Your most irritating neighbourhood rows, SOLVED: From overgrown hedges to annoying ball video games, falling fruit and straying animals, DEAN DUNHAM reveals exactly WHO is in the correct in widespread backyard disputes

There is a reason most of us, when buying a house, are warned to look as carefully at who lives next door as at the property itself.

Your neighbour’s hedges, trees, ball games, fruit, animals and even, as you will see, sunbathing habits, can turn your dream home into a daily source of tension.

The good news is that the law has rather more to say on these issues than people realise. The bad news is that what the law actually says is often the opposite of what you might expect.

Here are nine of the most common garden disputes between neighbours that land in my inbox and how I, as Money Mail’s consumer lawyer, would respond to each.

It’s crucial to understand your rights and responsibilities when it comes to your property – here’s how to use the law to win any neighbour dispute.

My neighbour’s tall hedge blocks my sunlight and my view over the fields. Can I force them to chop it down?

Let me start with the painful bit: there is no legal right to a view in England and Wales. Frustrating as it is, your view over the fields enjoys no protection whatsoever, and on those grounds alone you cannot force a single leaf to be cut.

Light, however, is a different matter. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 introduced what’s commonly called the ‘high hedges’ remedy, and it could be your route forward. The hedge must be made up of two or more mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs and stand more than two metres tall. If it does, and it’s adversely affecting your reasonable enjoyment of your home, typically by blocking light, you can complain to your local council, which can issue a formal remedial notice requiring the owner to reduce its height.

To complain, you must ask your council for a complaint form. You can find your local council’s website at the Government site gov.uk/find-local-council.

However, before going to the council, you must first show you have tried to resolve matters directly with your neighbour. Put your concerns in writing, keep copies and only escalate if they refuse to engage. There’s also a fee, typically around £400 (although this can vary) payable to the council for considering the complaint.

My neighbour has cut one of my hedges right back where it was growing into their garden. I’m worried they’ve gone too far. Can they do this?

Your neighbour is legally entitled to cut back any branches, foliage or roots that cross the boundary into their property. That right is well established in common law and does not require your permission.

But, and it’s a big but, they can only cut back to the boundary line. They cannot lean over and trim what is still on your side of the boundary. They also cannot keep what they have cut: legally, the trimmings remain your property and should be offered back to you (though most people don’t actually want them returned).

Crucially, they owe you a duty to take reasonable care. If they cut so aggressively that the plant dies, or if they damage it beyond what was reasonably necessary to remove the encroachment, you may have a claim in negligence or even in nuisance for the loss. If you suspect the hedge will not survive, photograph everything now, get a written opinion from a qualified arboriculturist, and put your neighbour on notice in writing that you will hold them liable for the cost of replacement if the plant dies.

It is important to try to resolve the issue informally before making a claim and to keep proof of this.

My neighbour’s children kick a ball against our shared wall, making a loud banging noise. I’ve asked them to stop. What now?

Persistent, unreasonable noise can amount to a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The test is whether the noise unreasonably interferes with the enjoyment of your home, judged by reference to its frequency, duration, time of day and the character of the area.

Start by writing to your neighbour, calmly and without emotion, setting out the times and duration of the disturbance and asking them to take steps to prevent it. Keep a noise diary, recording the date, time, duration and the effect on you. This is critical evidence.

If the behaviour continues, complain to your local council’s environmental health department. It has powers to investigate and, if it considers the noise amounts to a statutory nuisance, can issue an abatement notice. Breach of that notice is a criminal offence. It can also use the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to issue community protection notices in appropriate cases.

For shared walls (party walls), you could also explore whether the wall is being structurally damaged. That opens up additional remedies under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.

A word of caution: children playing in their own garden is not, in itself, unlawful. The bar for noise nuisance is reasonably high.

My neighbour sunbathes naked, which makes barbecues awkward. Can I demand they put clothes on?

This is more delicate than people assume. Public nudity in England and Wales is not, in itself, a criminal offence. The offence under section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 of exposure requires that the person intentionally exposes their genitals and intends that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress. A neighbour quietly sunbathing in their own garden, even if visible from yours, almost certainly does not meet that threshold.

You cannot demand they cover up. What you can do is take steps to screen your own property through taller fencing, trellising or a fast-growing hedge to remove the line of sight. A polite conversation, framed around the discomfort of guests rather than your own outrage, sometimes prompts neighbours to be more discreet without anyone losing face.

If, however, the conduct is deliberate, directed at you or your guests, sexually motivated, or involves children seeing it, the picture changes entirely and you should report it to the police.

Next door’s cat scares the birds off my feeder. What can I do?

I’ll be honest with you: not very much, legally. Cats are unique in English law in that they are largely treated as free-roaming creatures whose owners are not liable for their wanderings. There is no equivalent of the dog-control regime for cats. A cat in your garden is not a trespass for which you can sue, and its owner is generally not liable for the cat’s actions.

