Boundary Hedge

Saying the gardener was wrong is in my opinion ridiculous. They're asked to do a job, they do it. My neighbour who had a rather large hedge running alongside my rented property planted a ready made hedge outside of the original one and brought the height to almost 10 overnight. I could never contact him for one reason or another and decided he had gone overboard on the height. I waited until the end of autumn and had the thing cut back a few feet, wasn't long until the absent neighbour surfaced. We had words, but the hedge was cut and he was told it would be again. Funny thing is the hedge is now cut every year and is reasonable without any help from me. I too like my peace and privacy, but there's a limit, 8ft to me is high enough for anyone.
 
I REALLY wish that I had the time to be so concerned over the height of a hedge as the OP apparently has, but I, and I assume most others, have rather more pressing matters in life to fill our time.

To the OP, just wait a few months and you'll have your 12' back.
 
Hang on a minute,

Your getting some undeserved stick, and even some smart alec responses here.

Whether or not you can do anything about it now, I really cant say, but, I would be mighty peeved of if I too came home to find someone hacked back the said trees without my agreement, Law or no flamin Law. Common decency would not go amiss here, and I wouldn't be shy about letting them have an earful.

If they are within their rights to do this, so be it. It doesn't make the sneaky way they went about it right though.
 
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that the neighbour was right and I agree common courtesy is lacking in this situation.

By all means express your dissatisfaction to the neighbour, but get over it, move on, as I said the hedge will grow back.
All this talk of legislation and litigation is just ridiculous, over a hedge !
 
Thanks LS400.
It would have been great if the neighbour took the action of cutting the hedge before we moved in because we would not have probably even noticed. House was being renovated for 6 months so she had a chance to act then.

BTW, it's not like I'm talking about a 12 foot hedge on the back of a 3 bed semi size site. That would be seriously intrusive. Our neighbour owns trees on the opposite boundary that must be in the region of 25-30 foot tall.
 
People are being a bit dismissive of your concerns here. To be honest it seems as if your neighbour was being a bit sneaky and underhanded in pushing their own hedge-cutting agenda, also if its your hedge then its your hedge, how dare they! - These two factors would annoy me no end.

Your beef is not with the Gardner though - Your dodgy Neighbour was pushing him all the way....
 
Yes. I did refer to it as a shared boundary because of the lack of a clear boundary that matches the folio maps of both properties. As it turns out the neighbour had eroded the boundary ditch over the years. All that remained of it was a tree stump line. We have dealt with the neighbour and it's been agreed to share the cost of some kind of concrete post fence along the folio map boundary line.
The reason I called it a shared boundary for this thread was because the folio map boundary would not have been clear to the gardener at the time. I just wanted to focus in on the actions they took without consent of a neighbour who shares the boundary. I dont think its right that gardeners can say that they were led to believe there was an agreement. If they were misled by my neighbour then they can take it up with her.
 
It's not the gardeners fault. They acted in good faith.
The issue is with your neighbour. They were underhand in their actions.

The hedge is now 8ft tall and you don't like it... but it will grow on you.
 
AFAIK, anything more than 6 feet is against bye-laws.
That’s the way it is in the UK.
 


Finally a fair comment. I'd be peeved too, not enough to go legal but I wouldn't like it.
 
Drakon said:
AFAIK, anything more than 6 feet is against bye-laws.
That’s the way it is in the UK.
Click to expand...
My apologies, I was incorrect in my previous post.

There’s a legal limit to the height of gates, walls and fences (2m to the rear garden, 1.2m to the front garden) but not to hedges. However, the “right to light” is a factor.
However, I would use the aforementioned height limits as a rule-of-thumb so even at 8ft that hedge is too high. As for privacy, are the renters exceptionally tall?
 
Just a few observations.

OP is being generous in sharing the costs of the fence with the neighbour if I understand correctly that the fence is a boundary fence not a party fence.
There should be clear written agreement with the neighbour that it is a boundary fence and that she is the owner of it.
This will avoid trouble in later years when the fence dies and needs to be replaced by the neighbour or her successors in title who might say that they are strangers to any such agreement.

I would discreetly take a series of photographs showing the layout of the land before the fence is erected.
I would then do likewise after erection of the fence.
This will help in any future dispute.
Be sure that the photographs depict accurately what they are intended to show.

It has been suggested that the gardener is acting as the agent of the neighbour.
This may be quite incorrect.
If the gardener is an independent contractor the neighbour is his principal.
Generally - but with some exceptions - principals are not vicariously liable for the negligence of an independent contractor.
A principal may direct to an independent contractor the intended end purpose of a job but does not retain control over the method of work.
However, if this matter had been of such substance that legal proceedings were taken the neighbour and the contractor would actually be nominated as co-defendants.

I would not be so generous about the gardener.
Experienced contractors often know quite well what they are doing as well as what lies on the naughty side of right.
To answer a specific point from OP I think that the gardener was well out of order on grounds of trespass and quite possibly criminal damage.

Ah well, to paraphrase Basil Fawlty, the war is over and we are all friends again...................
 
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