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Can I plant a hedge next to my Neighbours fence?

You do not usually need to obtain permission to plant a hedge in your garden if it is solely within your property's boundary. However, you do need to obtain permission from your next door neighbour if you're considering planting a hedge to separate the adjoining properties right on the boundary line.

problemneighbours.co.uk - Rules on Hedges & Roots Growing into your Property
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Rules on Hedges & Roots Growing into your Property

A hedge is often preferred to a fence when being used to separate the boundary between two adjoining properties. It can be more aesthetically pleasing and add character to a property, not to mention the fact that it provides both shelter and food to a vast number of wildlife species. So, that’s the good news. What’s the bad?

Hedges can sometimes cause disputes between neighbours when they become unkempt, when the roots start to spread, or if the hedge becomes too high and begins to affects the amount of sunlight reaching a neighbour's property. There are numerous legal rights, obligations and restrictions when it comes to hedges which are outlined below.

Your Rights

You do not usually need to obtain permission to plant a hedge in your garden if it is solely within your property’s boundary. However, you do need to obtain permission from your next door neighbour if you’re considering planting a hedge to separate the adjoining properties right on the boundary line. Provided there are no Boundary Disputes , and if both parties agree to the hedge, you will usually both be responsible for the maintenance of the hedge on your own sides. You can cut the hedge right back to your neighbour’s boundary, although there are some exceptions to this. (See ‘Restrictions’ below).

What are the Restrictions?

If you reside in a particular conservation area or any trees which form part of the hedge are under a tree preservation order, you may need to obtain permission from your local authority to cut back or remove a hedge. Some properties have Legal Covenants which state both the size and the height you can grow a hedge, and any further information will usually be contained in your property deeds. It’s also against the law to trim back or remove any hedges in which birds may be nesting. You should inspect the hedge first before going ahead with any pruning. If you’re still uncertain about this, the best bet is not to cut back a hedge between March and September, just in case.

Your Obligations

Sometimes a hedge can become overgrown and overhang the pavement outside your property. In this instance, your local authority can force you to cut it back or even to remove, it if it’s causing a danger or obstruction to pedestrians on the pavement. Up until a few years ago, there was no legal restriction on how high you could grow a hedge but that changed in 2005. If you cannot come to an agreement on the hedge, you need to submit a complaint to your local authority with the reasons why you want a restriction placed on the height of a neighbour’s hedge. There is normally a charge to have this matter investigated which is usually about £350, although fees can vary between local authorities. See our guide Unhappy with a Neighbour's Hedge here" More often than not, no matter who owns the hedge, most neighbours of adjoining properties will simply maintain their side of the hedge. However, it is important to understand the legal position on hedges just in case any disputes arise.

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Bettyboop - 13-Nov-22 @ 5:43 PM Hi..my neighbour has erected a “corner fence” in front of his hedge and it is such an eyesore from our side (he painted most of it, but left half of our side unpainted)…His garden is higher than ours because we are on a hill…not sure how he is going to cut corner of hedge…hedge has been trimmed by me for years as previous owners did not acknowledge hedge was theirs…Do I have to “put up with it… Gpmum2 - 24-Jul-22 @ 1:44 PM I bought my house and there is a large hedge or many types of hedges the other side of my fence, then the pavement. It has been mentioned that the previous owner planted these hedges. Do I have to maintain them even though they aren’t in my property. They have been there 20 years. cuuca - 13-Jul-22 @ 9:27 AM So I recently purchased a property in the country. the property is surrounded by hedges. In the paperwork, it says all boundaries are my responsibility. I believe this is the old rule as the hedge shared with the neighbour used to be farmland. In my eyes when they purchased the land they should have taken responsibility for trimming the hedge on their side. The neighbour insists I should be trimming the hedge on their side. Does this sound correct? My other option was to pull this hedge up completely and put something else in place as the upkeep of the hedges on my side is hard enough without having to also do the neighbours. Any input welcome

