What to do with this hedge? Who owns it?

[HedgingMyBets]

Hi all

We are building an extension soon and there’s a massive hedge between us and neighbours. We will have enough room for a bin but would probably rather the hedge was gone in an ideal world but this would mean putting up a fence or at least reduced massively.

OH has just measured it and it’s 120cm across at its widest.

Have included pics - the red coloured single brick seems to be the base of an old wall. Does this tell us anything? The hedge seems to be on this side of the old wall. The little flowerbed thing is in neighbours garden.

Neighbour has MAHOOOOOSIVE hedges round his property and seems to have this one maintained at the same time as those but don’t know if that means it’s his.

Who would we even ask about this? Boundary drawings just show a line

Must add neighbour is elderly with caters multiple times per day so am not keen just to pop round and ask!

is hedge on your side of the wall?

The roots seem to be yes. Couldn’t really get in to see all the way along. OH just cut that one part for now. The actual leafy part is on both sides though.

Any birds nesting in it?

Oh! I hadn’t even thought to check that. Will need to try and have a look. Does it mean anything if there are? Other than me being a heartless cow if I rip it down.

It’s a free fence basically (although not a fence obviously) so makes sense to keep it. It’s just so bloody wide

Do you have a fence on the other side? Usually one side is yours to maintain and the other side your adjoining neighbours'.

If there are birds nesting then it's illegal to trim it/prune and/or remove it during nesting season, it comes under the Wildlife act I believe, as many birds nest throughout the season that would not be until at least late September maybe early October.

I don’t think legally you can cut trees down at this time of the year
( 1sr March -31st August )
That should give you time to find out who it belongs too

No fence ... well there is one but that’s inside our garden and to separate the front and back rather than a boundary

Also if you are building an extension which may have party wall/planning issues that impact on your neighbour, and at the very least will inevitably be noisy and disruptive then you are going to have to talk to your neighbour anyway, or their advocate if they are unable to deal with this, so it may be worth just getting on with doing that.

I didn’t know that so thanks! Will it be obvious if there are birds nesting there? Just look for a nest like structure?

I can't really make things out from the photograph but also it looks very well established, if so even if it turns out to be yours it may well be protected in which case would need planning permission to remove it.

We’re in Scotland so not sure if we have Party Wall

Thanks Dotty, sorry for the bad pics
Will maybe just trim it as much as we can legally and accept it’s here to stay.

Actually not sure if all hedges protected under the same legislation as trees but personally either way wouldn't want to kill off nesting birds. How you would find out is hard, they can be very buried; try contacting your local RSPB? The council usually has a register of what's protected apart from that/on top of that. Not sure which department, may come under tree officer so try them and ask.

I would talk to your neighbour though, even if they are unlikely to be able to communicate they may have sons/daughters/heirs/legal attorney who might intervene later if everything not sorted out. Plus it doesn't sound as if you are the kind of person who would want to make life difficult/are uncaring. Also they may have a physical disability not a cognitive one but be entirely able to deal with discussion.

Thanks so much Dotty. I definitely don’t want to upset anyone especially an elderly person. Wouldn’t like to upset the birds either! I didn’t realise there was any legislation relating to hedges so this has been an informative post for me.

We could always stick a note through next doors door (behind us really) and say we’d like to have a chat about the hedge if someone could pop round or give us a call. That way if the occupier isn’t fit to a family member hopefully will.

I know that nesting birds in trees are uniformly protected throughout the nesting season and there is a petition going round to extend that to nesting sites particularly for endangered types of bird. Then some trees, including some on private property, have additional Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) which are enforced by the local council, and then some hedges/hedgerows can also be protected but less common than trees. But I assume if the register of protected trees is held by the local council, whichever that is, then protected hedges/hedgerows would be too? It may be that it's solely a domestic hedge so it won't be; from the picture it seems very extensive so couldn't tell where it went but worth exploring just in case. The councils I've dealt with are usually pretty helpful so should be easy to rule out. I've never dealt with that issue as no hedges on my horizon but come across it in RSPB and Friends of the Earth material.

On the extension/party wall and other issues, then the architect/surveyor you're using should be able to advise you. I know the planning issues vary depending on the scale, the proximity to the property boundary, the proximity to neighbouring properties, height and so on...If they back onto you then less likely to be any issues if any, depending on what you're building I suppose. But even if no issues then it's always best I find to discuss with neighbours and when you've done that follow up with a polite confirmation in writing. It's good for them and for you in case there are problems down the line. But I'm going on what I've done/would do in similar circumstances, some people just forge ahead and get away with things or don't check anything unless it becomes an issue but personally would feel terrible about doing that.

We've only known which fences we're responsible for by checking with neighbours, but on some deeds there's an annotation on the boundary lines that also outlines this. I wouldn't thank me because it may be that none of these restrictions apply to you, so it depends on whether you like to check out things in advance or not. But if I were your neighbour I know that I'd appreciate knowing what you're planning and it may be that even if the hedge is theirs, they would prefer a fence that they don't have to maintain.

It's birds that are protected so March to August you shouldn't cut hedges.

You need to look at your title documents and those of the neighbours house to see what is stated about the boundaries, etc. I'm not sure what Scottish title documents are like, but that's your starting point.