A neighbour has been ordered to pay more than $1000 after causing "unsightly damage" to a hedge overhanging a shared fence.
The owners corporation of a townhouse complex in Canberra took the man to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal after he trimmed the plants which backed onto the rear of his property.
In a decision published on Wednesday, September 16, senior member Emma Morrison said he "caused unsightly damage and gaps in the hedge, reducing privacy and noise protection".
"This goes beyond the 'give and take' that can be reasonably expected between neighbours."
It was not the first time the man had been before the tribunal. In 2025 he was ordered to pay more than $3600 to one of the townhouse owners for the damage to his section of the hedge.
The hedge was planted in 2018-19 and consisted of 19 pittosporum plants.
For the latest case, which focuses only on the plants in the common property section of the shared fence, the owners corporation alleged the neighbour trimmed the hedge without permission and damaged it beyond repair.
It claimed the neighbour trespassed, was negligent and created a private nuisance.
While the owners corporation sought $1750 in damages to replace seven plants, Ms Morrison could not be satisfied they were damaged beyond repair.
The neighbour agreed he trimmed the hedge but disputed it was unreasonable and said it would regrow.
He filed a counterclaim seeking $12,250 but this was dismissed.
In November 2024, the complex's managing agent contacted the unit owner to advise he had received complaints about foliage overhanging the fence.
The owner later contacted the neighbour to organise a time and access to trim the hedge, believing that he "was an older person and could not undertake the trimming himself".
While the unit owner started trimming the hedge, vertical and in line with the fence, he could not complete all the work in one day.
He told the neighbour he would return in a week and left the hedge trimmer.
While he was away, the neighbour used a chainsaw to prune the plants. He reached across and cut the hedge beyond the fence line.
Photographs tendered to the tribunal showed thick stems cut to about 35 centimetres behind the fence and 30 centimetres below the top of the fence.
The neighbour told the tribunal he needed to stand on a box to reach over the fence, and that the chainsaw was very heavy causing him to lose control.
While a landscaper gave evidence that because of the damage the hedge "may die", a horticulturalist said the type of plant responded well to pruning and was expected to regrow.
The senior member found that a reasonable person "would have foreseen the risk that trimming the hedge with a heavy chainsaw was likely to cause harm".
"The overhanging foliage would have been a great source of frustration ... however, I am comfortably satisfied that a reasonable person in his position would have waited until [the other man] returned to finish the job," Ms Morrison said.
