← All guides · Rules & paperwork · Updated July 2026

The neighbour's hedge is blocking your light. What the law actually says.

If your neighbour has an evergreen hedge over two metres that's blocking your light, taking your view, or generally making the garden unlivable, you have two legal routes. One is the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8 - the "high hedges" complaint procedure that CCC administers. The other is common-law boundary rights - your right to cut back any hedge overhanging your side of the boundary line. They work together. Here's how.

The high hedges complaint procedure

Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gives local authorities the power to intervene when a "high hedge" is adversely affecting the enjoyment of a neighbouring property. It's the statutory answer to the leylandii wars of the 1990s. Canterbury City Council administers it for the district.

To meet the definition of a "high hedge" under the Act, the hedge has to be:

• Formed by two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs;
• Over 2 metres in height above ground level;
• A barrier to light or access.

A single tree doesn't count. A deciduous hedge doesn't count (which is why beech and hornbeam are out of scope even at eight metres). A wall doesn't count. This is deliberately narrow - it's aimed squarely at the row of leylandii, thuja, laurel or cypress that a previous owner planted forty years ago and nobody has managed since.

Before you complain, you have to negotiate

The council will refuse a complaint that hasn't been preceded by a genuine attempt to resolve the dispute directly with the neighbour. In practice that means: a letter or email to the neighbour explaining the problem, a reasonable request for a specific remedy (e.g. reduction to a stated height), and a reasonable time for them to respond. Keep copies of everything. If mediation through Kent Mediation or a similar community service is available, use it - the council will ask.

Only once that's failed do you have grounds to complain. There is a fee (Canterbury's is currently in the £400-£500 band, published on the council website - check the current figure before applying). The fee is refundable in some circumstances if the complaint is upheld, but assume it isn't.

Your common-law boundary rights - separate and immediate

Independently of the high hedges Act, English common law gives you the right to cut back any part of a neighbour's hedge that overhangs your boundary. You don't need permission, you don't need notice, you don't need a solicitor. Three conditions:

• You may only cut the parts that overhang. You may not lean over the boundary to trim the neighbour's side.
• You must cut cleanly and reasonably - no gratuitous damage that would kill the plant.
• The clippings remain the property of the hedge owner. Formally you should offer them back. In practice, if the neighbour doesn't want them, they become your problem to dispose of.

The boundary right does not let you reduce the neighbour's hedge in height. You can only remove the overhang on your side. So if the problem is height rather than encroachment, common law doesn't help and the high hedges complaint is the route.

Two other constraints that trip people up

The nesting season. Cutting a hedge back to the boundary between 1 March and 31 August risks disturbing an active nest, which is a criminal offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1. Your right to cut back does not override that. Do it in autumn or late winter.

Conservation areas and TPOs. If your property is inside one of Canterbury's 97 conservation areas, or if any tree in the hedge is subject to a Tree Preservation Order, the s.211 notice or the TPO consent applies to you as the person doing the work, not to the hedge owner. You can't cut back an oak on your neighbour's side that's over the 75mm-stem threshold without giving CCC six weeks' notice first. See our s.211 guide.

Where these cases actually come up in Canterbury

The Hales Place / Sturry Road corridor produces the largest share of neighbour disputes I see - 1970s ex-council leylandii that have run to twenty feet. Thanington, Wincheap's back-garden fence lines, the South Canterbury post-war estates, and the Whitstable Road corridor properties are all common. In the Blean-fringe villages (Rough Common, Tyler Hill, Blean village) the hedges tend to be native mixed and rarely trigger the Act - the problem is more usually width and encroachment, which is the common-law remedy.

The Old Dover Road and St Dunstan's Victorian villas rarely surface here - the hedges are mostly deciduous or ornamental yew that gets managed, and the properties are inside conservation areas, so the s.211 rules act as a natural check.

What we can do

If you're the hedge owner and have received a complaint or a Remedial Notice, we can survey the hedge and quote for a staged reduction that meets the notice conditions. Leylandii won't come back from a hard cut into brown wood, so if the required height sits below the current green line the work has to be sequenced - see our two-year leylandii plan.

If you're the complainant exercising boundary rights, we can cut back the overhang cleanly and legally, with the correct waste disposal, and provide photographic documentation for your records.

Sources: Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, Part 8 (High Hedges); Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government "Hedge Height and Light Loss" methodology; Canterbury City Council High Hedges complaint guidance; Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 1; Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 211.