What Are My Rights in a Neighbour Dispute in England or Wales?

Who this guide is for

People in England or Wales who have a problem with a neighbour: noise or another nuisance, a high hedge, branches or roots coming over from next door, where the boundary is, building work on a shared wall, or antisocial behaviour. It covers the steps to take first, what the council and the police can do, and when court is the last resort.

What this guide does not cover

• Scotland or Northern Ireland: see the Scotland guide or the Northern Ireland guide.
• A problem with your own landlord, such as repairs or a notice to leave your home: use the tenant rights checker.
• Planning permission, including how high a fence or wall can be, extensions and building regulations: ask your council's planning department.
• Right to light, rights of way, invasive plants spreading onto your land, and claiming money for damage caused by a neighbour's tree or hedge: ask Citizens Advice or a solicitor.
• CCTV or doorbell cameras pointing at your home: the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has guidance.
• Court orders to stop harassment: ask a solicitor.
• The amount of any fine, fee or compensation. This guide gives no amounts.

The questions that decide the answer

1. Where do you live? England or Wales: this guide. Scotland or Northern Ireland: see that nation's guide.
2. What is the problem? Noise or another nuisance, a high hedge, trees or roots, the boundary, building work on a shared wall, or antisocial behaviour. Each has its own route below.
3. Is your neighbour violent, threatening or harassing you? Yes: call the police. No: start with the informal steps.
4. Does your neighbour rent their home? Yes: you can also complain to their landlord, which could be the council, a housing association or a private landlord.
5. What have you already tried? The council cannot act on a high hedge until you have tried to settle it informally, and it expects you to have tried talking or mediation before a noise complaint.

First steps: talk, write, landlord, mediation

• Talk to your neighbour first. If you are worried about approaching them, write a letter explaining the problem clearly and sticking to the facts. Keep a copy. You can use our free noise letter to a neighbour.
• If the problem affects other neighbours, involve them as well. It can be easier to settle a dispute if the complaint comes from a number of people.
• If your neighbour is a tenant, you can complain to their landlord.
• Mediation: an impartial professional (the mediator) helps both sides work out an agreement. In England and Wales you can find a mediator through the Civil Mediation Council. Your council or housing association may also provide a mediation service.
• Keep a record of dates, times, what happened and how it affected you. The council may ask you for a diary of the problem.

Noise and other nuisances: the council

• You can ask your council for help if the problem is damaging to health or a nuisance. This is called a statutory nuisance. It could include noise (including loud music and barking dogs), artificial light (except street lamps), dust, steam, smell or insects from business premises, smoke, fumes or gases, or a build-up of rubbish that could harm health.
• Your council has a duty to investigate any statutory nuisance. You should always try to solve the problem by talking to your neighbour or through mediation before contacting the council.
• A statutory nuisance is more than an annoyance. The council's officer decides, as an ordinary reasonable person would, looking at things such as the type of noise, how loud it is, how often and at what times it happens. Everyday living noise, such as footsteps, doors closing, children playing or a baby crying, is not usually a statutory nuisance.
• If the council decides there is a statutory nuisance, it must serve an abatement notice. This tells the person what they must do to stop the nuisance. Breaking an abatement notice can lead to a fine.
• Noise from a home at night (between 11pm and 7am): under the Noise Act 1996 the council can serve a warning notice if the noise is above the permitted level, then a fixed penalty notice, and can seize the equipment making the noise.
• You can also complain about a statutory nuisance directly to the magistrates' court yourself. This guide does not cover how: ask Citizens Advice or a solicitor.

High hedges

• Councils deal with complaints about high hedges under Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. It has applied in Wales since 31 December 2004.
• You can ask your council for a complaint form if the hedge is all of these: 2 or more mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs; over 2 metres tall; and affecting your enjoyment of your home or garden because it is too tall.
• You must try to settle the dispute informally before the council can intervene.
• You might have to pay the council a fee to consider your complaint. Each council decides whether to charge and how much (in Wales, within a maximum set by law).
• The council does not mediate. It decides whether the height of the hedge is adversely affecting your reasonable enjoyment of your property and, if so, can serve a formal notice on the hedge owner saying what they must do. Not complying with the notice is an offence.
• A single tree or shrub is not a high hedge, and damage from roots is not dealt with under the high hedge law. For those, ask Citizens Advice or a solicitor.
• You and the hedge owner can appeal against the council's decision within 28 days. The decision says how.

