High hedges complaints under the 2003 Act

A high hedge complaint to the council is a last resort, and the council will send it straight back if it is not. Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 lets an owner or occupier of domestic property complain about a neighbour's hedge, but only after they have taken all reasonable steps to sort it out themselves, and only where the hedge meets a narrow statutory definition.

The definition catches fewer hedges than people expect. Start there, before spending the fee.

What counts as a high hedge

The Act defines a high hedge as a barrier to light or access formed wholly or predominantly by a line of two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs, rising more than two metres above ground level.

Take that apart. Two or more, so a single tree is outside the Act however large it is. A line, so a clump or a group planted informally may not qualify. Evergreen or semi-evergreen, so beech and hornbeam are arguable because they hold dead leaves through winter, while a line of oaks is not. And more than two metres, measured from the ground level where the hedge grows, not from the complainant's side if the ground is lower there.

There is a further test. Where gaps in the hedge significantly affect its overall effect as a barrier at heights above two metres, it is not a high hedge for these purposes. A gappy leylandii line with daylight through it may fail that test even at six metres.

What the Act does not cover

Roots are not covered. Nor are overhanging branches as such, nor damage to drains, walls or foundations. Those remain civil matters, and the common law right to cut back growth to the boundary line still applies, along with the convention of offering the cuttings back to the owner.

Bamboo sits outside the Act in the ordinary case, because it is a grass rather than a tree or shrub, which is unhelpful given how much trouble it causes. Fences, walls and other structures are outside it too, since the barrier has to be formed by vegetation.

Loss of a view is not a ground of complaint. The Act is about light and access, and the council will not act on a complaint framed as the hedge spoiling an outlook. Nor does it reach hedges within the boundary of the complainant's own property, since the barrier has to be on land belonging to someone else.

The steps you must take first

The council will ask what you did before complaining, and it will want evidence of it.

Write to the hedge owner, politely, setting out what the problem is and what you would like done. Keep a copy. If there is no reply, write again. Offer to share the cost of the work, which removes the most common objection. Consider mediation, which many councils will point you to and some will part-fund.

Councils reject complaints at this stage routinely. A single conversation over the fence, unrecorded, is not all reasonable steps, and an applicant who has never made a written approach will be told to go back and do it.

Where the hedge belongs to a landlord rather than the occupier, write to both, since the freeholder is the person who can authorise the work and the tenant is the person who sees the letter.

The fee and what happens next

Councils set their own fee for a high hedge complaint, and it can run to several hundred pounds. Some refund it if the complaint succeeds, some refund part, and some do not refund at all, so check the published figure and the policy before you commit.

The council then assesses the complaint. An officer will visit, take measurements of the hedge and of the affected property, look at the orientation and the distance, and give the hedge owner the opportunity to comment. Both parties are usually asked for written representations.

The assessment is not a rubber stamp. Councils reject complaints where the hedge falls outside the definition, where the effect on the complainant's property is not sufficiently adverse, or where the complaint is judged frivolous.

How reasonable enjoyment is assessed

The statutory question is whether the hedge adversely affects the reasonable enjoyment of the complainant's property. Government guidance sets out an approach based on the geometry: the height of the hedge, its distance from the affected windows or garden, the orientation, and the resulting loss of light, measured against what a person could reasonably expect in that setting.

That last part matters. A hedge overshadowing a small north-facing garden in a dense terrace is judged against the light that garden would have had anyway. Reasonable expectation in a suburban street is not the same as in a rural plot.

Councils also weigh the hedge's contribution. Screening a busy road, providing privacy to both properties, supporting wildlife or contributing to the character of the area are all reasons a council may set the required height higher than the complainant wanted.

What a remedial notice can require

If the complaint succeeds, the council issues a remedial notice. It specifies the initial action, meaning the work needed to remedy the problem, and preventative action, meaning the ongoing maintenance needed to stop it recurring. It gives a compliance period, and it takes effect on a stated date.

Two limits apply. A notice cannot require the hedge to be reduced below two metres, and it cannot require the hedge to be removed altogether. A complainant hoping to have a leylandii screen taken out will not get that outcome through this route.

Where the hedge contains trees protected by a tree preservation order or standing in a conservation area, the tree protection legislation still applies, and separate consent is needed for work to those trees. The penalties for damaging a protected tree do not fall away because a remedial notice exists.

Appeals, enforcement and the land charge

Either party can appeal to the Secretary of State, in England through the Planning Inspectorate, within 28 days of the notice being issued. The appeal is normally decided on written representations after a site visit, and an inspector can quash the notice, vary it or uphold it.

Once the notice is operative, failure to comply is a criminal offence and the council can prosecute. It can also enter the land, carry out the work itself and recover the cost from the hedge owner.

The notice is registered as a local land charge, so it binds whoever owns the property next. That is worth knowing on both sides of the fence: a buyer's search will reveal it, and a new owner inherits the ongoing maintenance duty.

Where the dispute is really about trees on or near a boundary rather than an evergreen hedge, the questions are different, and the note on boundary trees and shared ownership covers that ground.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. High hedge procedures, fees and refund policies vary between councils, so check the published position with your own local authority before making a complaint.

Where a hedge forms part of a development proposal rather than a neighbour dispute, the tree survey and landscape strategy are the documents that deal with it, and you can draft both in minutes at PlanScope.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.