i can imagine this situation ending in animosity, especially as the neighbour won’t really be getting what they want if they take down half the hedge and i the process bugger your half.
i’d be inclined to let them take the hedge down and let them erect a fence and because this isn’t something that you want, at their own expense. i don’t think that it’s unreasonable for them to foot the bill.
though i expect that that will also lead to animosity because they will think they’ve done you a favour and paid for it.
as an aside, not sure why anyone would buy a house that they know has a huge shared hedge then go about trying to remove it after they’d moved in. it’s not as if the buying process is in any way fast!
hope it all goes well.
the distance between the boundary line and my edge of the hedge is a metre or so
Are you certain that the 'boundary line' is that sharply defined? On the deeds for my house it looks like it's been drawn with a marker pen. The boundary might well be as vague as the hedge itself rather than its median point.
I doubt I'll get away with making no contribution but I don't see much benefit to me from the change. A bare fence won't be very attractive so I'll have to plant a load of shrubs and then wait for them to grow and the loss of privacy until things grow enough isn't appealing.
The house the otherside is being redeveloped and they've received their side of the hedge that side but only the branches so the hedge remains ok on my neighbour's side. Think she wants to replace that with a fence too though! Her plot is a little narrow so she wants to maximize its width
Cougar - there are concrete posts so assuming they mark the boundary line - I can see wires once ran the length of the garden through holes in the posts
I doubt I’ll get away with making no contribution but I don’t see much benefit to me from the change.
You have no obligation to pay, she can't force you (though ianal😉), and unless you really want to be friends with her I'd leave the ball in her court.
If she wants rid then let her pay, in fact I'd ask for compensation to buy new plants!
so assuming they mark the boundary line
Exactly, "assuming." Find out.
I doubt I’ll get away with making no contribution
Why? You don't want it done. You're doing her a favour in telling her to crack on rather than fight it.
Are you certain that the ‘boundary line’ is that sharply defined? On the deeds for my house it looks like it’s been drawn with a marker pen. The boundary might well be as vague as the hedge itself rather than its median point.
The boundary will be the outer edge of the marked line. I spent some time working for the Civil Service drawing maps and this is the convention that we used.
Outer edge for whom though?
Thing is currently she expects to remove the trees on her side so damaging the hedge on my side where her trees' branches Conner through to my side so if I do nothing I get a damaged hedge
I’ll have to plant a load of shrubs
this would be something i’d stress while discussing the changes.
The boundary will be the outer edge of the marked line
A thick marked line between two properties has two outer edges.
she expects to remove the trees on her side
Are her expectations in line with what the people doing the work have advised is the best approach, or is it an expectation she's pulled out of her arse?
I would guess she hasn't thought about this too hard, in her head remove the bushes her side, trim yours back, whack in a fence fain a metre of garden. What she won't have considered is the impact on your side (not really her problem apart from neighbourly relations) and how difficult it could be erecting a fence with your trees in situ. Plus if they kill any of your trees she is liable.
If a mate had told me this I would have said that sometimes you just have to go with it and compromise (as it is their land / hedge).
Work with them and see if you can understand their POV and see if their is is anything that can be done to mitigate you concerns. Discuss how the fence will be installed and what it will look like etc.
A thick marked line between two properties has two outer edges.
It'll be a closed loop so has one inner and one outer edge. They are pretty vague, but the thickness shouldn't be an issue. They are often very badly drawn, though
This one shows how it should be. The outer edge of the thick red line tracks the boundary
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.
I put in a fence and mixed laurel and privet a couple of years ago to get some privacy on the deck (people walking past on the road can see onto it because it's 4-5 meters higher.)
They're already 6 foot plus tall and too thick to see through, started off as 10-12" shrubs. They're also on the north side of the fence.
A near neighbours leylandii at my last house in the UK were left to go feral, ended up about 50-60 foot tall and completely filled the garden and damaged sewers and foundations. Thankfully not mine. Streetview tells me they have now gone, don't want to think about how much it cost to sort the damage out. Obviously not the best thing to use on a boundary in a row of small terrace houses. (The gardens were mostly 15-18 foot a side, and flagged.)
Plans aren't always too accurate and IME have as many straight lines as poss. They're also dependent on early drawn plans being digitised accurately at the Land Registry and if you follow detail on the ground then you can find inconsistencies.
It's a different level of expense if you want to argue over a few inches here and there, which is where sensible compromise is key
Anyone want to speculate as to the costs? Maybe you’ve done something similar?
we moved in to a house with about 30m of leylandi - 4m high and 5 metres thick. £1,700 to take it out, take it away and grind the stumps.
