My new neighbour has told me she wants to cut the leylandii hedge between us on her side up to the boundary which is marked by some concrete posts inside the hedge. The hedge is planted in such a way that each tree is planted on either side of the boundary so creating a zig zag pattern. The problem is that she wants to remove all the trees on her side but some of the branches come through to my side making part of the green face on my side so with those removed I'll get lots of holes on my side of the hedge.
Initially my thoughts were that she can do what she wants on her side but now I wonder if this is considered a shared hedge so she would have to have my agreement before removing some if the trees even though they're on her side of the boundary. I've kept this in order good shape so annoyed that is going to get needed up. She really wants me to remove the trees on my side as otherwise she'll have a very ugly brown hedge to look at from her side. Hey plan is to put up a 6 foot fence but the hedge is a lot higher than that.
Does she need my agreement?
No.
Don't think so, her hedge on her side, can do what she wants.
Has she had quotes for this work ?
That's no mean feat removing half a leilandai hedge and leaving the ground in a way that you can then fit a 6ft high fence.....
Yeah I think this will be tricky not least to remove the stumps without damaging the trees on my side
TBH the best thing you can do us get that hedge pulled out now. Otherwise in 5-10 years you'll find yourself inspecting your house wall wondering where all those cracks have come from.
Otherwise in 5-10 years you’ll find yourself inspecting your house wall wondering where all those cracks have come from
The original post is doing alot of heavy lifting to get to that conclusion from the information provided.
The hedge goes from the street at the front ask the way to the end of their garden - just be 50 metres so that'll get expensive pretty quickly - we're in Surrey
No she doesn't need your permission.
Yes she's going to be staring at the dead inside of the remaining hedge on your side - this will never change as it doesn't grow back.
Yes it's going to be a bear trying to extracate the trees on your side from the trees on your side (depending on their age/height). They will be intertwined and pretty difficult to separate.
(I've removed a short row of leylandii previously and they almost had to come down as a single unit)
Yes you're probably better off taking it all out - you'll have a load of extra space and much less future hassle.
I'd put a nice (controllable) beech hedge or similar though.... Not a fence.
Edit:
50m? 😬
How high?
In my side it's about 10ft high but maybe 2ft higher on her side as her garden is lower and the hedge hasn't been so well looked after as the previous owner died and it's been 2 years since her side was trimmed - she only moved in a few months ago.
I'm sure she'll hate how it looks with my side left, I've reason I want to leave us that a 6 ft fence isn't going to cover much privacy - the hedge is great for that.
I’d second removal completely and a proper hedge like beech or laurel if in a hurry. How much privacy at the front of your house do you really need? Think of it as a nice bonding exercise with your new neighbour.
It's mostly at the rear, I can see this costing 1000s for no benefit to me - well yeah I'll get some extra width but not something I really need
She can remove the trees on her side, and can also cut off any branches from your side that project over the boundary, provided she offers you the bits she cuts off your trees, and the amount that's cut off won't completely kill the trees. Then build a fence on her side of the boundary.
Leylandii - remove.
well yeah I’ll get some extra width but not something I really need
Said no man one ever 😉
Easy to say you'd remove when you don't have to pay, I can think of funner ways to spend that money.
However, my game plan is to see if she'll bribe me to remove mine and if not then once she's put in the fence and her new hedge has grown to give enough privacy I'll likely remove mine over time.
Having spent an insane amount of time and effort removing a Leylandi hedge, I would jump at the chance at someone offering to remove half for me. Why not just go halves and do the lot in one go? To quote the proverb "That's when good neighbours become good friends."
That could be tricky
The panels are set lengths, usually connected by concrete upright posts.
So the fencer may need to dig a 3 ft hole within inches of your tree trunk, where the majority of the rots are.
If by a miracle the posts are a few feet from the base of the tree, removing a tree growing within a ft of a fence will be a Ballache. No room to dig round and break the root ball..
I'd ask her to pay for the lot as it's no benefit to you and then plant some nicer specimen trees in their place with the money you save. If the hedge is seriously shading her garden she may be able to force you to reduce the height anyway down to the height of a fence.
Her garden is below yours, so is her 6' fence going to be your 4' fence?
Privacy for her will be worse, has she considered that?
Otherwise if my neighbour was going to put a fence up that I didn't have to maintain and I could get rid of Leylandii that I do have to maintain...
Ask her to pay to remove the lot, then ask for compensation on top.
If your happy with the trees, but accept they need a haicut to top them down to say 7ft and narrow them by a ft or so as well.
Maybe try a drastic haircut and see if shes happy. She wont be, so its gotta go. But you like your hedge, she wants it gone and a new fence installed.
So you need compo to fund new trees to replace the ones that had to be removed. Then you can replant with something mature and manageable that wont grow at 2ft a year
Leylandii, remove. A blight on the built environment and the wider world, planted by bigots bullies and the ignorant, retained by the same with no care or concern for the future, bitter? me? shurely shome mishtake. There are loads around here and without fail they are hated by the neighbours who suffer them. A couple of recent house purchasers nearby have removed the offensive herbs and been greeted with much cheering and celebration.
Get rid, you’ll never be able to get a decent fence line with trees left in place - they also absorb so much water that any new plants will struggle to grow.
Yeah the laurel hedge she wants to plant won't do so well with my half of the hedge still there and shading it as the sun is on my side - though the new fence with shade it anyway.
