Seven laws you could be breaking in your own garden without knowing it – here’s how to protect yourself
BRITS need to beware they’re not breaking these little-known laws in their OWN garden this summer.
More and more households are stepping out into the sunshine as the weather warms and school holidays get underway, but keen gardeners need to be careful they’re not breaking the law.
In the last few weeks, those with green fingers have been busy trying to protect parched lawns from the sizzling sun or preparing their vegetation for holidays without watering.
But these seven rules outline the grey areas of gardening not many are aware of.
Not knowing your rights could land you in a nasty row with your neighbours – or even in trouble with the police.
From planting to pruning, make sure you’re not breaking the law on your own land.
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BLOCKING NATURAL LIGHT
Unfortunately, you cannot plant or put up whatever you’d like in your garden, even though it’s your own property.
If you plant a tree or erect a shed that blocks light to a neighbour’s window, they have the right to object.
Under the Rights of Light Act, if a window has received natural light for 20 years or more, your neighbour can block your plans.
This applies to tall hedges or trees, as well as manmades fences, sheds or summer houses – so make sure nothing you build be obstructing any natural light.
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Away from the boundaries of your property there are very few rules about what you can plant – as long as it’s not an invasive species.
It’s always best to notify neighbours of any considerable changes you’re planning which could impact them.
PICKING FRUIT
Picking and keeping fruit from someone else’s plants or trees is technically stealing.
Even if overhanging branches lean over into your garden, its fruit belongs to your neighbour if it grows from the soil in their garden.
According to the law, you should leave the fruit alone or offer it back to your neighbour.
Most recently, a “school bully” gardener was smacked with a £200,000 court bill after her neighbour sued over rotten apples has lost a bid to fight her case again.
PRUNING BRANCHES
Trimming those overhanging branches, however, falls under another tricky category.
You can cut off any branches that intrude into your property – but you cannot trespass in order to do so.
This means you cannot enter your neighbour’s garden or cross into their land to prop up your ladder or climb a tree.
If you do decide to prune the offensive plant from your land, you don’t need to notify your neighbour or ask them permission.
Yet even once you’ve cut these branches, which remain your neighbour’s property, you should still offer them back to the owner.
Make sure not to cut the tree back further than the official boundary, especially if it could prevent regrowth.
You are responsible for any damage to the tree, for example, if the cutting makes it die.
TRICKY TREES
Sometimes a tree could belong to two parties, if its base sits between the boundary of both properties.
In this instance you must consult the other owner before carrying out any work or maintenance – otherwise you are trespassing.
Perhaps frustratingly, climbers belong to whoever’s soil it is growing in, not the property it is growing on.
You are permitted to remove it from your property’s walls or fences just as long as you do not kill it or remove its roots from your neighbour’s property.
PICKING FLOWERS
Pretty petals that fall from your neighbour’s plants into your garden do indeed still belong to them.
Taking their flowers is technically stealing their property and your neighbours can ask for them back at any time.
SWEEPING UP LEAVES
Unlike flowers and fruit that drop into your garden from next-door, your neighbours have no legal responsibility for the leaves which fall over your fence.
Under the law, neighbours do not have to clean up the stray leaves dropping everywhere.
This means you can’t ask them to clear up the debris from their tree, so it’s best to do it yourself.
GROWING DISPUTES
Vegetation isn’t the only source of disputes gardeners should beware of – as neighbours frequently clash over fences, walls land borders.
Luckily a lawyer revealed last week how to save yourself from those petty garden rows.
Barrister Lynette Calder said homeowners must always check the Land Registry to understand who owns their garden fence.
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Lynette told The Sun: “It depends on the registry and if that doesn’t say, it will generally depend on factors on the ground. For example, who has always maintained it.
“There is a common myth that it’s always one side or the other that is owned… I can’t remember which side because it’s not correct!”