5 or 6 years ago, though.
In order to avoid these financial disputes about garden borders, what you need is some sort of joint account which you could both pay in to according to the value you are getting. Perhaps spread payments over a certain period.
Some sort of hedge fund.
we moved in to a house with about 30m of leylandi – 4m high and 5 metres thick. £1,700 to take it out, take it away and grind the stumps.
5 or 6 years ago, though.
That sounds like a bargain to me, I recently paid £500 just to have a couple of trees heavily pruned.
Some sort of hedge fund.
Worthy of recognition 😉
They look fine on your side. No wonder you don't want the faff and expense of changing it. If she wants it gone, she pays for all of it.
It’ll be a closed loop so has one inner and one outer edge. They are pretty vague, but the thickness shouldn’t be an issue. They are often very badly drawn, though
This one shows how it should be. The outer edge of the thick red line tracks the boundary
Ah, yes, I see what you mean. I'm pretty sure mine isn't as clear as that, I'd have to check.
I'd guess it's better in newer properties? This place (and the previous one) is over 100 years old. Amongst other things, my deeds includes the right to drive my horse down the back street.
Leylandi are a nightmare. Our estate has a few areas of common ground owned jointly by the householders. The good bit is there is no factor and no annual bills. The bad bit is that for some reason, before I moved here, the residents assoc thought it was a good idea to plant the common bits beside our turning circle with the buggers.
They got out of control but nobody could be persuaded to chip in to get them trimmed/removed. As the lamppost was completely covered somebody managed to get the council to do a one off trim down to 8 feet. At this point there was a lot of bare areas. Since then I have kept the one at the lamppost to 8 feet by cutting it a couple of times a year. Luckily I have 3 green bins and neighbours who lend me their's and assist with picking up the trimmings.
Here is what it is like 10 or 15 years later. The maintained hedge at the bottom has been colonised by other plants and looks not too bad. The hedge on the left which I left alone is 50 or 60 feet high. My house is far enough up the road shade isn't an issue. The garden affected is owned by a neighbour who unlike others never offered any help with the trims.
I'm in no way condoning what this neighbour did to your dog with frozen sausages but that's a seperate issue.
You local council enforces the maximum height for hedges (typically 2m as defined as anti-socal behaviour) and you are responsible for cutting it down to that height on your side should she complain.
Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003: Part 8 in 2005. This is a summary of what constitutes a high hedge under the law:
The hedge is more than 2m (approx 6½ft) tall (there is extra guidance for hedge heights on slopes)
A hedge is defined as a line of two or more trees or shrubs
The hedge is formed wholly or predominantly of evergreens (these don’t lose their leaves in winter) or semi-evergreen ones (that stay green most of the year)
Bamboo and ivy are not included
Where a hedge is predominantly evergreen, the deciduous trees and shrubs within the hedge may be included in the work specified. However, a council can exclude specific trees or require different work
I'd advise you to decide what the hedge looks like with her side pulled out and yours cut down to 2m .. (and report her to the RSPCA for incident with the dog).
Sometimes I am really happy to live in a flat. To me that hedge is awful. She will be doing you a favour by removing the lot and surely being rid increases your house value? I know any house I buy I'll be discounting by the cost of removing such a horrid hedge. Bad for wee beasties and any other plants.
I can't imagine it would have any impact on house value, worst case it costs a few hundred pa to maintain but I do it myself. A good dense hedge insulates the garden from sound and sight pretty well. However, if it went I wouldn't be overly upset but I don't want to pay thousands for that.
A hedge war near me results in a loss for the Leylandi. Council orders hedge cut to 6.5 ft.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-couple-win-war-cut-27469082
Leylandi are The devils own house plant, and the only people who plant them are sociopaths or misanthropes with some weird grudge against society
I’d happily fund a campaign to Agent Orange every last one of them from existence
Possibly new sales should be banned but it does provide a quick hedge which I suppose is it's main appeal. Laurel grows up to 2 ft/yr though so a more attractive option and easier to manage later on.
No real progress on this yet though now hinting want to remove a section of the hedge, I think that'll be hard to do aesthetically but need to establish what that means
This came into my feed, it's DM so won't post the link...
Woman in 20-year battle with neighbour over 50ft hedge admits defeat
Laurel grows up to 2 ft/yr though so a more attractive option and easier to manage later on.