Carol - 18-May-22 @ 11:19 PM My neighbor had all over grown scrubs tress vines, and everything randomly growing on our property line.We would trim our side but the thick was so unruly , the weeds would grow right back .Well he sold his house and new owners took over .I ask if he would mind if we cut the small trees scrubs and everything else growing on his property line .That starts from the beginning of our driveway to the end of our driveway. Making it horrible getting in and out of the car.Because these over grown bushes constantly blocking my path way . He said go ahead and do what u want.I won’t be using that end of the house anyway. I will be renting the property . It’s a summer house at the New Jersey shore. I was thrilled!!!!!!!So me and my husband got the crew together and two days of uprooting. Cutting with chain saw , weed whacking , shoveling , 9 trips to the dump to get rid of the foliage.Two burtal days of work . Not to mention being pricked by thorns and poison ivy !, and a load of weed killer !!Finally it’s done and looks great !! The neighbor doesn’t even notice.That was la year ago . This year we go down the shore to open our summer home up and what do I see ……. 6 Azelea bushes planted right on the property line !!!!!!!!! I am so angry.We clean the horrible mess up for him to plant more over grown scrubs right on the property line. …. The law says bushes and hedges must be planted 3-5 feet from property line. What should I do ????

Waffs - 18-May-22 @ 11:18 PM My neighbor had all over grown scrubs tress vines, and everything randomly growing on our property line.We would trim our side but the thick was so unruly , the weeds would grow right back .Well he sold his house and new owners took over .I ask if he would mind if we cut the small trees scrubs and everything else growing on his property line .That starts from the beginning of our driveway to the end of our driveway. Making it horrible getting in and out of the car.Because these over grown bushes constantly blocking my path way . He said go ahead and do what u want.I won’t be using that end of the house anyway. I will be renting the property . It’s a summer house at the New Jersey shore. I was thrilled!!!!!!!So me and my husband got the crew together and two days of uprooting. Cutting with chain saw , weed whacking , shoveling , 9 trips to the dump to get rid of the foliage.Two burtal days of work . Not to mention being pricked by thorns and poison ivy !, and a load of weed killer !!Finally it’s done and looks great !! The neighbor doesn’t even notice.That was la year ago . This year we go down the shore to open our summer home up and what do I see ……. 6 Azelea bushes planted right on the property line !!!!!!!!! I am so angry.We clean the horrible mess up for him to plant more over grown scrubs right on the property line. …. The law says bushes and hedges must be planted 3-5 feet from property line. What should I do ????

Waffs - 18-May-22 @ 11:17 PM My neighbor had all over grown scrubs tress vines, and everything randomly growing on our property line.We would trim our side but the thick was so unruly , the weeds would grow right back .Well he sold his house and new owners took over .I ask if he would mind if we cut the small trees scrubs and everything else growing on his property line .That starts from the beginning of our driveway to the end of our driveway. Making it horrible getting in and out of the car.Because these over grown bushes constantly blocking my path way . He said go ahead and do what u want.I won’t be using that end of the house anyway. I will be renting the property . It’s a summer house at the New Jersey shore. I was thrilled!!!!!!!So me and my husband got the crew together and two days of uprooting. Cutting with chain saw , weed whacking , shoveling , 9 trips to the dump to get rid of the foliage.Two burtal days of work . Not to mention being pricked by thorns and poison ivy !, and a load of weed killer !!Finally it’s done and looks great !! The neighbor doesn’t even notice.That was la year ago . This year we go down the shore to open our summer home up and what do I see ……. 6 Azelea bushes planted right on the property line !!!!!!!!! I am so angry.We clean the horrible mess up for him to plant more over grown scrubs right on the property line. …. The law says bushes and hedges must be planted 3-5 feet from property line. What should I do ????

Floyd - 23-Mar-22 @ 8:34 PM Our neighbour has a eight foot hedge in front of his house blocking any view of LochNess, but the law says that you have no right to a view, but the good thing is that you have a right to daylight, so if the daylight in your house is reduced then you have a right to complain, and they should be forced to remove some of the hedge or all of it if need be.

