S
sueellen
Guest
Re: >>Neighbours - noise problems etc.
Some other posts
legend99
Hedge Issues with Neighbour
Guys,
Can someone help me asap. Have had serious hedge issues with neighbour in a bungalow my parents own near the seaside.
They are an eldery couple and your one is nutty like. So anyway, I started cutting the hedge that is 10 feet high and blocking light from coming into one of our bedrooms. She arrives up going nuts saying I cannot touch the top of her hedge I can only cut that that overhangs myside.
So basically, what rights do I have if any to cut the top of the hedge? I thought I had read before I am entitled to cut it down if it is blocking light.
I understand I have no right to a view.....as a result of this hedge we have completely lost our view of the harbour/water area. Is that correct?
In addition as she claims she owns the hedge am I within my rights to feck all the cuttings from my side in on top of her...why should I have to pay to dispose of them? In addition, could I go and pay for someone to cut the hedge and bill her, the lunatic that she is?
To be honest I have had it with her at this stage. If anyone even visits us when she is down there she comes out for a stare. An immediate member of my famiy is in the legal business and I am fully prepared to go all the way on this...
jem
Moderator
Re: Hedge Issues with Neighbour
As a matter of interest and not being smart in any way whydon't you ask this person whom you know.
Perhaps you might post back the answer you get.
hope this helps
legend99
Shes away on hols for the next two weeks.....so I can't alas!!!!
Miner
Hedge cuttings
Hi Legend. Not sure about your rights to a view but any part that overhangs on your land, you can cut and chuck it back over to her side of the hedge. I had this issue with a neighbour and an amicable agreement was reached i.e. neighbour let me cut it and I stopped throwing it in their flower beds.
Laoise
neighbour's hedge
"So anyway, I started cutting the hedge that is 10 feet high and blocking light from coming into one of our bedrooms"
Be careful. You have no legal right to damage any of her property, including hedge. (aside from the branches hanging into your garden.
You could well find yourself being sued by taking the law into your own hands like that.
Maybe unfair, but true.
legend99
I understand from talking to the citizens advice bureau that I have a right called 'ancient lights'.
As my view and light are being restricted I may resort to this.
And start firing my hedge, of which there is a lorry load full over the wall at them and start being as confrontational as this batty woman.
The last time we had builders down there, the builder rang us up complaining she was harrassing him. She kept coming into our place where he was working telling him to do this, that and the other. In the end he told her to p!ss off...bit infuriating to be honest.
AJ
your rights
Legally you may trim back the branches and roots as far as the boundary.
(Be sure you take all steps to appear as reasonable. You could inform your neighbour that you intend to cut the trees back to the boundary and could invite her to make arrangements to witness the cutting. If the trees were to die of disease as a result of cutting it would then be difficult for your neighbour to take you to the Civil Courts and establish that you had deliberately killed the trees).
Topping the hedge is illegal and could land you in court, which by the sounds of her could well happen and having to pay compensation and a colossal expenses claim.
An interesting line which a farmer informed me about, is, you could mention to your neighbour that failure to keep the hedge suitably maintained would be almost certain to result in the invalidation of the third party damage cover, which most house insurance policies include. This means the responsibility for paying for any damage to your property from her hedge, would be her own, and not her insurance company's.
legend99
So is there anyway to enforce a topping of a hedge? If not then that is insane...what about people who leave those palm trees grow to 40 feet?
fatherdougalmaguire
Maybe AJ might know something about the right to light. I'm sure it's come up on AAM before. If the hedge was originally low (not blocking light) before you took ownership of your bungalow and it has since grown over to block light, I think you have a right to cut it back down. I'm not 100% sure but maybe one of the legal eagles might provide more info.
A quick search for "right to light" throws up [broken link removed] (end of 5th paragraph)
legend99
As I said earlier this woman has harrassed us for years and I have reached the end of my tether.
If it comes to it I am going off for my day in court to get this resolved one way or another regarding the 20 years thing and the ancient lights principle.
You know the way she is entitled to any cuttings from my side. Do I have the right to just feck them in on top of her in any case even if she doesn't take up her right to want them? Why should I have to go to the bother of dumping them?