If I wanted to do what she's doing I'd feel pretty guilty and want to negotiate doing the lot and how to split the cost. I'm guessing complete removal and replacement is going to be close to £10k, I could easily be wrong but wonder if they have a good idea.
When I moved in 15 years ago the hedge was about 12ft high and I spent months lowering it 3ft plus at the bottom end they'd been left to grow into trees which I had 'fun' bringing down
Toten pole the existing Leylandi and last the panels to the trunks.
It'll look ace :O)
Playing devil's advocate,
Removing half a hedge is surely madness. It has to be all or nothing, won't removing parts of it be harder work even?
In which case, I don't see why any of this is your problem, she's the one that wants it done. Tell her how you really, really love it, it has sentimental value, but in the interests of neighbourly harmony you'd concede to her removing it all. She wants money? Oh, well, never mind, leave it there then. Why should you be splitting costs on something you actively don't want?
Why people plant Leyland cypress as a hedge I don't understand. Why they then let it turn into a problem row of trees....I guess there really are still people about that don't understand how much they grow and need trimming very regularly.
Her side is gone. You're side is your responsibility. If you want or gone when you'll probably hassle, a few quid, and improve neighbourly relations if you go halves and get the lot out together.
Cost depends on many things, but if there is very good access to get close with truck and chipper, and enough space to drop the trees whole or in large lumps, it'll be a lot less than restricted access and a congested work site.
If access is good then a big stump grinder will make light work of the stumps too.
A blight on the built environment and the wider world, planted by bigots bullies and the ignorant,
That's escalated quick. It's a hedge, not a barbed wire fence with watchtowers and 'No blacks, Irish, or dogs' signs 😉
I think Jamesco either has had bad experience or owns a hedge removal company 😉
I have a lot of Leilani hedging, it is a ball ache to keep maintained and I’d much rather a laurel hedge. However I’d also much rather than many £k in my pocket to spend on other things like electricity than replacing hedges. So they remain, they are great for privacy and reducing noise.
I don’t get the moaning about them, they are just a plant, ours have been around longer than we have been alive , we have plenty of plants growing around them too, and I do zero watering, no idea of the names, something that has lovely red flowers and something holly like with purple berries. You’d think from what people describe I should have a desert for a garden
Trees know your place!!!
access is good then a big stump grinder will make light work of the stumps too.
No that's what you do when access is shite.
A propper slew machine with a grab will do it proper if you have good access.
If tree companies locally are busy, they won't have a lot of interest in faffing around with a half removal, total would probably be cheaper.
When the wife's grandmother passes I suspect I'll get asked to clear the leylandi hedge approaching the size of the large detached house. Plus a couple of stray ones in the garden and I can probably fill a lorry with chip 😂
Access is tricky to her rear so yeah that'll require more money. Mine too since I blocked up a way around the side.
I've had a bit of a look inside the hedge and removing half is definitely an issue, some trees are inline with the concrete posts so I guess she can't remove those without my approval.
Anyone want to speculate as to the costs? Maybe you've done something similar?
For 50m of hedging? A lot.
We have a similar amount around the front and side of our house. It cost over £300 just for a trim
Yeah I know a lot!
Some photos of the key parts front and back
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Removal of the waste will cost a fortune on its own
As leylandai hedges go that's pretty inoffensive.
This is much worse - for scale the fence is 2m tall. Luckily mad person next door has moved and new neighbors are slowly sorting the mess so it will come out in the next few years as will the 4m buddleia out front
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Access is tricky to her rear so yeah that’ll require more money.
Yeah it's inoffensive though mostly as I've maintained it fairly well, it used to be worse. On her side it is pretty ugly.
I wonder if they should keep all their trees just trim beck to the trunks then out a fence up, that would be so much cheaper. Obviously the hedge would still be visible and brown above the fence but that'll be pretty much the same if my side it's left anyway. I guess they think they're forcing me to remove my side
Maybe Im understanding this wrong but if she removes her trees and cuts your ones back to the line are you not left with a boundary consisting of well spaced trees which are green on your side and the gaps filled by her new fence.
Seems to me that wod look shite from her side and ok from yours.
In fact the remaining trees would probably spread out sideways over time hiding much of her fence.
Tell her to feel free to remove her trees and cut yours back to the line.
Well you make a good point but the distance between the boundary line and my edge of the hedge is a metre or so which means my hedge will look pretty tatty. It'll improve over time but doubt it will completely and will take ages - I did have a gap left by a dead tree but managed to fill it in by tying branches across which eventually filled out
I had exactly the same scenario as you though my neighbour didn't speak to me i just heard chainsaws one morning and saw a contractor taking a huge lump out of the middle of the hedge including my side. I told them not to take anything else from my side but as the conifers were so intertwined I was left with big holes and the rest has been slowly dying off. Luckily there were some weed Elder trees in amongst it and I've let those grow into the gaps so have privacy in the summer. I'm also gradually adding escalonia and bay into the gaps so will have a nicer mixed hedge eventually.
We've got a leylandii on one side of our garden they we keep trimmed to about 7ft.
Not my choice, but looks ok if kept neat.
Then on the other side our neighbour has a couple of monsters overhanging our garden. He won't cut them back cos he's a grumpy old **** 😆
Tallest is probably 8-10 metres.
Luckily it's on the north side of the house, so doesn't really block much light.
His back garden is in total shade though!