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Antes - 11-Aug-21 @ 5:41 PM What can I do about where I can report it because it is impossible to reach an agreement with the neighbor.He cut the bushes and trees growing from the property he was renting, and despite Togo that I asked him not to, he transferred them to my side, destroying my flowers.

corky - 9-Aug-21 @ 4:15 PM My mother in-law has a 2m wooden fenceshe is 86 year old but next door has hedge about 4m high it is starting grow out of the wooden fence panels and now there getting distorted when winter comes the leaves block the drains he has trimmed back his side but will not touch mothers side ?

GGeilian - 19-Jul-21 @ 9:02 AM Hello. My neighbours hedge stretches its width across both our boundaries at the rear of the semi-detached properties. The hedge belongs to my neighbour but while I was out the other day he decided to cut the top (which is already below 2m high) on both sides of the boundary meaning he would have to lean over to cut the top which grows on my side. This was done without any conversation. When I've cut the top I've never done this and always concentrated on the portion growing on my side as I felt this is not appropriate even if helpful/less work for neighbour. Jungleboy - 18-Jul-21 @ 5:23 PM Hi I have a shared driveway with my neighbours but their hedge is impeding the access to my property. Can it be cut during nesting season if the hedge becomes too much of an obstacle? Thanks Jon JJ201 - 27-May-21 @ 2:54 PM There is a tall hedge on the back of my mother's small cottage garden which backs onto a farmers field. It looks like the hedge is on or just inside mums boundary. The Nextdoor neighbours have no hedge where their garden borders the field. The hedge is around 12ft tall and cuts light out of both garden and cottage. The farmer is intimidating and aggressive and threatened to sue if we touched the hedge. He chased a gardener away whilst he was trimming the hedge in January. What can we do? Ideas please. Hedgehog - 5-Apr-21 @ 4:23 PM When I moved into my Proerty there was a boundary wooden fence on my side, however I was always having to repair the fence as despite me asking them NOT to my Neighbour was hanging baskets on the fence and bushes were overgrown which were making the fence lean and break. I continued to replace fence panels with a wall With wood between pillars, their Landlady told them NOT to put hanging baskets on wall or attach any nails etc, which they totally ignore. Last year I contacted the land lady as he had built a trough against the wall , and was planting bushes and now what looks like tree in trough, which have roots which will grow into the foundation of the wall, despite contacting the landlady because when I was repainting the wooden part, I noticed that the wood is rotting because he has a plastic greenhouse again attached to wall. I am angry that the Landlady has not done anything about this problem and they still continue to plant bushes etc in the trough. If there is any damage too the wall or wood am I within my rights to ask for all cost when repairing wall And fencing Maggie - 4-Apr-21 @ 7:39 AM I have a terraced cottage without access to any street. My neighbour has two conifers, 12 feet high, next to a dry stone wall defining our boundaries. I drew attention to the fact that this is causing problems with the structure of the wall The only reply to my request was refusal to pay for their removal, or even reducing their height. I tried to say that the cost of rebuilding the joint wall would be prohibitive as access to the garden is through the cottagesTo this the reply was ‘let the wall fall down then’ I would like to know what steps are open to me that may resolve the problem. Thank you Gully - 28-Mar-21 @ 11:06 PM Hi, we have hedge between me n my neighbour. They have cut tree trunk n now has left hole n easily accessible for the neighbour to come into my garden without permission. I was how would be the best way to approach the matter as I do not really want to speak to them.

Bins - 14-Jan-21 @ 5:21 PM We have an existing yew hedge (approx 30years old) that separates our boundary and the farmers field. Last year he planted a mixed native hedge with whips approx 1.2m off of our hedge. Our main concerns are that this new hedge will grow to 2.5m high, impede the growth/sunlight and who's going to maintain our side of the new hedge as the farmer can't with the tractor and flail. He agreed on email that he would remove it and now he has said he isn't going to remove it. main concern is that it will damage our hedge. Where do we stand with this?

