Winniefred
2019-08-02 19:41:03
- #1
Hello!
We currently have a small problem, nothing serious, but maybe someone knows the answer. We bought an old building whose previous resident (not previous owner; the man only ever lived here – but the house belonged to his partner and after her death to her sons) planted a hedge on the city side back in the 80s. It is about 20 meters of privet hedge, which stands between our property and the city sidewalk, but on city land. The city now claims that the previous resident planted the hedge and that we are now responsible for trimming it. This came up last year when we had someone from the city here for something else and she apparently rummaged through the files, where the original application and the permission for planting are still kept (I saw this myself) – this basically woke the sleeping dogs. The lady said at the time that we were responsible for the hedge and that the hedge had so far been trimmed "by accident." Since then, the green space maintenance came by again last fall but not anymore since, although the hedge used to be maintained twice a year together with the remaining 40 meters of planting on the city side.
Now of course the question arises for us whether we are actually responsible for the hedge. Nothing regarding the hedge or other obligations is regulated in the purchase contract. Does anyone have a hot tip?
And no, we are not going to start a quarrel over this. But the hedge is long, quite difficult to access and does not stand on our property, besides we only found out after the purchase that it was planted by the previous resident... let’s just say, we would rather not have to take on this job as well.
Thanks!
We currently have a small problem, nothing serious, but maybe someone knows the answer. We bought an old building whose previous resident (not previous owner; the man only ever lived here – but the house belonged to his partner and after her death to her sons) planted a hedge on the city side back in the 80s. It is about 20 meters of privet hedge, which stands between our property and the city sidewalk, but on city land. The city now claims that the previous resident planted the hedge and that we are now responsible for trimming it. This came up last year when we had someone from the city here for something else and she apparently rummaged through the files, where the original application and the permission for planting are still kept (I saw this myself) – this basically woke the sleeping dogs. The lady said at the time that we were responsible for the hedge and that the hedge had so far been trimmed "by accident." Since then, the green space maintenance came by again last fall but not anymore since, although the hedge used to be maintained twice a year together with the remaining 40 meters of planting on the city side.
Now of course the question arises for us whether we are actually responsible for the hedge. Nothing regarding the hedge or other obligations is regulated in the purchase contract. Does anyone have a hot tip?
And no, we are not going to start a quarrel over this. But the hedge is long, quite difficult to access and does not stand on our property, besides we only found out after the purchase that it was planted by the previous resident... let’s just say, we would rather not have to take on this job as well.
Thanks!