In addition, if I pay someone to cut the hedge can I bill her for it?
heinbloed
hedge cutting
You should not cut a hedge during the breeding season.
Even under Irish law that is illegal,nature preservation.
legend99
Then I'd imagine that along with 80% of the Irish Population who cut their hedges at the start and end of the summer that there is going to be a hell of a big back log of cases..
Spacer
Not sure how true it is, but I heard that if the hedge is planted on your neighbour's property and grows into your property, the part of the hedge overhanging your property (i.e. on your side of the boundary) remaind the property of your neighbour.
Therefore, the overhanging hedge you cut remains the property of your neighbour even after it's cut and, strictly speaking, you're oblibed to give it back to them.
ninsaga
Frequent poster
By the way no one has a particular right to a view. If it blocks light You may need to take legal advise. You can only cut what overhangs onto Your property.
Alot of problems arose in the UK in the last number of yrs where people planted a particular conifer tree along boundaries. This particular variety though grew at a rate of about 4ft a year & it led to alot of people being in the same situation You are now.
ninsaga
legend99
According to the local citizens advice bureau there is a right of 'ancient lights'., where if you have had a view for more than 20 years and light then you actually do have a right to a view. I always thought it was only light you had a right to but it appears not...
We used have a view of the harbour but because of her that view is not totally gone and in addition she has planted a tree behind the hedge to totally block the view completely. Therefore I am seriously considering when my relation who is a solicitor gets back to taking her to court under the ancient lights privelge. That and the fact that she is driving us nuts looking out the window everytime we go out our gate...
Marie
Registered User
boundaries
My neighbours planted "rampant invasives" (mallow, buddleia, potato-vine) very close to the wooden boundary fence to the extent the roots damaged it and their is overhang and seeding of these shrubs into my (postage-stamp-size) garden.
I had to research the legal position. Any damage to your boundary fence (which is regarded as "damage your property") by inappropriate planting (the conifers you describe sound like Leylandiii, which is banned here in UK!) can be claimed against the neighbour.
As other posters here have informed, you can cut anything that overhangs your garden. This belongs to the neighbour AND MUST BE RETURNED (i.e. you cannot plant it, burn it etc., it belongs to them......unfair but true). So you can "feck it back" if you wish, though that doesn't sound conducive to resolving the issue of neighbourhood harmony.
My neighbours behaved badly as an outcome of their insecurity and jealousy. It sounds as if these neighbours feel threatened by activities (new building, the help you give your family etc.) and I wondered if they are feeling a bit overwhelmed by trying to keep their garden tidy themselves (comes to us all with increasing age!!) though they want/need the hedge to protect their fragile privicy.
Neighbourhood disputes are awful and there is no way around them. My "lot-next-door" actually put up 2 metre high rods with barbed-wire along the length of the boundary parallel with my 4' high wooden fence, once when I was visiting my sick mother in Dublin. Legal advice was they were breaking the law (b-w must be a minimum of 2 metres above ground-level). Advice was that it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to prove these harassments and infringements in Court and it's a line of action best avoided as "intentionality" has to be proven. What I did was put up trellassing and now my honeysuckle, clematis and climbing roses hide their sick monstrosity from view. I wish I could have found a way to reconcile (the house is "let" and they live elsewhere) and I would try to do so more especially with an elderly couple. For example, are they aware how upset you are with the loss of the sea-view? Perhaps you could invite them round for a cup of tea in your garden and gently explain (and they can see for themselves!) how their hedge and new tree affects you. All the best with it.
okidoki987
Registered User
Kids kicking football into Garden
Just moved house and beside my new house is a green field and on the other side is a garden of a house, where my kids (unfortunately) have kicked some footballs into.
None of the balls have been returned over the wall.
The house/garden has electric wooden gates.
(A) Have I any legal right to go into his garden to reclaim my/our footballs?
(B) Has the owner (old man) any legal right to hold onto the balls?
(C) Have I any right to force him to return the footballs?
Landlord1
Perhaps before getting into legalities and trespassing etc just knock on the guys door, apologise for the incident and ask nicely for the footballs back?
In the end of the day it's just a football though and not worth making an enemy of your new neighbour surely?
okidoki987
Registered User
Tried that.
He refuses to answer the door (intercom), very old man.
