Hello …I am looking for some advice re a problem we have with our neighbour’s hedges and trees planted right on their boundary.
Our house is over 300 years old and built partly in to the walls of the village. We have only one window looking out at the rear, at ground floor level. The floors above belong to another neighbour.
A new house was built immediately behind ours, set on the hillside and partially blocking the view from us and some of the neighbours. But it was constructed in such a way (roof heights, angles etc) that none of the existing houses completely lost their view or light. However, the owner of that house planted a hedge immediately on their boundary and has stopped cutting it, leaving the individual shrubs to grow up in to trees. They are now at least 4 meters tall, and completely block what little view we still had from our window and terrace.
We wrote to the neighbour and asked them to reduce the height back down to 2 meters, but they have refused saying they are in the process of selling and we will have to wait and ask the new owner…in November! Can anyone advise us what we can do next to try and force them to cut these trees? Any advice very welcome.
AFAIK there is no right of light as such in France.
However this thread might be of interest:
We have a conflict going on at the moment in our village.
One neighbour went to the Mairie to complain about/discuss his neigbour’s tree.
So, my advice would be to visit your Mairie and discuss the matter with someone there. They will advise you on the Regulation and on how you should proceed with your neighbour. On Private Land, I do not think the Mairie can step in, themselves.
The legislation is quite clear, but who enforces it is another matter! If the hedge is planted within 2 metres of the boundary you can ask for it to be removed, otherwise it must be kept to 2 m high. If the marie won’t get involved then perhaps a discussion with the notaire?
We’d a similar problem. Our first step was getting the bornage done. After that the problem went away.