And you can totally mutilate it, cut it to ground or stalks and it'll grow back. Leylandii won't bud from trunks or brown branches.
There's a 9ft leylandii formal hedge near us that was left to grow too far over the pavement, got cut back in half 2 years ago, new 5 foot trees planted in place, they now cove the brown completely, it'll be another year or so before it's a close-cropped hedge again, it's still a bit new and bushy, but there's options to sort that way if you want to.
Still think it's best for her to pay for them all to be taken out, put her fence in and you to choose your own poison/pleasure for covering plants your side. If you're not in a hurry you can buy small. Bit of rootgrow when you plant, maybe, because the Leylandii does take a lot out of the soil.
If you like the hedge like that I would just tell her to crack on with removal on her side only(as is her legal right) Worth making sure the contractor is aware of what has to be done and limitations (just in case there is any confusion)
Once you see where the holes are just plant more on your side to fill it in
Might be worth a read of the high hedges act as well, just so you know the rules if she decides to go down that route.
Personally I would want to keep a hedge for the privacy.
If she wants to pay for total removal and fence, I might be tempted, and then re plant with laurel etc for easier future maintenance. The temporary loss of privacy would piss me off though.
Looks like you keep the hedge under control, its not 20+feet like some horror stories you see.
That hedge is nice. If she is committed to doing the work I would allow her to get rid of the whole thing. You should not be paying anything towards it- absolutely no way!
And you can totally mutilate it, cut it to ground or stalks and it’ll grow back. Leylandii won’t bud from trunks or brown branches.
Having had to cut 3 of the utter see you next tuesdays of trees out of our borders, I can confirm this.
The more you try and kill it, the more energy it puts into the remaining plant. Grind it down to a stump, and it'll pop back up form a bit of exposed root 6 feet away.
Laurel grows up to 2 ft/yr though so a more attractive option and easier to manage later on.
There are better hedge plants for wildlife than laurel (which in my opinion is almost as dull as planting conifers). A native species mix like hawthorn and blackthorn will have the wildlife thanking you more, and also grows fast.
https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/news/garden-hedges-wildlife
Anyone interested in an update?!
Well it's been a while.... In January they cut down their side to the stumps leaving me with some gaps which I then removed my trees from but a big section in the front garden and most of the hedge in the backgarden were mostly fine so I could leave those.
Then they discovered that putting in a fence was going to be expensive, very expensive as don't want to use ready made panels. After a few months of thinking they talked to a few contractors and were told that all the stumps need to be removed but also the trees on my side as the roots would make putting a fence in very difficult; also the concrete boundary posts would have to go. They came to me and said was I happy for them to do all this at their cost and I agreed, they said we'd agree the line for the new fence.
More time passed and now the hedge and posts have gone and they want to agree the line. Now that boundary is mine, so the concete posts are on my side, so my view was they can put their fence in on the other side of where the posts where. They didn't like this and wanted to put on my side. I discussed with a friend and he said well that would either mean the fence is yours, so have to maintain it, or in time the fence if considered there's as they put it in could look as though it was on their side so the boundary would have changed by a few inches. He was adamant that they put the fence in completely on their side. Unfortunately they got very angry about all this, and really I wasn't able to discuss easily, so I got my friend to come over and he agreed with the contractor what was right so it's going in on their side. Feels like they hate me now!
Sounds like a result. I don't think any outcome would have ended up with dinner parties at each other's houses
I'm predicting the next installment will be that they stain their side of the fence hideous orange (cos the inevitable natural weathered silver grey doesn't look 'new') and it runs through on to your side leaving loads of dribbles!
I was a little concerned about damp soil pulling up against the fence on my side as I'm a bit higher up and I want to flatten my side anyway to grow things on. My idea was to use done of the hedge tree trunks laid down against the fence posts to keep the soil away. Good idea or not? They don't seem to care
They should use timber or concrete gravel boards to retain the soil and protect the main fence.
They are using timber gravel boards on their side but don't care what happens on my side - my suggestion about reusing the tree trunks felt enrironmentally sensible - bugs will live under them.
Timber gravel boards are not a good idea; they will rot from the bottom where they are in contact with the soil.
If you are interested in the environmental aspect of losing that hedge then plant a nice native hedge along your side of the fence. Then when her fence rots or blows over you'll still have a nice bit of screening.
I see they're putting in a gravel board on my side as well as on their 'good' side so perhaps they did listen to my concerns about the soil. It'll rot before the posts start I suppose so could be replaced
