I live in a semi-detached house and the neighbours which we share a wall with have ivy growing in their front garden and going up the front of their house. It has now started to spread significantly over to our house. We have tried removing some ourselves and noticed that it chips away the paint.
Are we well within our rights to ask them to deal with it? I’ve tried google and can’t seem to find an answer. I know technically it’s up to them what they have at the front of their house but if it’s spreading over and we don’t want it surely we are justified in asking them to maintain it better?
5 comments
Of course you can ask.
Salt the earth so nothing will grow again
You can only take off the stuff on your own house.
But have a conversation- after all, ivy is bad for brickwork.
Rip it out as soon as you see it, your side of the wall.
You should try r/LegalAdviceUK, they get posts about neighbour disagreements all the time.
You can legally prune any part of the plant that crosses into your land (though if it’s like a tree, technically you have to offer the trimmings to the neighbor). You can’t go into their land or destroy the plant.
If you think you may want compensation from your neighbor, you’ll have to start a written record of your explaining the situation to them and their action/inaction. Compensation from damage requires them to be negligent, which is easier to prove if you’ve explained the problem and they’ve ignored it. However it’s probably a murkier problem than a tree, as it might not be clear whether this ivy on your house is part of their plant or a new plant propagated from them into your soil.
It feels difficult to ask them to pay to remove ivy from your wall if you’ve sat back and let it grow there for years without taking any action or mentioning it as an issue.