Overgrown Hedges and the Law in Scotland: What the High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013 Does

Standing at the back window with the kitchen lights on at three in the afternoon makes it hard not to trace the problem to one thing: the wall of leylandii next door that's crept past the roofline over the past decade. The lawn hasn't seen direct sun in years. In Scotland, something is enforceable. The High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013 gives councils a defined power to intervene in hedge disputes between neighbours, but it comes with preconditions, a process, and limits on what it can force a neighbour to do. None of it starts with the council: it starts next door.

Talk to the neighbour first

Before a council will accept an application, you must take all reasonable steps to resolve the matter with your neighbour. That's a formal precondition, not just good practice. The Scottish Government's guidance to local authorities gives a benchmark rather than a fixed legal test: two formal approaches to the neighbour in the six months before you apply, with documentation that they were delivered. Keep copies of letters with delivery records, and notes of any conversations and responses. Angus Council, for one, says it expects at least two approaches within the six months immediately before the application, and wants evidence of them and of any replies.

It's also just the more sensible route. A conversation costs nothing and can resolve in an afternoon what a council process would take months to work through.

What counts as a "high hedge" under Scots law

Section 1 of the Act defines a high hedge as one:

• formed wholly or mainly by a row of two or more trees or shrubs
• rising to a height of more than 2 metres above ground level
• forming a barrier to light

A hedge with gaps that significantly reduce its overall effect as a barrier at heights above 2 metres doesn't count as a barrier to light. Roots are explicitly excluded: no account is taken of them. This is a law about light, not about root damage to drains or foundations, which is a separate legal matter.

Single trees are excluded, however tall or shading, and so is other vegetation that isn't a hedge. The guidance says the policy aim was to tackle hedges, and that including single trees and other plants would risk complex and unwieldy legislation. The Act's purpose is to resolve disputes where a high hedge affects the "reasonable enjoyment" of a neighbouring domestic property; in the Scottish Government's 2009 consultation, over 95% of respondents expressed a preference for government intervention.

Two practical wrinkles sit outside the Act. If the trees or shrubs are covered by a Tree Preservation Order, or sit within a conservation area, cutting them may need separate consent from the council on top of anything a notice requires, so check with the planning department. And if it's unclear whose hedge it is, or it sits on or straddles a boundary, that is a land-ownership question the Act doesn't resolve: the council will still need to establish who owns the hedge before a notice can be directed at anyone.

Scotland vs England and Wales

Scotland's Act is separate from the regime for England and Wales, which sits in Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003.

The plant-type difference matters: south of the border a deciduous hedge is excluded however much shade it casts, while Scotland's Act makes no distinction between deciduous and evergreen. In practice most complaints on both sides of the border involve fast-growing evergreens like leylandii, which qualify under either regime, so the deciduous point matters mainly for something like a beech or hornbeam hedge.

Making the application

Once the informal route has been tried and failed, the application goes to the local council. Owners or occupiers of the affected domestic property can apply, so a tenant doesn't need the homeowner to do it. It should include the application form, evidence of the resolution attempts (including copies of letters with delivery records), a map showing the hedge, garden boundaries and buildings, and proof of the fee.

There is no national fee. Each council sets its own to cover the reasonable costs of considering applications, and the guidance encourages concessions for low earners, disabled people, pensioners and multiple applicants affecting one hedge. Angus Council, for example, charges £275 and asks for a location plan at 1:500 or 1:1250 with the hedge outlined in red; other councils will differ and figures change, so check your council's current schedule.

What the council can order

If an application succeeds, the council issues a high hedge notice. It is not an order to fell the hedge or cut it to ground level, and it doesn't automatically mean cutting to exactly 2 metres:

• What a notice can require: "initial action" to remove the negative effect, to prevent the problems happening again, or both, and "preventative action": long-term maintenance, typically continuing to maintain the hedge at its new height or shape by regular trimming. The council may require a cut below the height needed to remove the negative effect if that helps prevent the problem recurring.
• What it doesn't default to: felling, ground-level clearance, or a fixed exactly-2-metre cut. The height is set by what fixes the light problem in that garden.

The notice must take effect at least 28 days after the date it is given, which sets when the compliance period starts. Practical constraints such as the bird-nesting season (roughly March to August, when disturbing an active nest is a separate wildlife issue) mean the work may not happen immediately. No single figure covers the whole process, but application, the neighbour's response, the council's assessment and the compliance period point to months rather than weeks, and an appeal to the DPEA, which aims to decide within around 12 weeks, can add to that.

If the notice isn't followed

If a hedge owner doesn't comply, the council has the power to carry out the work itself and recover the costs from the owner. It is an offence to obstruct a person authorised to carry out that work. A notice remains in force until the council withdraws it, so the preventative-action element is ongoing.

Appeals: the DPEA

Appeals go to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA), which handles them for Scottish Ministers, and must be made within 28 days of the date the council sent its decision to everyone involved. Either the applicant or the hedge owner can appeal. A DPEA reporter decides the appeal, and can uphold the notice, vary it or cancel it, mainly on written submissions (the appeal form is treated as the statement of case), though they can visit the site, ask for more information and in rare cases hold a hearing. The DPEA aims to issue a decision within 12 weeks of receiving the appeal, though exceptional cases may take longer.

The hedge owner's side of this

A hedge owner facing a complaint isn't as exposed as it might sound. The notice is specific, stating what work is required and by when, and they can appeal on the same 28-day basis as the applicant. Routine trimming of your own boundary hedge needs no council permission under this Act (a Tree Preservation Order or conservation area is a separate matter); it only becomes relevant if a neighbour formally applies and the council issues a notice.

Two things to know if you're holding the secateurs. First, leylandii and most conifers won't reshoot from bare brown wood once you cut back past the last of the green growth. If a notice requires a hard reduction, doing it in stages over more than one season where possible avoids a dead brown skirt rather than a tidy lower hedge, so raise it with the council or a tree surgeon if the required cut looks like going past the green. Second, the Act deals only with light, not overhanging branches or roots crossing onto a neighbour's land. That's generally understood as a separate common-law matter, with a neighbour usually able to cut back growth that crosses their boundary up to the boundary line, though the detail can turn on the circumstances, so treat it as a starting point for a conversation rather than a full statement of the law.

The best way to avoid any of this is prevention: topping a boundary conifer hedge annually, well before it approaches 2 metres, costs far less time and risk than a hard reduction ordered years later.

Common questions

Dealing with a different hedge problem? See conifer hedge browning and box hedge dying.

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