We have a long, narrow garden. One side is fenced, the other has a massive privet hedge that has been there for years. It appears to have some of infection or disease in a few spots and may well be slowly dying.
The hedge is on our boundary side. However the hedge was planted by the neighbours. From the tiny bits of fence left I suspect it was planted slightly on their side of the boundary, but we can't be sure.
I want rid of the hedge as it's a nightmare to maintain, and the neighbours don't maintain their side at all so it looks an absolute mess, even if our side is tidied. And it means we can't take any off the height at all.
Now for any other reasonable neighbours I would just have a chat and see what works, in the past most people have generally shared the cost of boundary works as you both use that fence etc. But these neighbours are bizarrely precious over the hedge (they have come rushing out to ask what we are doing when we are tidying our side) but have also implied, during the brief conversation we had where they mentioned the hedge was diseased, that it is our boundary and therefore our cost.
So basically, if it is their hedge but our boundary and they don't seem to be reasonable, what do I need to know before we talk to them?