who has to cut the hedge?!!!!!

[nik1971]

if a neighbours hedge/tree is growing over onto my property who legally has to cut it back or get someone in to cut it back?

i know i can cut it and offer the bits back to the neighbour but its out of my limitations to handle it!

[kazza12345]

when i lived in flat we had some trees going into our property that were on another persons property. Our management company asked their management company to chop down the bits, or pay for us to get the bits chopped down, which they did, so i would assume its the same with ordinary neighbours (except you dont have to deal with expensive management companies thank goodness). I would talk to the neighbour, and ask them to arrange having it chopped, as they may want to do it themselves rather than pay someone to do it

[alan30]

There is no legal requirement to cut it back unless it is damaging your property i.e. legal nuisance. You can cut back to the boundary as you say provided the tree is not protected. If it is you will need to get permission from the local planning authority (I am assuming you are in UK).
If the hedge is evergreen you can ask the council to take action under the High Hedges legislation. They will assess the hedge and determine the 'action hedge height' and serve a notice on the hedgeowner to reduce it to that height. You will probably have to pay a fee up; in this area �150 -�650 depending on the authority most in �300 region.

[JudgeJ]

Yes. And what an outrageous piece of legislation it is. A law is made prohibiting people growing hedges beyond a certain height. Good � I�m all for it. However, in order to have the law enforced in your favour you have to pay your local authority. What next, a fee up front before the police will arrest a burglar? (Oh, sorry, I forgot. They don�t do that anyway, fee or no fee).