" writes
On Apr 2, 7:00 pm, Rhiannon Macfie Miller
wrote:
At the bottom of my garden (the south end) is a Leylandii-type hedge.
When we moved in two years ago it was already a little higher than I'd
have liked, and we've not had time to do anything about it up till now;
the neighbours to the side of us also told us that the people on the
other side of the hedge had argued with the previous owner about the
hedge, which made us chary of approaching them about it. Recently we've
had more time, but the hedge is now too high for us to feel comfortable
cutting ourselves, and so I'd be looking to get a professional in to cut
it.

Finally, today, I went round to the house to ask permission to reduce
the height of the hedge. There was nobody there, and no furniture
visible through the windows either. Further investigation on the net
revealed that the house has recently been listed for sale, and has
therefore presumably just been sold. So, my question is: do I quickly
get the hedge cut before someone moves in, or should I wait an
unspecified amount of time in the hope that the new neighbour will be
amenable to a lower chop or complete removal of the hedge?


I asked a friend tonight who came to supper, he is a lawyer, he says
you can reduce the height of the hedge now to 6 feet (or was that 2
metres).

Isn't the question of whose hedge it is relevant? If it's the
neighbour's hedge, then I'd be surprised if she could legally cut it
down (although whether anyone would notice in the middle of a house sale
is a moot point), though she'd still have the usual right to chop back
anything overhanging her side.

If it's jointly owned she ought to wait till she can consult.

If it's her hedge, then the neighbour can invoke the high hedges
legislation and ask for it to be cut back.

But is your legal friend saying that there's a minimum height below
which it can't be cut? Surely not? By comparison, just because I own the
fence between me and my neighbour doesn't mean I have to make it 6ft
tall, or keep it there indefinitely?
--
Kay