One of my daughters is a single parent living in her own terraced home next door to someone who has no interest in his rear garden. It has become completely overgrown to the point where his vegetation (trees and bushes) is pushing her fence panels off their posts and ivy is creeping from his house to hers and going up her roof. Last year she paid someone to clear the ivy and overhanging branches, but this year it’s far worse. He refuses to do anything about it, even when asked politely, and she suspects it is now so bad that he may be unable to get out of the back door.
She lives in Norwich – 100 or so miles from me. Even if I went I’m no longer capable of doing the kind of work needed. The local council is not interested. Any suggestions about what she can do about it? I’m thinking in terms of what anyone can legally do in terms of going into his garden and sorting some of it out.
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www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/high-hedges-trees-and-boundaries
Property damage from hedges
Your neighbour is responsible for maintaining their hedges so they do not, for example, damage your property or grow too high. If they do damage your property, your neighbour may be liable.
Is this the sort of thing you mean?
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>> Is this the sort of thing you mean?
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Yes, it is, except there is no hedge, it's just a mass of trees, bushes and creepers.
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Yes the neighbour is legally responsible for any damage done to your daughter's property but that means expense and a lot of hassle. A solicitors letter might do the trick but speaking to him and getting him to allowing someone onto to his property to prune the offending trees/shrubs is probably going to be the better and cheaper option.
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Thanks to both of you. It now transpires that she told him today that she'd be going in to do it. He didn't seem to mind, so she's been in herself this afternoon through the gap and done some of it. She'll get some help to do more. Good to know the legalities of this situation.
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In my previous property, there was a tree my neighbour didn't bother to keep in check, despite trimming all the others to a couple of metres height. I asked them a few times what they intended to do about it and got the responses, nothing and I should've done something about it before!
I bought a chainsaw on a stick (polesaw, I think they call it), cut off all the overhanging branches (a couple may have fallen onto their extension) and dumped them on their lawn. Surprise, their son turned up a few days later and asked me if he could access the tree from my garden to cut it down.
So I took the same approach with t'other neighbour, he was not best pleased.
I've now moved, removed all the trees in my garden (much to my new neighbour's pleasure) and looking at some siver birches from another neighbour! They've obviously not touched their garden for years and I'm currently removing overhanging branches and dumping them in their pond.
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Get your daughter to get 5L of NoGrow from Amazon and a cheap 5Litre pump spray with a wand from Wilco.
She can then spray much of the offending garden and watch it all die off.
I do this with the field behind my garage where a large nettle/bramble bed has taken root and intrudes through the metal fence on to my property. If I don't do it, I have to actually cut my way out of the door with secateurs. NoGrow kills the roots although the nettles seem more resilient...the strimmer sorts them out !
Ted
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Ted
I find salt water very effective at dealing with nettles and many other weeds.
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>> Not a fan of trees then?
Not big ones belonging to neighbours who can't be bothered to look after them. There were some blackthorns in the garden of the place I bought. Horrible, spiky things that sent out suckers in the lawn and the sloes produced more.
I keep my other ones pruned.
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Good thing about a new build is that there are no trees, no hedges to cut back, no leaves in gutters or on (new) lawn. Chippings out front so no faffing about out there either. Unlike the other place with its 1/3rd of an acre :(
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Overgrown garden next door - sooty123
