Gardening and the law

I looked for a legal issues thread, but couldnt find one...

We have a neighbour with a ridiculously overgrown hedge. Its the same every year- This imposing privet is almost a storey in height, overhangs half the width of the pavement for a stretch of 20-30metres. In Spring the pavement is still passable, but its is coming to the time of year when you have to limbo beneath and around the over hanging branches.

Early this morning, I watched a dad and pushchair have to traverse into the road to get enough room to move and and avoid scratching himself and his daughter.

Everyone moans every year, and but where does the law lay regarding his neighbours trimming the hedge back themselves?

From what I can work out, the trimmings would still belong to him and would have to be returned?

 

Phone the council and tell them its a safety hazard.

 

Of course that's an option, but our council would take forever to come out, and also if its a job we can physically do and its no real trouble- why not do it ourselves? Plus Im sure we'd do a better job than 3 young offenders with a set of blunt shears between them.

*muses*
If the branches were instead hanging over into someone's garden instead of a pavement, would you THEN have the legal right to trim the hedge?

 

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Hi! here we have a Parish Council, they are great at getting things like overgrown hedges sort out!
All one has to do is to get in touch with an indivudal councillor, they usually do the rest.

If you do decide to get in touch with your council about the hedge, find out who you are speaking to, and remind them that you have lodged a complaint and that if anyone get hurt,they along with the council are held responsible!

In my work it works a treat, if "managers" are unwilling to take up some safety matter!

Cheers!

 

Hi there

In these days of health and safety I'm surprised you don't think your council would be any help. My council specialises in putting notes through doors as soon as a twig begins to obstruct the pavement. You could 'ave someone's eye out with that. :hehe: Makka-Bakka makes some useful suggestions. Maybe you're just not laying it on sufficiently thick.

If I were you I would try to get the council to sort things out before you take action yourself, however tempting it is. You can never know quite what emotions lurk behind that overgrown hedge.

As far as branches growing over from a neighbouring garden - I think I'm right in saying that you can trim back anything that's on your land.

Apparently, no one has a clear cut legal right to light. So if your neighbour decides to plant a forest of leylandii which reduces your house and garden to permanent gloom, it is extremely difficult to do anything about it.

 

Isn't there a ruling that boundaries have to be 6 foot or under?

And yes, if the overhanging branches were encroaching into your garden/property, you would be entitled to cut them back, but only to the boundary. As you said, the pieces legally belong to the owner, so you have to offer them back to them first!

 

I'm no legal expert but I believe it depends on the circumstances. I think there is now a 'high hedges' law in which the size of the garden, the angle of the hedge etc etc is taken into account. I don't know what happens if your neighbour decides to plant a large tree well within his own boundaries which blocks out all your light. I imagine you are at the mercy of the courts, should you reach an impasse.

 

Under Common Law, you're entitled to cut back your neighbour's overhanging branches but only so far as the boundary and, since the branches belong to him, there is an obligation to offer them back. (I can just see me knocking on my neighbour's door with ½ ton of foliage saying 'I think this is yours'!)

Have you established that the householder in question is physically capable of cutting the hedge? If not, then of course the whole thing would need to be tackled differently.

Assuming this person is capable, and whilst I'm sure you could argue you'd probably do a better job than someone doing Community Service (or whatever it's known as these days), I would strongly advise against tackling anything which wasn't mine even if it does overhang the public highway, for all sorts of reasons.

The obvious is the 'What the 'ell d'you fink you're doin?', from said householder, who could well see your clean-up efforts as vanadlism, which at best would create bad feeling, at worst see you in Court. Of course if you do it once, there is the danger he might expect you to cut it every year.

I'm no expert, but logic tells me that, depending on how much you (or your 'working party') would expect to cut off, there will probably be some bye-law which covers things like obstructing the highway whilst you're working. You can't just block off the path because you're working on a hedge.

You'd also need to ensure that you (and anyone else), was adequately covered by public liability insurance. What if, in the course of this tidy-up, a branch causes injury to someone or damage to property or vehicles (passing or otherwise)? Think about it, if you're only planning to cut back to a height of say 7' and a branch above that subsequently fell down causing an injury, the IP could argue it was because you left that growth above the 7' margin, in an unsafe condition.

Contact your Council - it'll be the Highways Department (or Street Services if you have one) - initially by 'phone and explain this hedge is causing a hazard to pedestrians, particularly the elderly, blind and partially sighted and describe how, in order to avoid it, everyone has to walk in the road. Get the name of the person you're speaking to and make it clear that you'll be putting your concern/request (call it what you will), in writing as well. Councils have no 'special powers' to deal with this problem, in fact in common with many, my Council states 'If vegetation from private land is causing a problem on a highway, we can ask the owner to cut, trim or remove the obstruction.' Not what you want to hear perhaps, but at least they may be able to force the householder to take action.

Have you (that's the collective 'you'), thought about just knocking and asking the householder if they're aware of the problem and how it would make life easier for many if the hedge were trimmed? Failing that, write to them (sign it collectively if you wish) and ask them politely if they'd trim their hedge back.

 

Don't get yourself into a neighbours dispute by doing any such thing
There is a lot of sensible advice there BUT leave it up to the local Council or Roadways authority
Trust me .... annoy a neighbour and the wrong one will make your own life unbearable

 

I agree with what has been said.

In that situation I'd contact the council stress the "health & safety" aspect.
If a car parked with two wheels up on the kerb (as they do sometimes in our road) a mother with a pram or pushchair would likely be forced into the road to pass the car.
Once the council has been advised of a "hazard" I believe they are legally bound to do something about it.

 

Thanks to everyone for the advice!

*cancels pitchforks and the hedge-trimming party*




Seriously though I'll be printing out this thread and sharing it with my near neighbours, along with our local councillors' emails.
A few people are out titivating this evening- I'll go and have a chat.

I'll be back to update to you all in six months when the council get round to sorting it out :D

 

I would agree with what everyone else has said. As the hedge is not overhanging your property, you won't have any right to cut it back.

However a council has a duty to see that hedges and bushes don't overhang the pavement. Several of us in my street complained about someone who had moved his fence forward and claimed for himself a strip of roadside land that did not belong to him - but belonged to the council. Eventually the council came and told him to move his fence back, but at the same time everyone else in the street got a letter telling them that their bushes overhung the pavement and that they were required to cut them back. The letter said that if it was not done within (I think) a month, the council would do it and charge them. There really wasn't a problem with the bushes, but I think that the council was bending over backwards to appear to be fair and not just picking on the man who had moved his fence forward.

I would suggest that you get as many people as possible to complain to the council - I was told this by a council employee. 6 letters carries 6 times as much weight as one letter, according to council rules. Also phone them up, and as suggested, make a note of the person spoken to, the time, and the gist of the conversation. Councils have rules. All complaints are logged, and must be addressed. If complaints are not addressed then this breaks one of their rules. Councils are terrified of people sueing them, or writing to the papers, So they do go to some efforts to follow up complaints. But sometimes they have to be pushed.