Landlord1
Ah well, had something similar last year with a neighbour, bought new ball and warning to kids wouldn't be replaced again if it went over the wall again.
Lifes too short to stress about these things but I'm sure someone here can advise you on the legal aspect if thats what you want to do.
zag
Administrator
I doubt he has any obligation to return the property. If he did there would be plenty of scope for causing undue hassle to other people - just keep kicking footballs into their garden and insisting they give them back.
I'm not sure if their are other issues involved with your neighbour, but I would have thought the best course of action was to tell your kids to stop kicking balls into his garden. That would solve the issue.
It's not as if he is going out of his way to annoy you, if anything else it seems he is the one on the receiving end. Maybe he has a nice garden and doesn't like footballs landing in the middle of his flower beds ? Maybe his garden is a mess and he can't see the balls.
z
paulocon
Registered User
Simple answer...
Send kids to samba soccer school to improve their aim!
Only Joking...
Your neighbour would be in no way obliged to co-operate with you in this manner. If you happen to bump into him coming/going from his house, just offer him an apology and let him know that you've warned the kids. If he reacts badly, there is nothing you can do.
Just make the kids get a new ball with their own pocket-money next time it happens. You'll find it'll probably happen less and less often.
Clubman
Kids kicking football into Garden
Agree with the comments that a pragmatic rather than legalistic approach to dealing with this matter is the most advisable. The kids next door to us are sometimes kicking balls in but when they do it repeatedly over and over again on a particular day, particularly after I've asked them not to, I just stop throwing them back and leave them there until the next day when I throw them back.
AmandaC
Footballs in the gardens
Reminds me of when we were kids playing on the green area and the football was going constantly into one neighbours garden who lived directly beside the green. She was a widow and must have been driven demented by kids playing ball from breakfast to sundown.
After getting it back on about 50 occassions on one day, it went in again.
Knocked on the door. "Can we have the ball back please?" Neighbour comes out with said football hissing and deflating on the end of a pitchfork. "Is this your ball? Ah god, sure it just landed on the fork." Needless to say, no more footballs got the opportunity to land on the fork again.
The neighbour in question has since died, but everytime I pass the house to visit my parents I smile to myself.
Some other posts
legend99
Hedge Issues with Neighbour
Guys,
Can someone help me asap. Have had serious hedge issues with neighbour in a bungalow my parents own near the seaside.
They are an eldery couple and your one is nutty like. So anyway, I started cutting the hedge that is 10 feet high and blocking light from coming into one of our bedrooms. She arrives up going nuts saying I cannot touch the top of her hedge I can only cut that that overhangs myside.
So basically, what rights do I have if any to cut the top of the hedge? I thought I had read before I am entitled to cut it down if it is blocking light.
I understand I have no right to a view.....as a result of this hedge we have completely lost our view of the harbour/water area. Is that correct?
In addition as she claims she owns the hedge am I within my rights to feck all the cuttings from my side in on top of her...why should I have to pay to dispose of them? In addition, could I go and pay for someone to cut the hedge and bill her, the lunatic that she is?
To be honest I have had it with her at this stage. If anyone even visits us when she is down there she comes out for a stare. An immediate member of my famiy is in the legal business and I am fully prepared to go all the way on this...
jem
Moderator
Re: Hedge Issues with Neighbour
As a matter of interest and not being smart in any way whydon't you ask this person whom you know.
Perhaps you might post back the answer you get.
hope this helps
legend99
Shes away on hols for the next two weeks.....so I can't alas!!!!
Miner
Hedge cuttings
Hi Legend. Not sure about your rights to a view but any part that overhangs on your land, you can cut and chuck it back over to her side of the hedge. I had this issue with a neighbour and an amicable agreement was reached i.e. neighbour let me cut it and I stopped throwing it in their flower beds.
Laoise
neighbour's hedge
"So anyway, I started cutting the hedge that is 10 feet high and blocking light from coming into one of our bedrooms"
Be careful. You have no legal right to damage any of her property, including hedge. (aside from the branches hanging into your garden.
You could well find yourself being sued by taking the law into your own hands like that.
Maybe unfair, but true.
legend99
I understand from talking to the citizens advice bureau that I have a right called 'ancient lights'.
As my view and light are being restricted I may resort to this.
