How can I control a neighbour’s hedge?

Where I live there are a few housing association houses, and we often get younng families moved into them with small kids, they often have moved from council flats.

Not all but some are in that frame of mind that nothing outside the house is their responsibility, even throw rubbish out the windows into the garden, put bins out into the road and that's where they stay, too much trouble to find somewhere to keep them.

As for cutting grass, its not up to them to do it, the council should maintain it.

Personally I'd leave people like that in a flat, but because they cant stop multiplying they qualify for a house with more bedrooms.
Its what goes on in the bedroom that is the problem.

 

@pete These aren't council or housing association houses. They are privately owned and the person living in the house is the home owner. Apparently the back garden is even worse than the front.

 

Oh Ok, I wasn't suggesting they were, or is it to be expected in council houses and not ones people own, I'm just saying that it happens everywhere.
In fact the houses that I see owned by the person who lives there seem to be the ones that have building materials in the front garden for years that never moves.

 

@RogPJ It would seem that you are in a very difficult situation with your neighbour and his hedge.
If the Council are unable to help or are unwilling to enforce any height rules they may have in place, have you considered contacting your local Community Police Officer ( if you have one of course ) using the AntiSocial BehaviourOrder as a basis for your dilemma? Whilst I agree that a Right to Light is somewhat of a myth, your neighbour's attitude and manner could be construed as antisocial at the very least.
I speak from a certain amount of experience ( not just hedge related ) having suffered an abusive NDN for years. I eventually moved house but hear that the new owners are receiving similar treatment.
There's never a guarantee that you will resolve the issue however hard you try but the ASBO avenue could be worth a go. By the sounds of it, you can't possibly make the situation worse.
Best of luck with however you try to resolve your problem

 

@KT53 - I had a similar discussion with a friend when she was describing a neighbour a few doors away from her. He didn't keep the front garden [and presumably the back one] tidy, and the gardens were absolutely minute. I told her there was no excuse, and she said 'he works all the time' so I said 'in that case he should get someone in to do it, because if he doesn't, or can't, do it himself, and he doesn't want to pay someone, he should live in a flat, not a house with a garden'.

If you buy a house, and have a space that impacts other people in any way, you have a responsibility to not make that impact a negative one. It's called courtesy.
When I do the front garden, I hoe all my boundary along the pavement [which is quite long] including the bit where the pavement meets the road, because weeds seed in from across the road due to the wind direction. It's something I've always done, in every house I've had.

That's when I'm not clearing all the mess from the 'garden' next door so that we, and the postman etc, can walk up the path and get to to the front door....

 

Unfortunately not everyone is interested in gardening so if you end up with one of them next door
there is not a lot you can do about it unless rats become a problem. Hedges and boundaries are often a bone of contention. As above, you are allowed to cut any foliage/branches back to the vertical fence line if there is a fence. Light only becomes an issue if the hedge or trees etc. are close to your house, I cannot remember the exact distances, you would need to check with the council.
My neighbour who lives next door but one to me, owns the 2 fields front and back of my cottage. When he first bought them he used to keep them mowed, built a climbing fort for the children followed by a monstrosity of a climbing frame of scaffolding for them, neither ever played on, in the field in front of my cottage. Then he put a garden shed in the middle of it and made a chicken run. He stopped mowing and now 15 years later the whole field is an impenetrable forest of brambles and goat willow which I fight to keep out of my garden. The field behind me was the same until a new neighbour moved in, she paid to have the back field cleared and she now keeps 2 ponies on it which has helped enormously as far as I am concerned although brambles are still a big problem along the boundary. He has refused to maintain the access lane to our properties so we have to negotiate deep pot holes to reach our homes. I have offered twice to pay for granite chippings to back fill the pot holes but he has refused to allow me to do so.
There is nothing much we can do, it is his land, end of.

 

Being adjacent to fields is a bit different from an urban or suburban, residential garden though @Goldenlily26 . I've been in both situations, and when you have a property near any kind of field, you have to accept that it could be a problem at some point.
I have a bigger problem in this property with an ignorant neighbour who thinks he owns the whole road, and regularly commandeers bits of pavement to build yet more 'outbuildings and workshops', although at least he keeps it tidy. The thoughtless parking by him is also a problem, as we have an rear access road which is not council maintained, but is maintained by residents, which can also be a problem.
I don't want to make official complaints about that man either, because of possible repercussions. Living in the previous house, with fields all around us [ and a very dodgy farmer!], was nothing by comparison.

 

I've got a young couple next to me and the hedge between us is about 25 foot tall but they won't do anything I've asked if I can cut it back but I can't even get a answer. They have also had the overflow pipe from the cold water tank in the roof running down the wall for over a year

 

Any Photos would help.

How high and wide is it now?

Whose hedge is it?...... May seem a stupid question but accepting that a neighbour says that a boundary structure whatever it maybe belongs to them, and you can't touch it may be incorrect.

As a very general rule, standing at the back door with your back to your house, you tend to own the boundary structure to the right. At the front to the left. But what does it say on your title register, does it tell you who owns what etc, it often does with the more modern, younger houses.

Sometimes boundary structures are shared, this can both simplify and complicate things.

Where is the boundary line in relation to the hedge? At the centre line of the hedge, or is the hedge planted your side or their side of the boundary line. Asking the neighbour is often the wrong thing to do IMO.

If the hedge is planted on your neighbour's side of the boundary line all you can do is cut back to the boundary and no further, if it's on your side do whatever you want to do with it, it's yours! If it's shared then you can cut back and reduce height to the centre line of the hedge and no further.

Your title register may even stipulate a restricted height for any boundary structure, and if so you can legally reduce the height to that height even if it belongs to your neighbour.

My title register specifically says who owns what all the way around, at the back it cannot exceed 2mtrs, at the front 1.2mtrs