High Hedges Act (Northern Ireland) 2011

Remedial notices

5.—(1) For the purposes of this Act a remedial notice is a notice—

(a) issued by the council in respect of a complaint to which this Act applies; and

(b) stating the matters mentioned in subsection (2).

(2) Those matters are—

(a) that a complaint has been made to the council under this Act about a high hedge specified in the notice which is situated on land so specified;

(b) that the council has decided that the height of that hedge is adversely affecting the complainant’s reasonable enjoyment of the domestic property specified in the notice;

(c) the initial action that must be taken in relation to that hedge before the end of the compliance period;

(d) any preventative action that the council considers must be taken in relation to that hedge at times following the end of that period while the hedge remains on the land; and

(e) the consequences under sections 10 and 12 of a failure to comply with the notice.

(3) The action specified in a remedial notice is not to require or involve—

(a) a reduction in the height of the hedge to less than two metres above ground level; or

(b) the removal of the hedge.

(4) A remedial notice shall take effect on its operative date.

(5) “The operative date” of a remedial notice is such date (falling at least 28 days after that on which the notice is issued) as is specified in the notice as the date on which it is to take effect.

(6) “The compliance period” in the case of a remedial notice is such reasonable period as is specified in the notice for the purposes of subsection (2)(c) as the period within which the action so specified is to be taken; and that period shall begin with the operative date of the notice.

(7) Subsections (4) to (6) have effect in relation to a remedial notice subject to—

(a) the exercise of any power of the council under section 6; and

(b) the operation of sections 7 to 8 in relation to the notice.

(8) While a remedial notice has effect, the notice—

(a) shall be a statutory charge; and

(b) shall be binding on every person who is for the time being an owner or occupier of the land specified in the notice as the land where the hedge in question is situated.

(9) In this Act—

“initial action” means remedial action or preventative action, or both;

“remedial action” means action to remedy the adverse effect of the height of the hedge on the complainant’s reasonable enjoyment of the domestic property in respect of which the complaint was made; and

“preventative action” means action to prevent the recurrence of the adverse effect.