When the hedge of the neighbouring villa casts a shadow over you
When the hedge of the neighbouring villa casts a shadow over you
"I own a villa with a garden surrounded by a hedge. My neighbours also have a hedge but the problem is that theirs goes up to 3m and encroaches on mine. Is there anything I can do? "
Thomas, Geneva
In Switzerland, the vertical development of plants and their distance from property boundaries is a matter of cantonal law, whereas their horizontal development is governed by federal law!
Article 687 of the Swiss Civil Code (CC) states that every owner has the right to cut and keep branches and roots that encroach on his or her property if they cause him or her harm and if, after complaint, the neighbour does not remove them within a reasonable period of time. This should normally enable you to solve your problem if the branches of your neighbour's hedge are encroaching on your own, or are cutting straight through your property.
Be careful, however, that these are not species protected by cantonal law. Article 688 of the Federal Act specifies that cantonal legislation may determine the distance that owners are required to keep from their plantations for different species of plants and buildings.
In Geneva, the issue is regulated by article 129 of the Civil Code Implementation Act (LaCC), which lays down the principle that no plantation with woody stumps may be planted within 50 centimetres of the parcel boundary, either hedges or trees, unless neighbours agree otherwise. If there is a fence between the 2 adjoining properties, the legal distance only applies to planting exceeding the height of the fence (article 130 LaCC).
No planting may exceed a height of 2 metres in the area within 2 metres of the property boundary. Between 2 and 5 metres from this boundary, trees may grow to a height of 6 metres and, between 5 and 10 metres, to a height of 12 metres. Until 10 July 1999, these legal heights were 8 and 16 metres respectively; plantations that had reached these heights at that time are not required to be pollarded.
Under Geneva law, the owner of a neighbouring property can take various actions, such as requesting the removal of plantations planted at an inappropriate distance from the boundary, or the removal of plantations that do not comply with the height requirements. It should be noted, however, that these actions are time-barred 30 years after the disputed plantations were planted.