Quackers - 23-Nov-20 @ 4:17 PM At the side of our property is an access lane to a farm field. The field is leased to a farmer.The owners of the land cut the hedges once a year with a tractor and cutter. This leaves debris all over our garden and drive. Do the landowners have a legal responsibility to clear the debris as it is quite a lot and quite thorny. When we have been at home when the hedges have been cut we have moved our cars off the drive to prevent any damage. Do the landowners not have a responsibility to inform us when they are undertaking such work?

Mark - 16-Nov-20 @ 3:02 PM I have a hedge at the bottom of my garden that backs on to a farmers field. There is a covenant that contains a clause in respect of my obligations to erect and maintain a fence between my land and the field. The farmer is saying that there is a clause with the Land Registry documentation stating that I must erect and maintain a stock proof fence - although I haven't seen this clause. Is a hedge a type of fence? Is there a case where this has been defined? The farmer is now saying that the fence must be suitable for his needs and it is my responsibility to build fencing. Swannies100 - 15-Nov-20 @ 7:35 AM We have two issues: Issue 1 neighbour 1:We have a joint 4m heigh 3m wide hedge.The neighbour does not want it lowering, we are really struggling todeal with it.We reduced the width on our side, but our neighbour's gardener just cuts to the new middle opposed to the centre of the hedging trunks.We cannot get anyone to cut for us and it is simply dangerous.It is a Beech hedge and as it is semi evergreen the council will not help as they only help with evergreen hedges.They also refuse to cover any costs to reduce height and have been verbally abusive when approached. Two of these hedging trees were let grow to full size trees, these are also joint, they block light to several gardens.Five years ago before we moved in three neighbours clubbed together to get them trimmed (including the previous owner of our house).Neighbour 1 refused to pay anything and contested.The canopy is now recovering and we lose lots of light from our garden and so do our neighbours.When approached our neighbours were again abusive as they had been to other neighbours who had approached them.Neighbour 1 said we can cut one of the trees (they see joint ownership as one tree is ours and one is theirs).This seems rather silly, but it is what they believe. Neighbour 2:Is literally trying to kill us.Our drive goes straight onto a main road.they grew a hedge at the front of their house and we can no longer see oncoming traffic at all until the whole of the car is on the road.There is nowhere to put a mirror that is not on the public highway and the council has a mirrors policy that forbids the use of mirrors on the public highway due to public liability issues.They have said they will review if there is an accident.I have been to my MP and we have had many discussions with our neighbours but they refuse to do anything.They keep the hedge within their boundary.We have had many, many near misses.When we use our village roads to park on we get notes left and one of our cars has been vandalised.We are literally going to die.We have told the council that if their is an accident we sue them under contributory negligence grounds as they could have done something to help. Sue - 23-Oct-20 @ 12:46 AM When we bought our house the previous owner had a lot of bushes connected to the fence so it was falling down. We put up a new fence and spoke to the lady behind us about the fact that plants don’t belong on fences and she agreed. She paid for half of the neighbor friendly fence. Then nailed a bunch of vining plants to all panels of the fence! I can’t get her to keep them on her side either. They are all over my trees, yard, deck everywhere! What can I do she should have to pay to clean it up! Throwing the stuff back over the fence doesn’t work.

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Lou - 17-Oct-20 @ 8:23 AM Before we bought this house out neighbour effected a fence onnthe bank between us within their boundary, this only came to light when we started planting a hedge in front of it. They are about a storey higher than us. They agreed to the hedge providing we kept it trimmed to the fence line. Neither the hedge, nor the fence follow the original boundary. Some of our hedge could be considered to be witgin6their property. However, they have recently replaced all the fence panels, so I feel that they have relinquished the land rights to a degree . Do you agree? My other concern is that despite knowing we have a hedge next to the fence line, they have just slabbed/paved the footpath running along side their side of the fence. If our roots (now 5yrs)start causing an issue to the paving, where do we stand?

cd - 13-Oct-20 @ 1:00 PM my neighbour planted a hedge right on the boundary line of our properties without any consent i personally do not want another hedge to trim, i believe there was a hedge law passed to avoid this and you refer to it in your article, can you please tell me where i can find this law ?

