Would you be annoyed if your neighbour removed a boundary garden hedge…

From the photo it doesn’t seem it would be an issue, but then again its the only ‘private’ part of his garden.

I’d be upset if my neighbour ripped out the hedge especially as I consider it to be ‘mine’. However, I have pruned it back extremely hard each of the three years we’ve been here and recovered about 1 metre of driveway width.

If you can do it without cutting out the central stems, I would cut back your side hard to the trunks and put the fence in front of it to hide the dead wood. From his side it should still be green (and healthy)

If the only rush is so you can burn it before your turf arrives, just take it to the tips green waste bin instead.

Our neighbours removed a boundary hedge without asking. We were pretty annoyed(*), as were our other neighbours who were also affected.

I’ve forgiven them now, but we had to have some quite tense conversations.

(*) Speechless, furious, livid, etc….

Mtbel – alas the hill is full of steep, techy woodland descents but of the strict footpath type :-/

The hedge is leylandi and has been fully checked for bird’s nests and pixies.

I have been knocking on my neighbours door quite regularly.

It’s not that I can’t lay turf with the hedge there, more that I can’t then have a big bonfire on the new turf and I have no means of getting stuff to a tip :-/

NEXT QUESTION: If you owned the land behind and some guy (who you’ve chatted to once) asked if he could use your old bonfire site to burn his hedges, would you find that odd/feel a offended?!

“NEXT QUESTION: If you owned the land behind and some guy (who you’ve chatted to once) asked if he could use your old bonfire site to burn his hedges, would you find that odd/feel a offended?! “

Not in the slightest and I’d say yes .

Nope ask away, as long as you have no issue with being told no…. though I’d make it clear your happy to get rid of any unburnt (partially burn?) rubbish afterwards. Shouldn’t be any but make it clear you would be happy doing do….

NEXT QUESTION: If you owned the land behind and some guy (who you’ve chatted to once) asked if he could use your old bonfire site to burn his hedges, would you find that odd/feel a offended?

A bottle of something nice, decent wine perhaps, would be a good social lubricant. And you cleared up, pile the unburned ends back onto the ash next morning and set them burning.

For whats its worth …

Moved into a new house a year ago … I asked/informed my neighbour I’d be messing about with the boundary at the bottom of our gardens. Ask if a could have access/be in his garden when I do it and told him I probably will not be doing it for some time yet…. That was back in late september… I dug the post holes yday and hope to have the new fence up next week sometime.

The point being…

You must have know for some time about your own plans. So bad form for not taking the 5 mins to tell the old boy.

But it’s a strange one aye ? … my neighbour was “yeah whatever mate” … but like someone said up there if I hadn’t told him he may well have had the needle ??

I was pretty pi55ed off when I came in from work to find my neighbour had been testing her new hedge trimmers on my hedge. She usually cuts the vertical face on her side, don’t mind that, but she had taken the top of hedge from 7ft down to about 3 1/2. She said she got carried away. It has never happened again since…..now back up to 7ft

As has been said, leave it, that is home to all sorts of flora and fauna. Looks far better than any fence.

You can burn up to 7.5 tons of self generated green waste a day. We are so short of staff these days that burning gets ignored or put onto the local authority. We only get involved if burning waste ie skip full of tyres etc

you need to know what he thinks

leave a note with your contact numbers on – but remember that it’s only a short section, you could put the sections of turf to one side until you know

if and when you get the nod, you could lift and relay the turf to do the fire, it’s pretty resilient stuff, especially ones that come on the back of a lorry that have to be resilient enough to withstand transport and relaying

or get an oil drum or similar to burn in

*awaits the post of ‘thats where we buried barky the dog, he was my best friend and you’ve dug up his grave <goes to find shotgun>

you could put the sections of turf to one side until you know

Not really. Once cut, rolls of turf are meant to be laid within a few days.

i did – it says dont be an ass hole …. but there are no specific laws saying i cant have a fire in my garden….

no different to having a BBQ on a summers day or having your smoking chimnea goign with damp wood all night long as an old neighbour of mine did….

One of the primary sources of smoke nuisance is domestic bonfires. Bonfires are not specifically prohibited but under section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, local authorities have a duty to take reasonably practicable steps to investigate complaints of statutory nuisances, including: “smoke emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance”.

Glad to see i’m not the only one with a yellowing Christmas tree lingering about, waiting to be disposed of.

Glad to see i’m not the only one with a yellowing Christmas tree lingering about, waiting to be disposed of.

🙂 well I was going to sling it over the hedge but now I’m not so sure..

From experience at home, live in a private appartment block, large connifers seperating us from the houses over the fence, neighbour complained to council about our conifers growing trough fence, which we couldnt see, bloke from council sent us threatening letter , cut them back or be charged by council.We got them cut down,and removed result neighbours then complaining about lack of privacy, wouldnt have bought house etc.

A customer had a long drive, he went on holiday for a few weeks came back neighbour had removed his gate post and created a new entry to the rear of his property, when there was no entry there before, the neigbours house backed onto my customers drive.

