Unknown rear garden hedge responsibility

[scbk]

Indeed there are. I wrote a bit about this here.


Well I don't think that was good advice. Doing that (or using old sump oil as wood preservative) has been an offence for decades. You are in effect dumping a hazardous / toxic substance on the ground where it can affect wildlife, other peoples' gardens, watercourses, etc.

Plenty of folks would tell you that glyphosate is hazardous/toxic, and potentially carcinogenic



Either way if I was the OP I would just pay someone to trim the laurel hedge once a year, it's not a big job for someone who has the kit. Provides a home for wildlife, absorbs carbon, and it will outlive a fence!

 

[StephenOak]

Plenty of folks would tell you that glyphosate is hazardous/toxic, and potentially carcinogenic

And they would be wrong, at least about it being carcinogenic. Of course it is hazardous/toxic if you do something stupid like drink it, in normal use not so much.

Glyphosate, under various names, has been in use in for decades and has been used by many millions of people. All the studies that have looked at it have found no connection with ill effects. Except for one study in the US where they found a slightly raised level of one type of cancer in agricultural workers who claimed that they had always done everything right and had never cut any corners.

People making claims about glyphosate are simply falling for the post hoc fallacy.

OTOH diesel, etc, are clearly bad for the environment. Spray plants with glyphosate uphill from one pond and pour diesel, old oil, etc uphill from another one and see which pond is affected.

Either way if I was the OP I would just pay someone to trim the laurel hedge once a year, it's not a big job for someone who has the kit. Provides a home for wildlife, absorbs carbon, and it will outlive a fence!

Nice idea in principle but the big problem, IMO, is that it is laurel. There are different types but many do not make nice hedges and many tend to spread.

If making a hedge I would cut it back severely, make some ground level gaps and plant a variety of (preferably fruit & nut bearing) hedging plants in the gaps. Repeat that the next winter (or maybe two) and it will create a much nicer looking and more beneficial hedge.

 

[Dagz]

So, we have a little development in the situation. Her dog is incredibly loud when in the garden so I popped in to talk to her over that boarded bit of fence, standing on a stool. She is OK with us removing that hedge. BUT, she insists the bottom of our garden is our responsibility. Is it? My understanding was, that the general rule is the left side of the garden is the responsibility of the garden owner. Our bottom end is her left side and she already paid for a replacement of part of it to our neighbour on the left. Why suddenly we have to do it? Who is, by law, responsible for the bottom side of the garden?
She said that she would be happy to pay up to third of the cost and that she paid like £1500 for that bit she had done recently. That is a lot of money and our bottom length is similar to that. We paid just under £2k for like 30 metres last year. I am aware the prices went up, but I didn't expect this much for less than 10 metres or so.

We are familiar with the process of removal of trees and how to make sure they don't start springing again. I have uprooted a few small/medium myself. Stump killer helped us to finish the base of a large eucalyptus tree, we cut a mesh pattern into the stump with the chainsaw and poured the chemical in. Last year there grew a massive fungus on it and it is falling apart, nature gradually taking care of it. I have my method of getting rid of the root ball (cannot remove the distant roots, obviously) and the biggest job for me will be to gather the organic matter and take it to the refuse centre in the town. That will be many trips forth and back.

 

[Dagz]

And I have noticed a suggestion that once a year to cut it... we did. And it grows back quite quickly, now leaves covered with powdery mildew and chewed on and sucked by various pests, I have small fruit cages nearby and these get pushed out of their place by re-growing hedge in the summer, even growing into the cage through the mesh. Also climbing weeds keep crawling from the neighbour's side (the one I talk about here) and it is difficult to access it to get rid of when the gap between the hedge and my fruit cage gets small. I am fed up with it. Also birds constantly caused damage to my fruit trees. They can go to live elsewhere. I had to cover with mesh almost everything I want to grow for food or I would have nothing. Only the plum and apple tree are free, without cover. And the insect pests are affecting them, too, so birds don't seem to be doing much job in helping the garden go pest free. Aphids are all over everything each year, persistently farmed by ants, which are my other menace!

And as a note that I am not antiwildlife, I keep feeding hedgehogs every night and give them fresh water. We are spying on them with a camera. Some funny scenes there sometimes! Even birds sometimes come to help themselves with water, one quite audacious black bird male, pulling a little curtain I installed so they don't see inside. The bird still gets inside to steal bits! I leave the water out for all wildlife, but the cat food for hogs is hidden in a little hog house, away from rain and other unwelcomed guests, like someone's cat, now fouling in the garden in protest probably LOL.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I have my method of getting rid of the root ball (cannot remove the distant roots, obviously) and the biggest job for me will be to gather the organic matter and take it to the refuse centre in the town. That will be many trips forth and back.

