I am finding the comments here at best childish and worst bullying. If you cannot be helpful to the OP then you are best to message each other with mindless comments.
I've now got 61 posts on my thread! How exciting.... Dove, don't worry, I'm not in the slightest put off, rather amused in fact.
In answer to all the queries, I asked the original question after i'd started on the hedge... got cold feet, or rather, saw how much I was going to have to tidy up & started to chicken out! Thanks to your advice I continued to butcher the hedge, just as far back as the boundary. I can't tell you how good it felt to vent with the hedge trimmer and loppers, was really, really stressed with the return to work looming.
I've procrastinated asking the neighbour if her gardener will take away prunings... am a bit concerned they will then present me with a bill, following Hostafan's message re professional gardeners having to pay for what is considered commercial waste. I can but ask, and to be honest, i don't have a contract with them so if they were to present me with bill (which i doubt, I'm just worrying) then i wouldn't have to pay it and could just remind the neighbour about her ghastly son chucking all his fag ends into my garden!
in the past I've had clients who, given the size of their gardens, allowed me to dump stuff on their bonfire site, my payback was to burn their rubbish in my own time along with the stuff I'd brought.
Theoretically, you shouldn't trim your neighbour's hedge for fear of doing criminal damage to his property. However, your neighbour's hedge has no entitlement to occupy the air space above your land. This would appear to give you the right to alleviate the nuisance caused by the encroachment of your neighbour's hedge onto your land, allowing you to trim back its branches to the point at which they each cross the boundary.
Should you then return the trimmings to your neighbour, as they are his property? General practice is that you trim your side of the hedge and dispose of the trimmings yourself.
And what about the height of the hedge? Well, as it is your neighbour's hedge then he is entitled to decide to what height it grows. You may therefore trim only your side of his hedge and you may not reduce the height of the hedge.
Just a little update folks... i popped a polite note through my neighbours door on Sunday..explaining that we (property contains several flats) needed to cut back as despite trying to keep it in trim, it was shading our pants and we think, infested with vine weevil... we are duty bound, as legally speaking it is your property, to offer you the prunings... lack of car to take to the tip etc... Low and behold, as I was leaving for work the next morning, her gardeners were pulling up outside and later on I got home from work to find the garden cleed of all the prunings. result!
many thanks for all your comments, the amusing as well as the knowledgeable!
Posts
I am finding the comments here at best childish and worst bullying. If you cannot be helpful to the OP then you are best to message each other with mindless comments.
For anyone who doesn't like Mikes posts. Please press the ignore button against his name, as obelixx and nutcutlet suggest.
The above posts look like bullying.
Its not necessary.
Never used the 'ignore' button since I've been here....unless I'm mistaken, isn't it like reading a book with some of the pages missing?
No, it's very peaceful. You can tell where he's been but don'have to read his tripe.
I've now got 61 posts on my thread! How exciting.... Dove, don't worry, I'm not in the slightest put off, rather amused in fact.
In answer to all the queries, I asked the original question after i'd started on the hedge... got cold feet, or rather, saw how much I was going to have to tidy up & started to chicken out! Thanks to your advice I continued to butcher the hedge, just as far back as the boundary. I can't tell you how good it felt to vent with the hedge trimmer and loppers, was really, really stressed with the return to work looming.
I've procrastinated asking the neighbour if her gardener will take away prunings... am a bit concerned they will then present me with a bill, following Hostafan's message re professional gardeners having to pay for what is considered commercial waste. I can but ask, and to be honest, i don't have a contract with them so if they were to present me with bill (which i doubt, I'm just worrying) then i wouldn't have to pay it and could just remind the neighbour about her ghastly son chucking all his fag ends into my garden!
in the past I've had clients who, given the size of their gardens, allowed me to dump stuff on their bonfire site, my payback was to burn their rubbish in my own time along with the stuff I'd brought.
Worth asking though, you've got nothing to lose.
Blimey how do I miss all these eruptions on here!
Trimming hedgesTheoretically, you shouldn't trim your neighbour's hedge for fear of doing criminal damage to his property. However, your neighbour's hedge has no entitlement to occupy the air space above your land. This would appear to give you the right to alleviate the nuisance caused by the encroachment of your neighbour's hedge onto your land, allowing you to trim back its branches to the point at which they each cross the boundary.
Should you then return the trimmings to your neighbour, as they are his property? General practice is that you trim your side of the hedge and dispose of the trimmings yourself.
And what about the height of the hedge? Well, as it is your neighbour's hedge then he is entitled to decide to what height it grows. You may therefore trim only your side of his hedge and you may not reduce the height of the hedge.
Lots of confusing legal ramblings here:
http://www.boundary-problems.co.uk/boundary-problems/hedges.html
Just a little update folks... i popped a polite note through my neighbours door on Sunday..explaining that we (property contains several flats) needed to cut back as despite trying to keep it in trim, it was shading our pants and we think, infested with vine weevil... we are duty bound, as legally speaking it is your property, to offer you the prunings... lack of car to take to the tip etc... Low and behold, as I was leaving for work the next morning, her gardeners were pulling up outside and later on I got home from work to find the garden cleed of all the prunings. result!
many thanks for all your comments, the amusing as well as the knowledgeable!
as always, much appreciated all GWers.
Result!
Thanks for letting us know 
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.