Screening from anti-social neighbours

Morning all

Live in a semi, with a 2m hedge on my side of the garden next to a small waist height party wall. My neighbours have exhibited some anti-social behaviour, hence I am looking at what can I do that is still not going to be against any regs.

What can I do? If my hedge goes above 2m, he leans over my side and cuts it for me.

How about trees? I just want something that stops them looking to my garden.

I half contemplated trying to get planning for a high fence or wall, partly because our local planning officer knows the neighbour is a little unreasonable. Of course I appreciate that a neighbour being unreasonable is not grounds to grant planning permission for a higher than norm wall/fence.

It will be an expense but yes, put in a 2m high fence, I'd go for concrete posts and bottom boards for durability, then put a row of conifers a suitable distance away from the fence so they can grow up and sideways, or just another hedge.
(In fact, I'd go for all concrete panels.)
You will have to remind him that he may not cut the height of these down AT ALL or AIUI it may be considered criminal damage
He can trim anything that goes over the boundary onto his side, but not the height nor anything that's on your property.
Although if you maintain the hedge and offer (in writing) to come into his property and trim his side regularly then that puts you in a good light should any complaints about it appear at the councils door.
Councils charge quite a lot to people who complain about hedges, so he'd have to stump up that first. (Nottingham charge £600).

Can you put a hedge in and cut it so it looks like a giant finger or two? lol

Want to be higher than 2m.

There's two things here. The council won't allow hedging or fencing over 2m without planning permission. Which you could ask for but I wouldn't bet on it.

There are exceptions to this, you can have Bamboo for example which isn't a hedge and so is less easy to enforce down to 2m.

On the other hand your neighbour just cuts things so that won't work. It'll have to be something non-living to stop them cutting it.

You can build a long thin garden shed up to 2.5m tall by the boundary. Then you could put a trampoline next to that, and some cricket nets next to that... Then pile some long planks next to those against the fence... Or reinforcing your taller plants with steel support stakes.

Of course this is being a dick and that rarely plays out well in the end.

I am keen not to be a dick lol, nonetheless, to date we have had some pretty poor behaviour. Cameras are trained on my property, parties can go on into the night and no regard for noise, guests to my house end up being watched and I more weirdly last summer I had to put up a fence very quickly when we were watched with my three year old son in a paddling pool.

Want to then comply by what's legal, but I want my privacy back.

Am pretty sure hedges don't require planning permission and to get them cut down means have to involve the council to settle a dispute. Some councils charge for that, which I should imagine will put a lot of people off complaining?

OP, how large is your garden? Just wondering if you could create yourself something more private further away from the boundary line.

Garden is an ok size, but don't really want to turn it loose more than the meter deep hedge that's there now.

does he have decking or a raised platform on his side ??
if so it needs to be 300mm or less above the natural ground level it covers to be planning exempt

Have you calmly and politely spoken to your neighbour about the strange behaviour? You may only need to tell him that you're concerned about your privacy and the cameras overlooking your property and want to increase the height of your fences and would like him to show you what he can see on the cameras and if he can adjust them.
Feel free to record the conversation for your safety, if you're unsure about it.

Cameras on a property overlooking a neighbour are a tricky situation. He has the right to have cameras (depending on local conditions or covenants) on his own property. You have the right to "object" but he doesn't have to do much about it. You can't copyright your face, or force someone to stop unless it's part of some form of harassment.

Parties at unreasonable hours and noise complaints can be reported to local authorities/councils.

I'm pretty shocked by him "leaning" over your hedge and cutting your hedge. Isn't that a form of trespass - unless of course he's responsible for that boundary?

LondonLad21 said:

Garden is an ok size, but don't really want to turn it loose more than the meter deep hedge that's there now.

Click to expand...

I was thinking more the garden screens you can buy, some are wood, metal or fake plants. Doesn't take up much room at all. You could make a feature at the bottom of the garden near to where the boundary fence is. Just an idea!

Thanks TeeDub

Yes, I sought legal advice on cameras, seems a vast grey area, though I'm told as you said, it needs to be harassment, and that harassment needs to materially impact your enjoyment of your garden/home. So far, it seems that everything is being done (intentionally or not) so theres not a lot i can do. A few pals said to phone the police and centre on child protection regarding the cameras onto my property, but I don't think the neighbours are that off the scale and I wouldn't feel comfortable making that suggestion to the police.

I did ask him, politely, not to cut my front and back hedge, we waved his shears at me and went a bit nuts to the extent a neighbour from another property came out to see if i was ok seeing as he said he was so enraged. Unfortunately I wasn't particularly intimidated, just found it sad that had come to that as Ive never really fell out with anyone.

The hedge we have now, is old and in a mess, it has some old conifers that were clearly huge in the past seeing as the trunk size is large.
By chance, looking at old photos of when we moved in 5 years ago, and estate agent photos, it appears it probable the neighbour actually took out a large bush (over 2m) from the garden of the lady that had the house before we did. She was in a care home at the time for some time so the house was unoccupied. This could be conjecture, but having dealt with her son on the property sale, he couldn't even be bothered to clear out the house, let alone do any gardening. Hence I get the impression the hedge could have been a past issue, and my neighbour is keen to defend light in what is a garden the third of the size of mine.

All I am looking for is some way to retain some privacy and I don't want to be outside of any regs. I don't want to impinge on his enjoyment of his property, but being selfish I care more for my and my growing familes privacy against people that I have tried to be reasonable with but clearly have some issues.

Buy an old luton van, park it up against the fence/hedge, and use it for storage