If you’re the owner or occupier of a residential property and you’re affected by a high hedge, you must speak to your neighbour about the problem.
You can look at GOV.UK for advice on speaking to a neighbour about hedge problems.
If this does not work, you can contact a mediation service to help sort out the problem.
You can use the Ministry of Justice’s website to find a mediation provider near you.
If you still cannot come to an agreement about the hedge, you can complain to us.
We can deal with your complaint if:
- you've tried all other ways to sort the problem out yourself
- you can show that you tried to resolve the problem with your neighbour before contacting us
- there is a record of what you’ve done to try to resolve the problem
To complain about a hedge, it must be:
- over 2 meters tall
- growing on someone else’s land
- acting as a barrier to light or views
- made up of a line of at least 2 trees or shrubs
- mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen
You cannot complain about subsidence, drains being blocked, or other root activity.
Make a complaint
To make a complaint, you need to:
- complete the high hedges complaint form (pdf)
- pay the £500 fee
- provide a photo of the hedge
- provide a location plan of the hedge and surrounding properties
- provide copies of correspondence with your neighbour about the hedge (if there is a lot – just give us the latest)
Once we receive your complaint we’ll gather information to help us make a decision. This could include writing to people who are involved and visiting the site.
We’ll then make a decision and let you know whether or not work needs to be done to the hedge.
If we decide work is needed, we’ll send a remedial notice to the person responsible for the hedge. This sets out what must be done and a time limit.
If we serve the hedge owner with a remedial notice and they don’t carry out the work, they could be prosecuted and fined up to £1,000.