Nutty - 4-Oct-20 @ 5:03 PM I own a lane that me neighbour has access to use to get to his home. They own a thorn hedge that runs part way along the side of my lane. They do cut the hedge but gradually it is getting wider narrowing the lane restricting larger vehicles. I have mentioned cutting back but to date they have not wanted to do this. Can I cut the hedge back ?

easy - 25-Sep-20 @ 6:22 AM we have a garden home.The long side of the home has the neighbors grass growing.This is not a problem. He dug deep into our foundation side and planted large plants/scrubs up against our home.I am concerned that over time they will push into our foundation and the water seeping into the concrete.Any answers for this problem.They are pretty hateful neighbors and we TRY not to bother them. Been here 16 years and all was well til they moved in. Teedoff - 12-Sep-20 @ 4:09 AM If a landlord has ivy growing from his land onto a neighbour’s wall and into their gutters then it must be his responsibility to remove it, The tenant of a domestic property is not responsible for trimming or removing it. Teedoff

Teedoff - 12-Sep-20 @ 3:57 AM I own a huge ancient boundary fence, and spent a lot ot time and money having planks replaced with Douglas Fir some fifteen years ago. Four years ago I had to ask my gardener to keep cutting ivy appearing over the top on three eight foot wide sections. One year he reported that the neighbour had told him not to cut it as she was waiting for the wild blackberries in it! They sold last year, but she refused to cut the ivy at its roots before leaving when I politely requested this. The new neighbours are very helpful and are allowing my gardener to go in and removethe ivy where possible butit has already destroyed the planks their side and looks dreadful for them. Can I sue the previous owner for the cost of replacing the ruined planks In the small claims court?

Teedoff - 12-Sep-20 @ 3:49 AM I own a huge ancient boundary fence, and spent a lot ot time and money having planks replaced with Douglas Fir some fifteen years ago. Four years ago I had to ask my gardener to keep cutting ivy appearing over the top on three eight foot wide sections. One year he reported that the neighbour had told him not to cut it as she was waiting for the wild blackberries in it! They sold last year, but refused to cut the ivy at its roots before leaving when I politely requested this. The new neighbours are very helpful and are allowing my gardener to go in and removethe ivy where possible butit has already destroyed the planks their side and looks dreadful for them. Can I sue the previous owner for the cost of replacing the ruined planks In the small claims court?

Deedsrule - 7-Sep-20 @ 7:20 PM Hi there, I own an end of terrace property and my garage is built at the back of the property, and it’s walls according to my deeds, and Barrats maps are the boundary wall with the mid terraced property. The owners of the mid terraced properties have now gone and built and open shed against my garage wall, as well as some tall plant beds using train sleepers, they have also attached on my garage walls 3 plant runners. Sadly they have never ever had the courtesy to share this with me, or even earn me about using the garage wall. Do I have any rights to oppose this as my main concern is that they built the plant beds above my garage damp course, almost 90 CMS higher, and I fear there will be a lot of damp coming through in the future. I can share some photos here. Kindly let me know if you have any advise for us. Thanks again. FMC - 4-Sep-20 @ 4:12 PM My neighbour says he owns the hedge on our boundary and it is in his garden, however, he is insisting I cut the half that is in our garden. Do we have to do this? We live in Scotland Thuja123Plicatta - 23-Aug-20 @ 11:27 AM How close to my established but regularly clipped Thuja Plicatta (Western Red Cedar) hedged trees can my new neighbour erect a closedboard wooden fence , probably over six feet tall . The fence deprives the growing trees of light and the posts will have damaged roots. They are not subject to a TPO. Title: Miss Ms Mrs Mr Dr Rev'd Prof. Other (never shown) Firstname: (never shown) Surname: (never shown) Email: (never shown) Nickname: (shown) Comment: Validate: Enter word: If it's not hedges but trees growing into your garden, read our article on Your Rights on Trees and Overhanging Branches

problemneighbours.co.uk - Rules on Hedges & Roots Growing into your Property
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