Keep your eyes open for one of those machines locally, trailer with a machine which munches foliage and feeds it onto the back of the tow truck. A long tie ago, but I tipped the owner of one such truck £20 in his back pocket for dealing with the trees I felled.

 

[Dagz]

Keep your eyes open for one of those machines locally, trailer with a machine which munches foliage and feeds it onto the back of the tow truck. A long tie ago, but I tipped the owner of one such truck £20 in his back pocket for dealing with the trees I felled.

Thanks for the suggestion. We are limited in what machinery passes through the side gate into the garden though. Unless it is something 'portable' we are out of luck. But I will start chopping the branches and slowly fill our garden waste bin they collect every two weeks, that should make it easier. I just hope it won't regrow as fast to make this effort meaningless LOL

 

[Dagz]

Update: I did a bit of reading. Since my deeds don't have the clear T mark on the boundaries, one article mentioned this: "
Almost all deeds for modern properties will have boundary ownership clearly marked, but older deeds may not. In cases where boundary ownership is not clear, something called ‘presumptions’ comes into play. In terms of fences, the presumption is that fence posts will be placed on the owner’s land. This means the owner will usually have the back of the fence, where said posts are showing, facing them. "
I went to check: the concrete posts are on the neighbour's side, the mesh fence is on our side. So that fence is clearly hers. I guess she is just playing a game with us, us being foreigners and she thinks she can fool us. But she doesn't know that I am a dog with a bone.

So, do you think I have a solid case in my hand? I took photos. This is just that boarded corner but those posts are on her side all along that fence:

 

[Diver Fred]

A photo or photos of the whole fence would, I'm sure, help us to advise you better.
a concrete and wire post isn't IMO sufficient to denote who owns what. If the one image is replicated along the full width of the garden then it looks like the neighbours have made their decision. It looks like the hedge is yours to do with what you like.

 

[Diver Fred]

If the site plan included in the deeds doesn't have T marks then there is NO convention on who is responsible for maintaining the boundary security (in other words - fence or hedge). Mostly who pays is who wants the fence or hedge replaced or repaired. At worst you may have to fund the replacement entirely, at best the neighbour may fund it but most likely I guess you will pay 50%.

 

[Dagz]

If the site plan included in the deeds doesn't have T marks then there is NO convention on who is responsible for maintaining the boundary security (in other words - fence or hedge). Mostly who pays is who wants the fence or hedge replaced or repaired. At worst you may have to fund the replacement entirely, at best the neighbour may fund it but most likely I guess you will pay 50%.

I don't necessarily want to have it replaced or repaired, I just want to remove the hedge (on our expenses). She wants to have something else there instead and says it is our responsibility. But my understanding is, that this mesh fence was there for ages and as the hedge grew, she is now taking advantage of someone else dealing with it and if the rightful owner wants to get rid of it, throw at them the fence replacement as well. Why is it our responsibility when she fixed the back fence of the other neighbour? I find this pretty unfair.

 

[Why Not Indeed]

Why is it our responsibility when she fixed the back fence of the other neighbour? I find this pretty unfair.

The hedge is your hedge and if you get rid of it, the fence is still there, right? Don't let this woman bully you into paying for a fence you don't want. But morally, if the fence is ruined and you choose to get rid of the hedge then you should at least consider the idea of sharing the cost of reinstating the fence. Put yourself in her shoes, she's already paid to fix a fence on another of her boundaries [in full? shared cost with the other neighbour?], I doubt she wants to pay out for this one too.

My understanding was, that the general rule is the left side of the garden is the responsibility of the garden owner.

Old wive's tale. Urban myth. Call it what you want, it's not prescribed in law.

Your property boundaries

About your property boundaries, working out your boundary lines, boundaries and neighbour disputes, agreeing who's responsible for walls and fences

www.gov.uk

"If you live in England or Wales, there’s usually no record of:

• the exact boundary between two properties
• who owns the hedge, wall, tree or fence between 2 properties"

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The hedge is your hedge and if you get rid of it, the fence is still there, right? Don't let this woman bully you into paying for a fence you don't want. But morally, if the fence is ruined and you choose to get rid of the hedge then you should at least consider the idea of sharing the cost of reinstating the fence. Put yourself in her shoes, she's already paid to fix a fence on another of her boundaries [in full? shared cost with the other neighbour?], I doubt she wants to pay out for this one too.

Spot on! If the hedge is your side of the fence, it is yours - free to keep it, or remove it what ever you like. Her opinion counts for nothing at all, it is your property. When you change your car for another, do you seek her approval of the colour of the new car before buying?

 

[Dagz]

The fence isn't ruined, it just is only a wired mesh and not tall enough. So she doesn't like to be exposed. But she insists it is ours, with the concrete posts towards her side.
It should not be my worry how much my neighbour spend on their fence, is it? I still doubt it is ours. We also spent a lot of money on our left side fence, from the very front to the very back. Who was having concerns about how much it costed us?