Unhappy with a Neighbour's High Hedge?

Originally written by Abigail Taylor, updated by the editorial team on 20th May 2026

When a neighbour's hedge becomes a problem

Tall hedges can obstruct natural light, block views and lead to disputes between neighbours. If a hedge next door has grown beyond a reasonable height and is affecting your property, you have options.

Before taking any formal steps, it helps to understand what counts as a high hedge in law and what remedies may be open to you.

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What counts as a high hedge?

Under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, a high hedge is defined as a barrier to light or access formed by a line of two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs. The hedge must be more than two metres tall.

Deciduous hedges and single trees do not fall within this definition. Mixed hedges may still qualify if the evergreen or semi-evergreen component forms a continuous barrier to light over two metres tall. If your issue involves a hedge that falls outside these rules, the formal complaint process will not apply, though other solutions may still be available.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

Try talking first

Many hedge disputes can be resolved through a straightforward conversation. Your neighbour might be unaware of the impact the hedge is having, or they may be willing to trim it once the issue is raised.

Put your concerns in writing if a face to face conversation feels difficult. It may be beneficial to maintain a polite tone and focus on the facts. A letter or email also creates a record of your attempt to resolve things informally.

If direct communication does not work, you might consider using a mediation service. Organisations such as the Civil Mediation Council can help you find a local mediator.

Making a formal complaint to your council

If informal approaches fail, you can complain to your local council. Councils have the power to assess high hedge complaints and, where appropriate, issue a remedial notice requiring the hedge owner to reduce its height.

You will usually need to show that you have already tried to resolve the matter yourself. Most councils charge a fee for handling complaints, and the amount varies. Check your council's website for current rates and application forms.

The council will consider whether the hedge is affecting your reasonable enjoyment of your property. They will balance your concerns against the hedge owner's right to privacy and any benefits the hedge provides. Outcomes are not guaranteed and the decision timeline can vary, often taking several weeks.

For detailed guidance on the complaints process and what councils can require, see the GOV.UK page on high hedges.

To understand your legal position and explore your options, you may also wish to seek independent legal advice or consult resources on resolving neighbour disputes.

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Tree and Hedge Dispute Advisor lets you find out your rights on overhanging trees and high hedges. Takes 1 minute. Try it now →

Showing 20 of 144 questions

Ask Problem Neighbours a Question

ProblemNeighbours Editor 21/05/2026 at 9:16 am

@C4 You make a fair point about hedges being the worst kind of boundary, since they're forever growing and shifting the goalposts. Walls and fences at least give you something definite to point at when things go sour. The High Hedges legislation under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 can help if a neighbour's evergreen hedge is over 2m and blocking light, but the council will expect you to have tried mediation first. Sadly you're right that once relations break down, they rarely recover.

C4 05/09/2024 at 5:37 am

It is obvious why rural and country detached properties attract high sales and letting costs, as they are liberation from the problems caused by many neighbours and their missplaced arrogance and entitlement.

Borders are such an area where neighbours frequently fall out, becouse disputes fall into grey areas they are hard to agree on or justify leading to an entrenchment of positions. Hedges should be clear cut but the reality is that becouse they are sometimes used as borders their growth and size can quickly lead to a dispute.

For this reason, I prefer fixed and stable structures such as walls and fences to run alongside boundaries. Neighbourly disputes lead to a terminal degredation of relations that never get better and anyone in this position knows how draining and frustrating it eventually becomes.

The best thing to do is apply tact and careful diplomacy, sometimes that does not work and if you live next to someone who will not concede ground or take in your concerns into account your probably going to fallout as not standing your ground is only going to embolden them.

Neighbours are a nightmare, and to be honest I've had more issues with them than not over the years.

Shar 11/08/2022 at 1:34 pm

I’m in the throes of having my garden landscaped. I’ve asked my neighbour twice already to get the trees and bushes cut back because they encroach into my drive. I want to erect a fence down my drive but can’t whilst his trees are hanging halfway into my drive. Last year I paid £600 to have the hedge removed on my side but unfortunately it’s all grown back again because of my neighbour’s trees. Unfortunately my neighbour is an elderly widow and I don’t wish to upset her at all soo I wait till her son is visiting to speak to him. When I spoke to him today he was very rude and ordered me off his mothers property saying you bought the house knowing the trees were there. I don’t know what to do because I am also a recent widow and he never spoke to my husband like that. I’m also ill and don’t have the ability to cut it down myself. Any ideas what I can do, I’m not at my wits end as I’ve never had bad feeling between neighbours before

Ann 20/09/2021 at 11:26 pm

We bought a bungalow 5 years ago, at the bottom of our garden the neibour has bamboo which was encroaching on the next property.
I mentioned to her 3 years ago that I wouldn’t be happy if it came into my garden, she made some comment about putting a barrier in to stop it. ????
This bamboo is now encroaching onto my property mostly at the moment behind my summer house, it is starting to enter into the roof therefore making it open to the elements.

