Obviously to keep the peace it's better and courteous to mention it, but the legal position, as I understand it, is that you are allowed to cut off overhanging branches as long as you give them back to their owner.

I'd be concerned that your neighbour would be both annoyed and upset by this, so do see if you can come to some agreement!

It is difficult to get agreement with leylandii owners I think. A relative's next door neighbour has 18 huge leylandii trees all round her front and back gardens. The trunks are so thick they have knocked down relative's fence several times and now broken the front garden wall. The neighbours house has been on the market for 2 years but no-one wants to buy it with all those trees but she says she does not plan to have them removed. Relative is having an extension to the side of the house and the builders, the surveyor, the local Council people have all said neighbour willl never sell the house unless the trees are taken down, there is a danger to foundations not just to her house but relative's house too. The builder had to get a 'tree man' in to cut back some of the branches and he said leylandii have ball-like roots and when they get so tall they get top heavy and easily blow down in a strong wind thereby causing a lot of house damage.

How scary! Leylandii should be banned.....:-(((

I agree!

Shall we start a campaign, Mrs MB?? lol.....

YES!

Who said it was Leylandii? :-)

Nobody, Fractal - it was just time for another rant about them! lol.

We will have to cut our side of the neighbour's leylandii hedge in the next month. I hate having to do so as this wreaks the plants growing near it... Yes we do have plants growing right up to the hedge - we must have mulched the soil well to start with. Anyone got any thoughts or ideas on how to prune and not do too much damage to our plants/shrubs?

We have a long-handled pruner - It's very effective. Have you tried one?

We have 2 long handled pruners but would not want to use to cut a leylandii hedge, as we never allow the branches to get very long. We use the hedge trimmer but it is getting to be more and more of a challenge - oh well!

Of course it is. OH uses his hedge trimmer on the hedge at the back of our garden - and we think that's Leylandii, only it's very much under control, as it's ours. Mind you, I have no idea what the back of it looks like! (it's a field at the back, so only the sheep or cows have that view!)

It's also completely accessible, as it's by the lawn - he puts up a tower-thing and away he goes!

When we moved into this house there were two leylandii in the front garden and two in the back. Our surveyor said "get rid of those as soon as you can" so we did and it let a lot more light into the house and neighbours houses.

That was a very good suggestion....:-)))