Also worked at a large house,got asked by the householder, to cut small tree down, neighbour then started screaming id cut a tree down with out asking him, it wasnt his tree or his property and i was acting on behalf of the house owner,i offered him a tube of gripfill to stick it back up again he didnt see the humour.

Probably whatever you do someone else will have a different opinion, talk , liase and just do it and see what happens.

My neighbour moaned because I removed a boundary hedge on the other side of the boundary from their house, complaining it reduced their privacy.

But then her mentalist attitude is already documented on here.

alas the hill is full of steep, techy woodland descents but of the strict footpath type :-/

Oh.. Engerland? :'(

Your neighbour’s getting a free fence and a bigger garden. Nowt to complain about, go ahead and do it.

They look like trees rather than hedges

Mtbel – Yep Darbysherr , Engerlund :-/

They’re leylandi type trees stuffed together to make a hedge. I had a closer look earlier and it/they really are knackered..

silly question perhaps, but are you sure it’s not your fence? typically the LHS is your responsibility, non?
and no, i’d speak to them first, but i try to consider other’s opinions, unless of course i think i really won’t like them… 😉

Del – it definitely is our fence , I’ve checked the deeds and everyfink.

The hedge will be going it’s just a case of trying to be nice about it!

When you put in the new fence, don’t forget about the little hedgehogs that used to use the hedge as a thoroughfare to get to that lovely, wild, insect filled heaven that is the end of your neighbours garden. Make sure there are little gaps along the fence for them to get through 🙂

However, my neighbour (whom I get on with) isn’t around to inform/politely ask if he has any issues. His garden doesn’t look like it’s been used in years.

I’m quite a laidback sort of neighbour. If my neighbour did this I might say ‘oh, thats quite nice’ but then again I might think a better solution, different height, different colour would be better and why didn’t you give me the courtesy? I might have chipped in for a better one etc etc.

Do the right thing. Bin your ‘timescales’.

Its like my GF coming home with a load of pink cushions for the sofa because she think they’d look right.

Ask. At the very least it shows respect.

hedgehog tunnels – noted. I’ve never seen any around our way but then I guess I wouldn’t if they’re all tucked up in hedgehog HQ.

I’m really hoping I can talk to Mr Neighbour as my turf is being deliveres on Monday. Failing all else I guess I can lay the turf and then hire a van to take the hedge to the tip, rather than burn it..

Anyone near Chesterfield or sheffield want to lend me a van?! 😀

I was pretty pi55ed off when I came in from work to find my neighbour had been testing her new hedge trimmers on my hedge. She usually cuts the vertical face on her side, don’t mind that, but she had taken the top of hedge from 7ft down to about 3 1/2. She said she got carried away. It has never happened again since…..now back up to 7ft

Could be worse. I looked out of my kitchen window one day to see the ends of some hedge clippers poking through my hedge about a third of the way down. Out I go to see what Ian’s up to this time. He was just clipping a 1 foot long section in the middle to his preferred height so I would know how short to cut the remaining 70 feet 🙂

OP have you considered wife-swapping with your neighbour yet? I just thought I’d throw that idea into the bowl so to speak 😀

OP have you considered wife-swapping with your neighbour yet? I just thought I’d throw that idea into the bowl so to speak

Well I’m always looking for opportunities but alas my neighbour is a middle aged divorcee living on his own ..

Nowt to add but you have a cracking view !!

Nowt to add but you have a cracking view !!

Cheers, it’s not all great though as there’s a mainline railway hiding behind the trees and a fairly busy road at the front of the house. Still, it’s nice to sit in the conservatory and watch the gert big birds of prey circle above the trees ..

Far too much pandering going on by stw types! And hedgehog tunnels? If I put up a fence I dont want it full of ‘oles!

You’re not removing it to leave a bare gap…It’s a nice new fence. Privacy retained, horrible conifer gone. Win win. Just do it as Mr Nike would say

Well, it seems a bit of a waste of 3 pages of STW’s finest virtual thingy space ..

I finally caught up with my neighbour and he said “yeah whatever, it’s fine”

Even better, Mr Owner Of Land Out Back has let me dump all of the hedge on his land for a bonfire.

Perhaps being considerate of Mr Neighbour has paid off karma wise with Mr landowner?!

@binners – 😆 You’ve just described the majority of English self-righteous duplicitous busy bodies this country seems infected with more than any other on the planet.

I must be missing something. Your hedge, your land, do what the **** you want with it surely? I mean, if both parties agree something that suits both of them, then that’s great, but there is no reason why they should.

Anyone is entitled to put an additional fence/hedge up on their own side of the boundary if they want, and so long as there’s not a light/overhang issue the neighbours don’t come into it.

RopeyReignRider – Member

Well, it seems a bit of a waste of 3 pages of STW’s finest virtual thingy space ..

I finally caught up with my neighbour and he said “yeah whatever, it’s fine”

Even better, Mr Owner Of Land Out Back has let me dump all of the hedge on his land for a bonfire.

Perhaps being considerate of Mr Neighbour has paid off karma wise with Mr landowner?!

OR

They’re both planning to do something that will piss you off massively. And they’ll justify it by saying that they let you remove the hedge and have the bonfire! 😆