Landscape Disputes: Court Battles over Hedges, Trees, and Neighborly Annoyances
Karlsruhe, Germany – The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Germany is once again grappling with a common source of neighborhood discord: vegetation. At the heart of the current case is a towering bamboo hedge that has become a point of contention between two neighboring property owners in Hesse.
The Case of the Towering Bamboo
The dispute centers around a bamboo hedge that has grown to a height of at least six meters, separating two adjacent properties. The plaintiff, who owns the lower Grundstück, claims that the hedge encroaches on his property and causes significant disturbance. He seeks to have it trimmed back to a height of three meters.
However, the defendant, who owns the higher Grundstück, argues that she has complied with the boundary distances stipulated in Hessian neighbor law. She maintains that the hedge does not cause any "unusually severe and intolerable impairments" that would justify her neighbor’s demand.
Conflicting Lower Court Rulings
The case has already been through multiple rounds of litigation, with conflicting outcomes. The plaintiff initially prevailed in the Frankfurt Regional Court but was later dismissed by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court (OLG). The OLG ruled that no breach of neighborly rights had occurred and that the defendant had not violated any applicable regulations.
BGH to Consider Multiple Facets
The BGH will now consider several key legal questions in this case, including:
- Whether a neighbor has the right to demand the trimming of a hedge exceeding three meters in height, even if the statutory boundary distances are observed.
- How to determine the height of a hedge when one property is located at a lower elevation than the other.
- The extent to which neighboring property owners must tolerate "negative emissions," such as the shading of light and air by trees or structures.
Precedents in Neighborly Disputes
The BGH has a long history of adjudicating disputes between neighbors over garden hedges and trees. In 2021, it ruled that a man had the right to prune the branches of a 40-year-old black pine tree on his neighbor’s property, despite the tree’s potential to die as a result.
In another case involving four cypress trees, the BGH upheld a lower court’s ruling that the trees be cut down or reduced in height due to their excessive proximity to a neighbor’s property.
Beyond Vegetation Disputes
The BGH has also adjudicated a wide range of other neighborly disputes, including:
- The construction of a swimming pool without the consent of all co-owners of a duplex house.
- The drilling of holes in a neighbor’s exterior wall to install an awning.
- The excessive noise and disturbance caused by a horse stable.
- The secondhand smoke from neighbors’ cigarette smoking on a balcony.
