Garden Nuisance

Part of respecting your community and neighbours means keeping your property in good condition. Neighbour disputes are often caused when this does not happen. For example, many people are concerned about the effect of hedges that are out of control.

Although common law rights entitle people to cut overhanging branches back to the property boundary line, they can do nothing about hedge height. Part 8 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 changes that: local authorities will have powers to deal with complaints about high hedges which are having an adverse effect on a neighbour's enjoyment of his property.

Resolving disputes between neighbours

Before reporting a dispute to Gloucester City Homes or Gloucester City Council, ensure you have tried everything to resolve the issue yourself. If the problem is not too serious, talking to the person causing the nuisance can sometimes be enough to stop the behaviour. If the problem continues, or is too serious for you to confront the other person, please contact us| or Gloucester City Council.

Over the garden hedge Guide on reaching negotiated solutions for the public is a leaflet produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) advising members of the public on ways to negotiate with their neighbours to reach agreement over hedges.

Engaging the council to resolve disputes

A second leaflet called High hedges: Complaining to the council is also available. The local authority can charge a fee for dealing with complaints and their task is to decide whether 'reasonable enjoyment of a property is being adversely affect by the height of a high hedge situated on land owned or occupied by another person.'

If the local authority considers the circumstances justify it, they will issue a formal notice outlining what action should be taken to remedy the problem and to prevent it recurring. Failure to comply with the notice would be an offence. The local authority will also have powers to go in and do the work themselves, recovering the costs from the hedge owner.

What should I do if a garden is causing a nuisance or annoyance?

STEP 1

First of all consider approaching the person in charge of the garden and find out whether they realise how it is affecting you.

Once they know how it is effecting you, they will hopefully try not to cause any further nuisance or annoyance.

If however, you are worried about approaching the person directly or you have approached them and they are not willing to co-operate with any reasonable requests, then please contact us.

Follow this link to report the garden nuisance to Gloucester City Homes.|

STEP 2

It is essential that you keep a record of how the garden nuisance is effecting you. This information could be crucial to any legal action. If neighbours are also suffering then they should also be asked to keep a record and to complain to Gloucester City Homes.

Follow this link to download our incident log sheet|.

Our Service Standards

We will:

contact you within 5 working days in non-emergency cases or within 1 working day in urgent cases. Emergencies should be immediately reported to the police
if necessary, arrange an interview with you within 5 working days in non-emergency cases or within 1 working day in urgent cases
discuss the situation and advise you on the options that may be available to help resolve the problem such as mediation, voluntary agreements, legal action
help you keep a detailed diary of events, which will help us gather any evidence needed to take further action
work with you to try to resolve your problem, and explain clearly what is happening at each stage
jointly work with the police and any other agency that may be able to help resolve the problem
consider legal action against any person who continues to behave in an anti-social way, including taking court injunction and possession proceedings, or an Anti-social Behaviour Order, or supporting criminal prosecutions recommended by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service
work with the police and other agencies to protect you and any other witnesses.