What counts as a high hedge
The law covers a line of two or more trees or shrubs that are mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen, more than two metres tall, and acting as a barrier to light or access. It has to affect your reasonable enjoyment of your home or garden.
- A single tree is not a high hedge, however big it is.
- Hedges that lose all their leaves in winter are not covered.
- Councils can’t deal with problems caused by roots under this law.
- Gaps can matter: a line with large gaps above two metres may not count as a barrier.
Talk to your neighbour first
You must try to settle it informally before a council will look at a complaint, and it can refuse one if you haven’t taken reasonable steps. Keep a record as you go.
Durham County Council, for example, asks for evidence of each attempt to settle, such as your written account of a meeting or a copy of a letter you sent and any reply. It does not offer mediation itself.
It often helps to be specific. “Could it come down to around the height of the fence line and be kept there?” is easier to agree than “it’s too big”. If cost is the sticking point, a quote for the work can make the conversation more concrete.
Complaining to the council
If talking hasn’t worked, you can complain to the council for the area where the hedge grows. You fill in a form and pay a fee, which is not usually refunded.
- Durham County Council
- £385, sent with the application form
- Hartlepool Borough Council
- £150, paid by the person making the complaint
- Other councils
- Check the high hedges page on your council’s website for the current fee
Fees as shown on the councils’ websites in October 2026. They can change, so check before you apply.
If the council agrees the hedge is causing a problem, it can issue a remedial notice telling the owner what to do and by when. It can’t require the hedge to be removed or cut below two metres, and it can’t order work that would kill the hedge. Either side can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Cutting what grows over your side
You can trim branches or roots that cross onto your property, but only up to the boundary. You can’t go onto your neighbour’s land, or cut back further, without their agreement.
The cuttings belong to the hedge owner. The RHS advises offering them back, and you can’t just throw them over the fence. It’s simplest to agree beforehand what happens to the waste.
Check first if there are trees in the hedge. A Tree Preservation Order doesn’t normally cover shrubs, but it can cover trees within a hedge, and trees in a conservation area need six weeks’ notice to the council. Our protected tree check takes you to the right council.
Where hedge work fits in
We can quote for whoever is arranging the work: the owner who wants a hedge brought down to a manageable height, or the neighbour cutting back their side up to the boundary. Where both sides agree, cutting the top and both faces in one visit usually gives the neatest result.
Be realistic about conifers. Most won’t grow back from bare wood, so lowering a tall conifer hedge a long way, or cutting a face right back, can leave brown patches that stay. Yew is the exception. Our guide to trimming, reducing or replacing a hedge goes through the choices, and when to cut a hedge covers nesting birds and timing.
Sources
This is general information for England, not legal advice. Checked October 2026.
- GOV.UK: high hedges, trees and boundaries
- GOV.UK: high hedges, complaining to the council
- Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8
- Durham County Council: high hedges
- Hartlepool Borough Council: high hedges
- RHS: neighbours and garden boundaries
- GOV.UK: Tree Preservation Orders and trees in conservation areas