Leylandi (Grrrr!!!)

I believe if you cut your neighbours overhanging hedges, by rights the clippings belong to them so you could put them in their driveway and they can take them to the dump.

I've put up with a similar situation for 30 years here. I'm 66 now and going up ladders is a real trial. I used to use a two-handled hedge trimmer and just balance. Now I use (laboriously slow) pruners and a tree saw - and hold on for dear life.

Over the years, I've cut back branches on my side further back than the green part. They don't regrow but there remains a dead stump. I've put up bamboo screening to cover the dead part right up to near the top.

There remains about a foot of green side and two or three feet of 'my side of top' (they can't reach it) to trim. The hedge is 100 feet long.

I do it in sections, a little at a time, usually in August and September. It really does take me that long.

Have a look at the High Hedges Act. My local council will help - for £500 - but there's no guarantee of success. I wish I'd done it years ago but I'm put off by the cost. From their website:

If you have tried to resolve a hedge dispute and exhausted all avenues, we may be able to intervene.

If we have to get involved there is a non-refundable charge for the service which is £500 for each complaint. You will also be required to provide evidence of recent attempts at resolving the dispute

We used to have a lovely next door neighbour, she was in her 90s but always made sure her garden was well looked after and didn't impose on ours. Now a women in her 30s lives there and the garden is a sight for sore eyes, one hedge 3 foot taller and her fence in hanging in our garden. She won't do anything about any of it

I have a few trees that hang over the fence, if they cut them back we've agreed they use our green bin and if that's full we give them a big builders bag and fill the bin with that next time or my son takes it to the tip. We've also said if they struggle or can't manage my Son is happy to cut them back on his day off.
In your position I would start cutting into the trees on your side at fence height. They can't demand that you endanger yourself cutting back his trees, why should you. He won't be aware of you cutting into the trees on your side and so what anyway you've tried to be reasonable. Bugger him.

We inherited our Leylandi hedge, it’s very long and was very high, we topped it off at quite a reasonable height on one neighbours side and we have it cut regularly along with a long length of Privet hedging.
When the house next door was sold for development the builder chopped all of the trees ( hedge) back to the trunk on his side and put up a wooden fence, so we have the leafy ( needles really) side and they have bare trunks, it hasn’t damaged our trees and it won’t grow back on their side.
If you don’t mind looking at bare trunks and want to sort it once and for all, cut them back hard and offer the branches to your neighbour. You could always plant climbing plant to grow up them.
We did say to the builder that if our hedging died he would be responsible for replanting ( but please not more Lleylandi) but it didn’t ........... blasted stuff is about 15 feet wide on our side.

Thank you for your replies..have cut back into the wood so hopefully no more growth..my sympathies Hetty age doesn't help..I'm 67 H is 75 both very fit but nevertheless dont want to fall off a flipping ladder...Flexible friend..love the " bugger him"?

I thought hedges of over a certain height were illegal, farview. Check with your Council, it should not be more than 2 metres high if it is a hedge and not just a couple of trees.

Do not put up with his nonsense, he is trying it on.
Of course, lleylandii often do not survive a severe pruning so, if you feel up to it, chop away.

And throw the rubbish back into his garden- it's his, not yours. It would be wrong to keep it!

There is now a legal limit on Leylandii height more than 2 meters tall have a look at your local councils website.
Mine says you have to try to resolve the issue with your neighbour first, if he refuses to act they will enforce the rules as a last resort .
If you don’t feel confident approaching your neighbour contact your local councilor who will help.

Any overhanging hedge is your neighbours property return it to him

It's not a simple legal limit, that's my problem. If I pay the £500, they'll come and take complex (triangular) measurements to determine if it's blocking my light or causing a nuisance. If they rule in my favour, the neighbour will have to reduce it to six feet (or maybe two metres). If not, I've lost £500!

Callistemon And throw the rubbish back into his garden- it's his, not yours. It would be wrong to keep it!

I would be very wary of doing that.
I have read on several occasions that you must "offer" such things back (and their owner has the right to say 'no thank you', but that you have no right whatsoever to simply throw them back onto the other person's property without their permission, tempting as it is!

A Leylandii hedge can look green, feathery and attractive, but they almost never do. People plant a hedge and then they leave it. Regular pruning is mandatory to keep the hedge looking smart, thick and green, but such maintenance is a lot of work - especially for the person who doesn't own the hedge but lives on the other side of a common boundary. So the hedge ends up like a bunch of individual trees, naked at the bottom and growing out into adjoining land and blocking light and views. There are laws about hedge height - and rights of light etc., - but people spend years and small fortunes in bitter disputes which help no one. Acting aggressively is not the way to go, even if you can't actually see your neighbour for the blasted hedging! As a previous poster has said, throwing (his own hedge clippings) and stuff back onto his property is not a good idea. Better to ask the neighbour directly and politely if they could reduce the height and regardless of the response take the opportunity to say that you are going to have to reduce the huge amount of annual work which this causes you, by cutting the hedge hard back to the boundary on your side. You do of course have the right to do this - as it's on your land. You'll end up with brownish spikes and almost no growth since once the branches are a certain age, they don't recover from hard pruning. Not attractive but can always be screened with honeysuckles, clematis, ramblers etc., planted on your side.Your neighbour keeps his hedge (to maintain) and you have no worry about endless work. Result, I think.

Hetty my sympathy, here is a link to the simple 36 page guide to getting a hedge trimmed

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9408/hedgeheight.pdf

Forget it, pay a man £50 each year to trim it

...the fly in the ointment here...one of my sons is employed by said neighbour ? anyway...its cut right back to the main stem now on our side...fingers crossed doesn't grow again...but hoping that he doesn't let it get any higher! ..we aren't well off..so a battle involving ££s is a no no...he on the other hand is very well off...anyway...feeling happy re the work we've done today.
My patio is at last getting daylight and hopefully will dry out..

Oh dear make a tongue-in -cheek jokey remark and unfortunately posters take it seriously!!

farview, no, of course, do not throw it over but you do have to offer it back to him as it is his.
We are subjected to all the dead bits that blow into our garden from our neighbour's lleylandii which fill our garden waste bags (for which we have to pay.)
It is very annoying, all over our garden and fill our pots.

We inherited a Leylandii hedge which my neighbour and I kept well under control though a little high for my liking. When it began to go brown and die off we agreed that it was too much bother. Climbing ladders was more difficult as we were both getting older so we paid half each to have it removed and plant a laurel hedge. These grow well in our village and I even had two bushes appear from nowhere in my garden. Though some bushes at one end of the hedge have thrived most of the others have died off or struggled to grow for no apparent reason. My neighbour being of a somewhat impatient disposition has bought more plants, some of which have also failed but would not take any payment from me.
All our conversations now seem to be about thriving laurels all over the village and we are both experts on laurel diseases so we remain on good terms fortunately. If they do grow this year we will have to learn how to cut them back, a new learning experience for us both. We are lucky, I suppose that we are both prepared to 'give and take' though I'm sure we both privately moan about each other.