You cannot harm the cat – the Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes that a criminal offence, and rightly so. You also cannot trap and remove it without consent.

What you can do is deter it. Move feeders to high, exposed spots away from cover the cat could ambush from. Use cat-proof feeder designs. Consider humane deterrents such as ultrasonic devices, which emit a high-frequency sound that cats don’t like, water sprays activated by motion sensors or scent-based deterrents such as citrus peel or commercial cat repellents. A bird bath at height and dense thorny shrubs nearby can help give the birds an escape route.

Unfortunately, you will therefore need to accept that, in this country at least, the cat is going to win this round.

My neighbour’s hedge is growing into my garden. Whose responsibility is it to cut it back?

The hedge belongs to your neighbour, so the underlying responsibility for maintaining it is theirs. However, the law gives you a self-help remedy: as outlined above, you may cut back any growth that crosses onto your land, up to (but not over) the boundary.

What you cannot do is force your neighbour to come round and trim it for you, unless the encroachment is causing actual damage to your property, at which point it becomes a nuisance and a different legal route opens up.

In that case, you can write to them formally requesting they remedy the nuisance, and if they refuse, you can pursue them through the small claims court for the cost of remedial work and any damage caused.

A polite letter usually does the trick or failing that a letter from a solicitor.

Plums from next door’s tree fall into my garden and make a mess. What can I do?

You can cut back any branches overhanging your property, in the same self-help remedy as mentioned above. You should offer the cuttings, including any fruit, back to the owner. Legally, the fruit growing on those branches belongs to the tree owner, even when it crosses your airspace – and even when it falls on to your property. You cannot eat the plums (though many people do) and you cannot keep them.

What about plums that have already fallen? Strictly speaking, they too remain the tree owner’s property. In practice, most neighbours don’t object to fallen fruit being composted or disposed of but, if relations are strained, ask first.

If the mess and insects amount to a substantial interference with your enjoyment of your property, a serious wasp infestation, for instance, that’s potentially a private nuisance, and you may be able to require your neighbour to take steps to address it. Fruit dropping in season, though, is generally something the courts treat as an ordinary fact of garden life.

Roots from my neighbour’s tree are damaging my garden wall and patio. I’m worried about my house’s foundations. What can I do?

This is a serious one and you should act now. Encroaching roots that cause physical damage are a textbook example of the legal nuisance known as ‘actionable nuisance from natural causes’. Your neighbour, as the tree’s owner, is liable for damage their tree causes to your property, provided the damage was reasonably foreseeable.

Step one: gather evidence. Photograph the damage, keep dated records, and ideally instruct a structural engineer or arboriculturist to produce a report linking the damage to the roots. If you suspect foundation damage, do not delay, subsidence claims become enormously more expensive and complicated the longer they are left.

Step two: notify your neighbour in writing, attach the evidence and request that they remove or manage the offending tree and meet the cost of repairing the damage. Send a copy to your buildings insurer, as they may handle the claim under your subsidence cover and pursue your neighbour’s insurer directly.

You can also take it into your own hands as you have the self-help right to cut roots that cross the boundary. But I would urge caution. Cutting the wrong roots from a mature tree can destabilise it, leading to its collapse, for which you might be liable. You should therefore take professional advice first and you must also make sure the tree is not the subject of a tree preservation order (TPO) before taking it upon yourself to cut any roots.

I share a hedge with an elderly neighbour who can’t maintain her side. She’s asked me to do it. Shouldn’t she pay?

This depends entirely on whose hedge it actually is. Many ‘shared’ hedges aren’t shared at all in the legal sense, they sit on one side of the boundary and belong to one party. Check your title deeds and any conveyancing plan, which usually indicate which boundary features each property owns. The ‘T-mark’ pointing into a property typically denotes ownership and responsibility.

If the hedge is genuinely on her side or jointly owned, then maintenance is her responsibility (or shared). She is under no legal obligation to pay you for doing the work so you can decline, and she would then need to arrange and pay for it herself. If she fails to do so, and the hedge encroaches on to your land or causes damage, the nuisance remedies above apply.

That said, please bear in mind the human element. An elderly neighbour struggling to maintain a garden is in a genuinely difficult position. If you can help informally, you may save yourself years of friction. The law gives you rights but does not compel you to use them.

A final word of warning and advice: It’s never a good idea to fall out with your neighbour. I say this not just for the obvious reason that you do not want a dispute with people that live so close to you, but also for an important legal reason. If you ever decide to sell your house, details of neighbour disputes must be disclosed to potential buyers and this can either put a buyer off or give them an excuse to make a lower offer. You should therefore try everything possible to resolve any potential disputes amicably, or at least well before the situation escalates to a disclosable ‘dispute’.

Are you at war with your neighbour? Email [email protected]