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My new neighbour has told me she wants to cut the leylandii hedge between us on her side up to the boundary which is marked by some concrete posts inside the hedge. The hedge is planted in such a way that each tree is planted on either side of the boundary so creating a zig zag pattern. The problem is that she wants to remove all the trees on her side but some of the branches come through to my side making part of the green face on my side so with those removed I'll get lots of holes on my side of the hedge.
Initially my thoughts were that she can do what she wants on her side but now I wonder if this is considered a shared hedge so she would have to have my agreement before removing some if the trees even though they're on her side of the boundary. I've kept this in order good shape so annoyed that is going to get needed up. She really wants me to remove the trees on my side as otherwise she'll have a very ugly brown hedge to look at from her side. Hey plan is to put up a 6 foot fence but the hedge is a lot higher than that.
Does she need my agreement?
No.
Don't think so, her hedge on her side, can do what she wants.
Has she had quotes for this work ?
That's no mean feat removing half a leilandai hedge and leaving the ground in a way that you can then fit a 6ft high fence.....
Yeah I think this will be tricky not least to remove the stumps without damaging the trees on my side
TBH the best thing you can do us get that hedge pulled out now. Otherwise in 5-10 years you'll find yourself inspecting your house wall wondering where all those cracks have come from.
Otherwise in 5-10 years you’ll find yourself inspecting your house wall wondering where all those cracks have come from
The original post is doing alot of heavy lifting to get to that conclusion from the information provided.
The hedge goes from the street at the front ask the way to the end of their garden - just be 50 metres so that'll get expensive pretty quickly - we're in Surrey
No she doesn't need your permission.
Yes she's going to be staring at the dead inside of the remaining hedge on your side - this will never change as it doesn't grow back.
Yes it's going to be a bear trying to extracate the trees on your side from the trees on your side (depending on their age/height). They will be intertwined and pretty difficult to separate.
(I've removed a short row of leylandii previously and they almost had to come down as a single unit)
Yes you're probably better off taking it all out - you'll have a load of extra space and much less future hassle.
I'd put a nice (controllable) beech hedge or similar though.... Not a fence.
Edit:
50m? 😬
How high?
In my side it's about 10ft high but maybe 2ft higher on her side as her garden is lower and the hedge hasn't been so well looked after as the previous owner died and it's been 2 years since her side was trimmed - she only moved in a few months ago.
I'm sure she'll hate how it looks with my side left, I've reason I want to leave us that a 6 ft fence isn't going to cover much privacy - the hedge is great for that.
I’d second removal completely and a proper hedge like beech or laurel if in a hurry. How much privacy at the front of your house do you really need? Think of it as a nice bonding exercise with your new neighbour.
It's mostly at the rear, I can see this costing 1000s for no benefit to me - well yeah I'll get some extra width but not something I really need
She can remove the trees on her side, and can also cut off any branches from your side that project over the boundary, provided she offers you the bits she cuts off your trees, and the amount that's cut off won't completely kill the trees. Then build a fence on her side of the boundary.
Leylandii - remove.
well yeah I’ll get some extra width but not something I really need
Said no man one ever 😉
Easy to say you'd remove when you don't have to pay, I can think of funner ways to spend that money.
However, my game plan is to see if she'll bribe me to remove mine and if not then once she's put in the fence and her new hedge has grown to give enough privacy I'll likely remove mine over time.
Having spent an insane amount of time and effort removing a Leylandi hedge, I would jump at the chance at someone offering to remove half for me. Why not just go halves and do the lot in one go? To quote the proverb "That's when good neighbours become good friends."
That could be tricky
The panels are set lengths, usually connected by concrete upright posts.
So the fencer may need to dig a 3 ft hole within inches of your tree trunk, where the majority of the rots are.
If by a miracle the posts are a few feet from the base of the tree, removing a tree growing within a ft of a fence will be a Ballache. No room to dig round and break the root ball..
I'd ask her to pay for the lot as it's no benefit to you and then plant some nicer specimen trees in their place with the money you save. If the hedge is seriously shading her garden she may be able to force you to reduce the height anyway down to the height of a fence.
Her garden is below yours, so is her 6' fence going to be your 4' fence?
Privacy for her will be worse, has she considered that?
Otherwise if my neighbour was going to put a fence up that I didn't have to maintain and I could get rid of Leylandii that I do have to maintain...
Ask her to pay to remove the lot, then ask for compensation on top.
If your happy with the trees, but accept they need a haicut to top them down to say 7ft and narrow them by a ft or so as well.
Maybe try a drastic haircut and see if shes happy. She wont be, so its gotta go. But you like your hedge, she wants it gone and a new fence installed.
So you need compo to fund new trees to replace the ones that had to be removed. Then you can replant with something mature and manageable that wont grow at 2ft a year
Leylandii, remove. A blight on the built environment and the wider world, planted by bigots bullies and the ignorant, retained by the same with no care or concern for the future, bitter? me? shurely shome mishtake. There are loads around here and without fail they are hated by the neighbours who suffer them. A couple of recent house purchasers nearby have removed the offensive herbs and been greeted with much cheering and celebration.
Get rid, you’ll never be able to get a decent fence line with trees left in place - they also absorb so much water that any new plants will struggle to grow.
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.
