High hedge complaint fees and the remedial notice route

A high hedge complaint fee is set by each council, published in its fees list, and payable before the authority will investigate. That is the first surprise for most complainants, who reasonably assume a neighbour dispute about an overgrown hedge is a free service. It is not. Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 allows the authority to charge to cover the cost of dealing with the complaint, and the figure differs from one district to the next.

The second surprise is how narrow the regime is. It deals with one thing: a line of evergreens over two metres tall that blocks light or access to a domestic property. Everything else about trees, roots, overhanging branches and views falls outside it.

What qualifies as a high hedge

All of the following have to be true. There must be a line of two or more trees or shrubs. They must be wholly or predominantly evergreen or semi-evergreen. The line must rise more than two metres above ground level. And it must form a barrier to light or access.

Consequences of that definition:

• a single tree is never a high hedge, whatever its size or effect
• a hedge exactly two metres high does not qualify, so measurement matters
• a deciduous hedge is usually outside the regime, though a mixed hedge can be argued either way depending on what predominates
• a hedge that no longer forms a barrier because of gaps may fall outside it
• the complainant must occupy a domestic property whose reasonable enjoyment is affected

Ground level is measured where the hedge grows, which matters on sloping sites. A hedge on a bank two metres above the complainant's garden can be a modest hedge in its owner's terms and an oppressive one in the complainant's, and the measurement is taken from the base of the hedge rather than from the lower garden.

Why the council charges, and what the fee buys

The charge reflects real officer time: a site visit, measurement, photographs, correspondence with both parties, an assessment against the statutory test and a written decision with reasons. Many councils publish a reduced fee or a waiver for complainants on qualifying benefits, so ask before paying.

The fee is generally not refundable if the complaint fails. It is worth pausing over that, because the test is not whether the hedge is annoying. It is whether the hedge adversely affects the reasonable enjoyment of the complainant's property to a degree that justifies intervention, judged against the amenity value the hedge has for its owner and for the area.

Evidence of attempts to settle first

Councils will not take the complaint until you show you tried to resolve it. Build that record deliberately:

1. Write to the hedge owner setting out the problem, with photographs, and propose a specific height.
2. Allow a reasonable period for a reply and keep the correspondence.
3. Offer to share the cost of the work, or to have it done at your expense.
4. Suggest mediation, and record the response.
5. Write again if nothing happens, noting that you will otherwise complain to the council.

Dated photographs through the year help more than anything else, particularly images showing the shadow cast in winter and at the equinox. Where the loss of light to rooms rather than to the garden is the issue, the analytical approach used for how daylight and sunlight evidence is budgeted in planning gives a sense of what a technical assessment involves, though the high hedges test is a judgement on reasonable enjoyment rather than a numerical standard.

The remedial notice and what it can require

If the council upholds the complaint it issues a remedial notice to the hedge owner and every occupier. The notice specifies initial action, which remedies the current adverse effect, and preventative action, which stops it recurring. It also states the period for compliance, which starts when the notice takes effect.

The statutory limits are firm. The notice cannot require the hedge to be removed. It cannot require reduction to below two metres. And it cannot require anything that would breach another legal obligation, which is where tree preservation orders, conservation area controls and nesting birds come in. Where a hedge is protected by a tree preservation order the council has to reconcile the two regimes, and any reduction may need separate consent.

In practice a notice reads: reduce the hedge to a stated height by a stated date, then maintain it at that height. Nothing more dramatic.

Illustrative example: a line of eleven leyland cypress on a boundary, around six metres tall, on ground roughly 600 millimetres above the complainant's rear garden, casting the whole of a small garden into shade from mid-afternoon in October. The complainant wrote twice, offered to pay for the work and was refused. The council's decision reduces the hedge to 2.5 metres with maintenance at that height twice yearly, over a compliance period running past the bird nesting season. Illustrative only, and the outcome on any real complaint depends on the officer's assessment.

Appeals against a notice or a refusal

Either party can appeal, and in England appeals are decided by the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the Secretary of State. The hedge owner can appeal against a notice, its terms or the compliance period. The complainant can appeal against a refusal to issue a notice, or against a notice they consider inadequate. Appeals run to a deadline measured in days from the notice, so diarise it on the day the decision arrives.

Appeals are normally decided on written representations, with a site visit. The inspector can uphold, quash or vary the notice, including changing the height and the compliance date. Costs awards are not a feature of this regime in the way they are in planning appeals, so each side generally bears its own.

Enforcement and the cost of non-compliance

Failing to comply is an offence and the owner can be prosecuted, with the level of fine set by the standard scale, so check the current figure rather than assuming. The council can also do the work itself and recover the cost, and it can register the cost as a charge on the land in some circumstances.

Enforcement is slower than complainants expect. Photograph the hedge on the compliance date and monthly afterwards, because the authority will ask for evidence of the breach before it acts, and its enforcement resource is finite.

Where the regime does not help

Be clear about what falls outside Part 8, because time spent on a complaint that cannot succeed is time lost:

• single trees, however tall, including large conifers and eucalyptus
• deciduous hedges and lines of deciduous trees
• roots, subsidence and damage to structures, which are private law nuisance matters
• overhanging branches, where the common law right to cut back to the boundary applies
• loss of a view, which is not a protected interest in English law
• hedges affecting commercial rather than domestic premises

For trees in the planning system the controls are different again, and an Arboricultural Impact Assessment prepared to BS 5837:2012 is the document used where development and trees interact. Where light to rooms is at stake in a development context rather than a hedge dispute, a Daylight and Sunlight Assessment applies the BRE approach instead. The full range of supporting documents sits in all 66 report types.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position and the current fee with your local council, and take advice from a qualified professional before relying on it.

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