Trees and roots from next door

• You can trim branches or roots that cross into your property from a neighbour's property or a public road.
• You can only trim up to the property boundary. If you do more than this, your neighbour could take you to court for damaging their property.
• If you live in a conservation area, or the trees are protected by a tree preservation order, you might need your council's permission to trim them. Check with the council first.
• The cut branches, and any fruit on them, still belong to your neighbour. Speak to them before you dispose of the cuttings, and do not dump them on their land.
• Your neighbour is responsible for maintaining their hedges so they do not, for example, damage your property or grow too high. If they do damage your property, your neighbour may be liable.

Boundaries and shared walls

• Most land in England and Wales is registered with general boundaries. An HM Land Registry title plan shows the general position of a boundary, not the exact legal line.
• You and your neighbour can decide where the boundary is in a boundary agreement, and ask HM Land Registry to note it on the register.
• If your property is registered, you can apply for a determined boundary (the exact line). If your neighbour does not agree, the application may be referred to a tribunal, and if the tribunal rejects it you may have to pay your neighbour's costs. Get legal advice before applying.
• Disputes about the exact boundary can be difficult to solve, so get legal advice. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has free advice on boundary disputes and party walls.
• Building work on a shared (party) wall: under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 you must give your neighbour written notice. For work on the party wall itself, give at least 2 months' notice. For a new wall on the boundary line, or digging foundations close to a neighbour's building, give at least 1 month's notice.
• A neighbour who gets a party wall notice must say in writing within 14 days whether they consent. No response does not mean they agree: it starts the dispute process. A counter notice must be served within a month of the first notice.
• If you cannot agree, surveyors settle it: one surveyor you both agree on, or one each. In general the owner doing the work pays the costs of the neighbour's surveyor, but there are exceptions.
• If a neighbour has started work without giving you notice, our free party wall letter can help you ask for it.

Antisocial behaviour, harassment and the police

• Call the police if your neighbour is violent, threatening or abusive; is harassing you sexually, or because of your sexuality, religion or ethnic background; or is breaking the law in any other way, or you suspect this. Call 999 in an emergency and 101 if it is not an emergency.
• You can also report antisocial behaviour to your council, or to your neighbour's landlord if they rent.
• A disagreement between neighbours, such as a boundary dispute or normal household noise, is not usually antisocial behaviour.
• ASB Case Review (previously called the Community Trigger): if you have reported antisocial behaviour and feel that no action, or not enough, has been taken, you can ask for a review under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The review must go ahead if you have made at least 3 qualifying complaints about the behaviour to the police, the council or a social housing landlord (your area may set a lower number). With fewer complaints, the council, police and other local agencies can still decide to hold one, looking at how persistent the behaviour is, the harm it causes or could cause, and how well it was dealt with. Each complaint must be made within 1 month of the behaviour, and you must apply within 6 months of the complaint. Your council's website says how to apply.

Going to court

• If all else fails, you can take legal action against a neighbour. It can be expensive, so it should be your last resort: there may be court fees and you may have to pay a solicitor.
• You can get free legal advice from a law centre, an advice centre or Citizens Advice.
• Before a claim, the court expects you to have tried to settle the dispute. For a claim for money, see the small claims guide for England and Wales.

Deadlines

• Party wall notice: at least 2 months before work on a party wall; at least 1 month before a new wall on the boundary line or digging foundations close to a neighbour's building.
• Replying to a party wall notice: within 14 days, in writing. A counter notice: within a month of the first notice.
• High hedge decision: appeal within 28 days.
• ASB Case Review: each complaint within 1 month of the behaviour; the application within 6 months of the complaint.
• This guide gives no time limit for a court claim. Ask Citizens Advice or a solicitor.

Money figures

• This guide gives no money figures. It cannot tell you the amount of any fine, fee or compensation. High hedge complaint fees are set by each council.

Traps

• Cutting a neighbour's tree beyond the boundary, or cutting a protected tree without permission, can get you into trouble even though the branches overhang your land.
• A title plan does not show the exact boundary. Do not move a fence on the strength of the plan alone.
• No reply to a party wall notice is not consent.
• In England and Wales the high hedge law covers only mostly evergreen or semi-evergreen hedges. Scotland's law is different.
• The Party Wall etc. Act 1996, the Noise Act 1996 night powers described here and the ASB Case Review are England and Wales rules. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own.
• Employment tribunal time limits never apply to neighbour disputes.