If I wanted to do what she's doing I'd feel pretty guilty and want to negotiate doing the lot and how to split the cost. I'm guessing complete removal and replacement is going to be close to £10k, I could easily be wrong but wonder if they have a good idea.
When I moved in 15 years ago the hedge was about 12ft high and I spent months lowering it 3ft plus at the bottom end they'd been left to grow into trees which I had 'fun' bringing down
Toten pole the existing Leylandi and last the panels to the trunks.
It'll look ace :O)
Playing devil's advocate,
Removing half a hedge is surely madness. It has to be all or nothing, won't removing parts of it be harder work even?
In which case, I don't see why any of this is your problem, she's the one that wants it done. Tell her how you really, really love it, it has sentimental value, but in the interests of neighbourly harmony you'd concede to her removing it all. She wants money? Oh, well, never mind, leave it there then. Why should you be splitting costs on something you actively don't want?
Why people plant Leyland cypress as a hedge I don't understand. Why they then let it turn into a problem row of trees....I guess there really are still people about that don't understand how much they grow and need trimming very regularly.
Her side is gone. You're side is your responsibility. If you want or gone when you'll probably hassle, a few quid, and improve neighbourly relations if you go halves and get the lot out together.
Cost depends on many things, but if there is very good access to get close with truck and chipper, and enough space to drop the trees whole or in large lumps, it'll be a lot less than restricted access and a congested work site.
If access is good then a big stump grinder will make light work of the stumps too.
A blight on the built environment and the wider world, planted by bigots bullies and the ignorant,
That's escalated quick. It's a hedge, not a barbed wire fence with watchtowers and 'No blacks, Irish, or dogs' signs 😉
I think Jamesco either has had bad experience or owns a hedge removal company 😉
I have a lot of Leilani hedging, it is a ball ache to keep maintained and I’d much rather a laurel hedge. However I’d also much rather than many £k in my pocket to spend on other things like electricity than replacing hedges. So they remain, they are great for privacy and reducing noise.
I don’t get the moaning about them, they are just a plant, ours have been around longer than we have been alive , we have plenty of plants growing around them too, and I do zero watering, no idea of the names, something that has lovely red flowers and something holly like with purple berries. You’d think from what people describe I should have a desert for a garden
Trees know your place!!!
access is good then a big stump grinder will make light work of the stumps too.
No that's what you do when access is shite.
A propper slew machine with a grab will do it proper if you have good access.
If tree companies locally are busy, they won't have a lot of interest in faffing around with a half removal, total would probably be cheaper.
When the wife's grandmother passes I suspect I'll get asked to clear the leylandi hedge approaching the size of the large detached house. Plus a couple of stray ones in the garden and I can probably fill a lorry with chip 😂
Access is tricky to her rear so yeah that'll require more money. Mine too since I blocked up a way around the side.
I've had a bit of a look inside the hedge and removing half is definitely an issue, some trees are inline with the concrete posts so I guess she can't remove those without my approval.
Anyone want to speculate as to the costs? Maybe you've done something similar?
For 50m of hedging? A lot.
We have a similar amount around the front and side of our house. It cost over £300 just for a trim
Yeah I know a lot!
Some photos of the key parts front and back
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Removal of the waste will cost a fortune on its own
As leylandai hedges go that's pretty inoffensive.
This is much worse - for scale the fence is 2m tall. Luckily mad person next door has moved and new neighbors are slowly sorting the mess so it will come out in the next few years as will the 4m buddleia out front
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Access is tricky to her rear so yeah that’ll require more money.
Yeah it's inoffensive though mostly as I've maintained it fairly well, it used to be worse. On her side it is pretty ugly.
I wonder if they should keep all their trees just trim beck to the trunks then out a fence up, that would be so much cheaper. Obviously the hedge would still be visible and brown above the fence but that'll be pretty much the same if my side it's left anyway. I guess they think they're forcing me to remove my side
Maybe Im understanding this wrong but if she removes her trees and cuts your ones back to the line are you not left with a boundary consisting of well spaced trees which are green on your side and the gaps filled by her new fence.
Seems to me that wod look shite from her side and ok from yours.
In fact the remaining trees would probably spread out sideways over time hiding much of her fence.
Tell her to feel free to remove her trees and cut yours back to the line.
Well you make a good point but the distance between the boundary line and my edge of the hedge is a metre or so which means my hedge will look pretty tatty. It'll improve over time but doubt it will completely and will take ages - I did have a gap left by a dead tree but managed to fill it in by tying branches across which eventually filled out
I had exactly the same scenario as you though my neighbour didn't speak to me i just heard chainsaws one morning and saw a contractor taking a huge lump out of the middle of the hedge including my side. I told them not to take anything else from my side but as the conifers were so intertwined I was left with big holes and the rest has been slowly dying off. Luckily there were some weed Elder trees in amongst it and I've let those grow into the gaps so have privacy in the summer. I'm also gradually adding escalonia and bay into the gaps so will have a nicer mixed hedge eventually.
We've got a leylandii on one side of our garden they we keep trimmed to about 7ft.
Not my choice, but looks ok if kept neat.
Then on the other side our neighbour has a couple of monsters overhanging our garden. He won't cut them back cos he's a grumpy old **** 😆
Tallest is probably 8-10 metres.
Luckily it's on the north side of the house, so doesn't really block much light.
His back garden is in total shade though!
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.