What can I do.

Not Happy 17/06/2021 at 11:48 pm

We have had an on going boundary problem with our neighbours. This is not solved, but the main issue now is that where there is soil between our 2 driveways, where they have conifers planted, they are slowly removing the soil. The problem is that our drive is slightly higher than theirs and as they take away the soil our edging stones are becoming exposed. It will eventually mean that the stones have no support on the outer edge. Can they do this? We feel that this is willful damage to our property and it is no good talking to them as she thinks she 'knows all' and will listen to no-one. It is now bad enough that others have commented on how much soil has gone.
Thanks

Conrad Bourne 30/05/2021 at 8:03 am

My neighbour has just planted 130 blackthorn hedges along the boundary of our Cotswold wall - we have in our deeds that we must maintain this wall but when these grow they will grow over under and through our wall promoting the the wall to move, fall apart - the field is empty most of the year and he lives about 4 fields away so not sure why he has done it really....any clues what I can do?

Caz 04/05/2021 at 3:51 pm

My neighbour recently brought adjacent house ,a hawthorn hedge has been growing there for the past 70 years.
The neighbour has trimmed it back so much that all that is left are twigs ,you can now walk into my back garden ,there is no longer any privacy

Jones'se 25/04/2021 at 4:24 pm

We have lived at our property for almost 27 years and our neighbour has hedges on the boundry line of almost 3.5 meters up to the height of our upstairs bathroom window. The weight of these bushes as pushed and bowed the fence so it now completely intrudes in to our garden. The fence is is slates of wood held together by nails and string/ rope and its collapsing on its self. The hedges/ plants are growing over our garage roof . We have over the years tried to mediate with them even offered to pay for new fencing but she absolutely refutes to do anything and simply huffs that it's our problem and tough. If we prune the bushes shrubs that hang in to our garden she shouts abuse shakes the fence and becomes a complete nuisance. As we both own our properties the council don't want to get involved and we don't have the financial means to seek action through a solicitor. It's becoming draining and bow we can't even use that side of our garden. Anyone have any similar issues or advice

Les 24/04/2021 at 7:08 am

There is a shared access driveway to our property to which title sits with the neighbour but he is supposed to provide ‘reasonable access’. There is an overgrown shrub growing across part of the driveway that makes it almost impossible to drive your car down there without scratching it. I have asked him to trim back to the border of the drive but he refuses, what are my options legally?

Jewels 21/04/2021 at 6:14 pm

My house backs up to an empty lot that has been overgrown particularly for the 30 years. I have replaced my fence between the two lots twice. I have had to replace my fence mostly because the trees and other bushes and weeds have grown through the wood of the fence, big branches have fallen on parts of the fence and knocked parts of the fence down. I have tried to find out who owns the property but I do not have an address or lot number.
I need to replace my back fence again because of this problem and the rest of my fence needs replacing because of its age. I feel that the person owning the lot behind m needs to share the cost for replacing the back part of my fence,
I have taken pictures periodically of m fence to show how the overgrowth of the lot has effected my fence.
I would like to find out the person who owns this lot and discuss this matter with him. Do you think it’s reasonable for me to ask him to share the cost of replacing the back fence?

Missgrotbags 22/11/2020 at 7:32 am

Hi
We have 7 half foot hedge planted 30 years ago it was open land behind it at the time a 3 storey house was built 4 ft from our boundary line and insufficient foundations the property has now got subsidence the builder liquidated company so therefore couldn't pursue him so insurers have requested that 3 adjoining properties remove trees and my hedge this is a nightmare as insurers have offloaded to an insurance agent who use bully boy tactics im at my wits end its affecting my health my garden is beautiful and don't want to look at a gable wall that is huge ??

Ian 15/11/2020 at 7:27 pm

My neighbour is cutting his hedge down to 2M his drive is lower in his side which would make the hedge about 1M on our side, does he have to take the 2M measurement from my side?

