Changes to our procedures for dealing with complaints about High Hedges.
From 1 October 2024, if you want us to consider a complaint about a high hedge, the payment must be made upon submitting the application. If we consider your application can't be validated, we will refund the fee.
High hedges
If the height of a high hedge adversely affects the enjoyment of a residential property, the owner or occupier of that property may complain to the Council under Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. A high hedge for this purpose is a line of at least two evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs measuring at least two metres above ground level.
Before you complain
Before submitting a high hedge complaint, you must seek to resolve the problem direct by:
- speaking courteously or writing politely to the hedge owner
- allowing the hedge owner reasonable opportunity to address the issues and remedy the harm you perceive. If both parties agree that the problem can be settled by mediation, your Ward Councillor or another independent party may help.
- keeping a record of actions you have taken
Advice on how you can try and resolve the matter directly with your neighbour is set out in the government leaflet Over the Garden Hedge.
If you're considering mediation to try and resolve the problem, services are available from Essex Mediation.
Making a complaint
The fee payable is £670. The payment can either be taken over the phone or using our online payment form.
We will only be able to help where you can show the answer to the following questions is yes.
Is the hedge:
- growing on land owned by someone else?
- or the portion of hedge causing problems made up of two or more trees or shrubs?
- mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen?
- more than two metres high?
- capable of obscuring light or views?
What we will do
We will only become involved if negotiation with your neighbour has failed and will assess the case, acting as an independent and impartial third party. Once you have sent the high hedges online complaint form, the Planning Department will carry out a validation check.
If the high hedges complaint is validated, it will be logged and acknowledged. We will write to the owner of the hedge asking for a site visit, and referring to the legal powers of enforcement. A site visit will be carried out to verify whether the high hedge is as defined by legislation, to measure and plot the trees or shrubs in the high hedge and assess the impact of the high hedge. Our role is to judge whether the height of the high hedge is, in the words of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, ‘adversely affecting the complainant’s reasonable enjoyment of their property’, and if so, what remedial action should be taken or what action is needed to prevent recurrence. That action can't include lowering the hedge to below two metres or removing the hedge.
The findings from the site visit and the assessment of the high hedge complaint will be reported and action proposed.
If no action under Part 8 Anti-Social Behaviour Act is taken, a decision letter will be sent to the high hedge owner and high hedge complainant notifying them of the decision and appeal rights.
Government guidance provides detailed information about the matters which the Council are to take into account High Hedge Complaints: Prevention and Cure (paragraphs 5.54 and- 5.104), what we will consider when you make a complaint and a booklet to help you assess whether an evergreen hedge is blocking too much daylight.
Enforcement
An owner or occupier who fails to take action required by a remedial notice is guilty of an offence and liable to prosecution. Where failure is continuing, the court may also order the defaulter to take steps to secure compliance within a reasonable period, and non-compliance may incur a fine of a daily penalty while default continues. Where the required action is not taken, we may authorise someone to enter that land to take the required action and may recover the cost from any owner or occupier of the land on which the hedge grows.
Appeals
Both the hedge owner or occupier of the land on which the hedge grows and the complainant have a right of appeal. There is a 28-day time limit for appealing. Appeals can relate to our decision on the height, or the waiver or relaxation of a notice or withdrawal.