid of it either.

Would a local councillor be able to help? Something along the lines of keeping up appearances in the community? Or is that a bit harsh?

The thing is, doing it ourselves would involve us hiring a van to transport all the cuttings. And it took the man we hired a whole day... I kind of think we have done it once, surely the maintenance of HER garden shouldnt be down to us? I know the garden is an asset to her - but part of me thinks you have to do general maintenance on your property, isn't that part and parcel of being a home owner? I may try the local councillor. I can't sit in the dark!

But you said someone cleared it and it was many years of growth before that. So I assume it would take many years to get back to the point of needing a gardener to spend a day on it and having tons of waste to dispose of afterwards. If you did a little regularly it would stop it growing back to the point where it is a problem for you and would only involve small amounts of garden waste which you could dispose of in a bin or whatever.

I don't think there is any general obligation on householders to trim their gardens, unless they're using it as a dump for rubbish in which case the council can get involved. It sounds like ideally she'd pay a gardener sometimes and obviously it isn't your responsibility. But if the law doesn't require her to do it and she doesn't choose to do it, then it comes down to whether you would rather put up with the situation or do it yourself assuming she gives you permission.

There was something about not blocking light though...

weedkiller.

Could you agree with her that you'd trim anything above her fence and bag it - for her to dispose of? Once it's bagged its out of your line of vision. It's not unreasonable to leave it for her to tip. I would tell her you'd like to be able to sit outside and get some sun, you know she's rarely there, so you'd like to trim the worst back for her. Do you have garden waste collections? Just put a bag out with each collection till it's gone if she moans. As already said, it shouldn't be a huge job every time. I like the weedkiller idea!

You could ask the Council if they would consider a S215 (untidy site) notice. Contact planning enforcement. They can only say no and they might say yes. I have seen them used for overgrown gardens before.

Thanks for all your advice, its really helpful. I will look into the untidy site notice. Yes, previously, it did take years to become unbearable (on a scale of 10, it would have been a 9). But it seems to be growing back even faster, so its a '5' now and I think thats as much as I can stand!

I wonder what she would say if you offered to maintain the garden in return for her taking the fence down and letting you use it? She might just have not let you buy it because she was thinking of the resale price for her cottage, but maybe you could come to some deal which involves the garden being maintained and you getting some pleasure out of it for yourself. Just trying to think of a non confrontational approach. If that's no good, I suspect that there is a line somewhere in between a "gentle nudge" and reporting her to the Council.... a serious scheduled in talk about the effect that it is having on your life.