And start firing my hedge, of which there is a lorry load full over the wall at them and start being as confrontational as this batty woman.
The last time we had builders down there, the builder rang us up complaining she was harrassing him. She kept coming into our place where he was working telling him to do this, that and the other. In the end he told her to p!ss off...bit infuriating to be honest.
AJ
your rights
Legally you may trim back the branches and roots as far as the boundary.
(Be sure you take all steps to appear as reasonable. You could inform your neighbour that you intend to cut the trees back to the boundary and could invite her to make arrangements to witness the cutting. If the trees were to die of disease as a result of cutting it would then be difficult for your neighbour to take you to the Civil Courts and establish that you had deliberately killed the trees).
Topping the hedge is illegal and could land you in court, which by the sounds of her could well happen and having to pay compensation and a colossal expenses claim.
An interesting line which a farmer informed me about, is, you could mention to your neighbour that failure to keep the hedge suitably maintained would be almost certain to result in the invalidation of the third party damage cover, which most house insurance policies include. This means the responsibility for paying for any damage to your property from her hedge, would be her own, and not her insurance company's.
legend99
So is there anyway to enforce a topping of a hedge? If not then that is insane...what about people who leave those palm trees grow to 40 feet?
fatherdougalmaguire
Maybe AJ might know something about the right to light. I'm sure it's come up on AAM before. If the hedge was originally low (not blocking light) before you took ownership of your bungalow and it has since grown over to block light, I think you have a right to cut it back down. I'm not 100% sure but maybe one of the legal eagles might provide more info.
A quick search for "right to light" throws up [broken link removed] (end of 5th paragraph)
legend99
As I said earlier this woman has harrassed us for years and I have reached the end of my tether.
If it comes to it I am going off for my day in court to get this resolved one way or another regarding the 20 years thing and the ancient lights principle.
You know the way she is entitled to any cuttings from my side. Do I have the right to just feck them in on top of her in any case even if she doesn't take up her right to want them? Why should I have to go to the bother of dumping them?
In addition, if I pay someone to cut the hedge can I bill her for it?
heinbloed
hedge cutting
You should not cut a hedge during the breeding season.
Even under Irish law that is illegal,nature preservation.
legend99
Then I'd imagine that along with 80% of the Irish Population who cut their hedges at the start and end of the summer that there is going to be a hell of a big back log of cases..
Spacer
Not sure how true it is, but I heard that if the hedge is planted on your neighbour's property and grows into your property, the part of the hedge overhanging your property (i.e. on your side of the boundary) remaind the property of your neighbour.
Therefore, the overhanging hedge you cut remains the property of your neighbour even after it's cut and, strictly speaking, you're oblibed to give it back to them.
ninsaga
Frequent poster
By the way no one has a particular right to a view. If it blocks light You may need to take legal advise. You can only cut what overhangs onto Your property.
Alot of problems arose in the UK in the last number of yrs where people planted a particular conifer tree along boundaries. This particular variety though grew at a rate of about 4ft a year & it led to alot of people being in the same situation You are now.
ninsaga
legend99
According to the local citizens advice bureau there is a right of 'ancient lights'., where if you have had a view for more than 20 years and light then you actually do have a right to a view. I always thought it was only light you had a right to but it appears not...
We used have a view of the harbour but because of her that view is not totally gone and in addition she has planted a tree behind the hedge to totally block the view completely. Therefore I am seriously considering when my relation who is a solicitor gets back to taking her to court under the ancient lights privelge. That and the fact that she is driving us nuts looking out the window everytime we go out our gate...
Marie
Registered User
boundaries
My neighbours planted "rampant invasives" (mallow, buddleia, potato-vine) very close to the wooden boundary fence to the extent the roots damaged it and their is overhang and seeding of these shrubs into my (postage-stamp-size) garden.
I had to research the legal position. Any damage to your boundary fence (which is regarded as "damage your property") by inappropriate planting (the conifers you describe sound like Leylandiii, which is banned here in UK!) can be claimed against the neighbour.
As other posters here have informed, you can cut anything that overhangs your garden. This belongs to the neighbour AND MUST BE RETURNED (i.e. you cannot plant it, burn it etc., it belongs to them......unfair but true). So you can "feck it back" if you wish, though that doesn't sound conducive to resolving the issue of neighbourhood harmony.