PAT 18/10/2020 at 1:20 pm

Hi i have lived in my house for over forty years when we moved in the lorol hedge was high and established we put a fence up some 30 years ago behind the lorol and its still there sadly neighbour died now new one wants to take fence down no problem with that but also wants to cut the high lorol down to 6ft exposing us to a row of houses and loosing all privacy as the hedge has been there for over 50 years can i claim it as ours so stopping her doing this

PAT 18/10/2020 at 1:14 pm

hi i have lived in my house for over forty years when we moved in there was an esstablished loral hedge some 30 years ago we put up a fence its still there the new neighbours are now saying the fence and hedge are obn there sise and want to remove the fence no problem with us but they also are goibg to ct the hedge down to 6ft hight as the hedge has been there for over 50 years now can i claim it as mine

Lisa 22/09/2020 at 10:27 am

We moved into our house last year into a terraced house.... the neighbour on our right had hedge just below the upstairs windows. Garden is south facing, however because of hedge sunlight away by teatime. She declined to have hedge cut to 2 metres, and so we took it into our own hands and and cut it down to just above 2 metres. She then claimed that we had killed the hedge and took us to court, demanding that a new, fully matured hedge be planted. As a result, we ended up in mediation, where we agreed to have the hedge pruned (at our expense) just to end the matter. She was to pick the gardener and send us the bill.... low and behold, she has not done this, and magically the hedge has grown! I believe she intends to let the hedge grown again to the 4 metres plus that it was before. Would I have agood case if I took this to the council?

Fed up 04/08/2020 at 3:50 pm

Neighbours hedge along shared driveway is over grown over 8 foot have asked several times to trim as also scratching cars but does bear minimum . MY SON INLAW did cut it for him one year ago but he stood there making sure not below the 6 foot and we got rid of rubbish for him no thank you or anything .We have also lost our sea view but all he said is no rights to view.

Fee 15/07/2020 at 5:46 am

I have a 14ft laurel hedge at the end of my garden that is maintained every year and has been there for more than 20 years , the landlord at the back has asked me to cut it down to 8ft as he says it restricts light to his tenant, the tenant has lived there for about 8 years and I've never had a complaint. If the hedge was cut down I would be totally overlooked by a fire escape where the above tenants stands and hang their washing etc. Do I have any rights to privacy . He has worked out 8ft using the right to light re hedges. I think the light to his Windows is due to the wooden fire escape directly above . Is there a law that if something has been there for more than 12 years it cannot change. Would really appreciate some advice on this.

Patsy 13/07/2020 at 10:49 pm

My neighbour planted a conifer tree 40years ago but what they didn't realise was they had planted it in half mine and half theres so half the trunk is in mine and half in theirs so the tree has grown that big both ways it's now killed half my garden grass because of tree the roots are very thick and run across my garden . And the tree now blocks most of the sunlight and my veiw from bedroom window but the best thing about it is their garden still has full sunlight hasnt killed any grass and still have a veiw and I had a greenhouse at one time but now it's pointless coz I haven't much sun anymore I love my garden and sit in it and look after it as my neighbours dont sit in theirs much .I have asked them if they could trim it down both ways but are not listening to me just keep brushing me off and not saying anything my garden has gone from lovely green grass and flowers to a dark dingy garden so sad to see this happen .my house is a housing association and my neighbours is bought how do I go about this tree getting cut down .i would appreciate it if someone could give me some advice.

Freddy 19/06/2020 at 10:04 pm

My laurel is roughly 20ft high and at least 60ft away from the back of ours and our neighbours house it is at least 6 ft into my garden away from the boundary he has only a mesh fencing up he receives complete sunlight from first thing in the morning until 6 pm when the shade comes over. His garden is so unsightly mostly consisted of scrap materials but he wants our laurel cut down. We moved in 4 years ago all plants and trees where already here. My question is where do we stand. As i dont want to be looking into his view. The laurel has lots of birds that nest there too.
Thank you

JH 06/06/2020 at 9:44 am

1. Live in area of bungalows. Rear Garden goes back 8 meters. 30 meters wide. All other bungalows have trees on the boundary At the required 2 meter height. Except our rear neighbour ...
2. 7 years ago a line of evergreen hedges at height of 3 meters and a new hedge was planted in addition plus beaches. It is growing each year faster than being trimmed and is now 6 meters high.
3 blocks most of the light in our back garden. Looks unsightly.
4. Dried up the soil, I’ve replaced 4 fence plinths as of the force on the fences and dryness of the soil.
5. One conifer was overhanging completely on our side - 4 feet into our garden I had to chop back to the fence line. Neighbour shouted at me that I should not have done that. She can’t see the tree as it’s right up on my fence. Neighbour shouts at me saying don’t touch the hedges. I have tried to reconcile and explain Over the last 7 years but nothing is working. She also planted beach-trees on the fence line now.
6. We want our back garden back into a condition we purchased the house for.
7. Received a letter as she has spoken to the council. Saying how nice she is to us I wrote back explaining to the council all the facts. Council wrote back to me saying talk to the neighbour first. Despite explaining we have for the last 7 years.
8. Unfortunately neighbour is not of sound mind and cannot move forward at all on this.

What do We do ? Nightmare situation. Help !

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