My neighbours behaved badly as an outcome of their insecurity and jealousy. It sounds as if these neighbours feel threatened by activities (new building, the help you give your family etc.) and I wondered if they are feeling a bit overwhelmed by trying to keep their garden tidy themselves (comes to us all with increasing age!!) though they want/need the hedge to protect their fragile privicy.
Neighbourhood disputes are awful and there is no way around them. My "lot-next-door" actually put up 2 metre high rods with barbed-wire along the length of the boundary parallel with my 4' high wooden fence, once when I was visiting my sick mother in Dublin. Legal advice was they were breaking the law (b-w must be a minimum of 2 metres above ground-level). Advice was that it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to prove these harassments and infringements in Court and it's a line of action best avoided as "intentionality" has to be proven. What I did was put up trellassing and now my honeysuckle, clematis and climbing roses hide their sick monstrosity from view. I wish I could have found a way to reconcile (the house is "let" and they live elsewhere) and I would try to do so more especially with an elderly couple. For example, are they aware how upset you are with the loss of the sea-view? Perhaps you could invite them round for a cup of tea in your garden and gently explain (and they can see for themselves!) how their hedge and new tree affects you. All the best with it.
okidoki987
Registered User
Kids kicking football into Garden
Just moved house and beside my new house is a green field and on the other side is a garden of a house, where my kids (unfortunately) have kicked some footballs into.
None of the balls have been returned over the wall.
The house/garden has electric wooden gates.
(A) Have I any legal right to go into his garden to reclaim my/our footballs?
(B) Has the owner (old man) any legal right to hold onto the balls?
(C) Have I any right to force him to return the footballs?
Landlord1
Perhaps before getting into legalities and trespassing etc just knock on the guys door, apologise for the incident and ask nicely for the footballs back?
In the end of the day it's just a football though and not worth making an enemy of your new neighbour surely?
okidoki987
Registered User
Tried that.
He refuses to answer the door (intercom), very old man.
Landlord1
Ah well, had something similar last year with a neighbour, bought new ball and warning to kids wouldn't be replaced again if it went over the wall again.
Lifes too short to stress about these things but I'm sure someone here can advise you on the legal aspect if thats what you want to do.
zag
Administrator
I doubt he has any obligation to return the property. If he did there would be plenty of scope for causing undue hassle to other people - just keep kicking footballs into their garden and insisting they give them back.
I'm not sure if their are other issues involved with your neighbour, but I would have thought the best course of action was to tell your kids to stop kicking balls into his garden. That would solve the issue.
It's not as if he is going out of his way to annoy you, if anything else it seems he is the one on the receiving end. Maybe he has a nice garden and doesn't like footballs landing in the middle of his flower beds ? Maybe his garden is a mess and he can't see the balls.
z
paulocon
Registered User
Simple answer...
Send kids to samba soccer school to improve their aim!
Only Joking...
Your neighbour would be in no way obliged to co-operate with you in this manner. If you happen to bump into him coming/going from his house, just offer him an apology and let him know that you've warned the kids. If he reacts badly, there is nothing you can do.
Just make the kids get a new ball with their own pocket-money next time it happens. You'll find it'll probably happen less and less often.
Clubman
Kids kicking football into Garden
Agree with the comments that a pragmatic rather than legalistic approach to dealing with this matter is the most advisable. The kids next door to us are sometimes kicking balls in but when they do it repeatedly over and over again on a particular day, particularly after I've asked them not to, I just stop throwing them back and leave them there until the next day when I throw them back.
AmandaC
Footballs in the gardens
Reminds me of when we were kids playing on the green area and the football was going constantly into one neighbours garden who lived directly beside the green. She was a widow and must have been driven demented by kids playing ball from breakfast to sundown.
After getting it back on about 50 occassions on one day, it went in again.
Knocked on the door. "Can we have the ball back please?" Neighbour comes out with said football hissing and deflating on the end of a pitchfork. "Is this your ball? Ah god, sure it just landed on the fork." Needless to say, no more footballs got the opportunity to land on the fork again.
The neighbour in question has since died, but everytime I pass the house to visit my parents I smile to myself.