Legal loophole plunges elderly woman’s home into darkness

Imagine waking up to a home plunged into perpetual gloom, your once vibrant garden withered, and your driveway a hazard.

For 79-year-old Margaret Broeren, this isn’t a bad dream – it’s her daily reality, all thanks to her neighbour’s out-of-control hedge.

Her heartbreaking story, shared by Yahoo News, exposes a shocking loophole in Australian property law that could be devaluing your home right now.

For over five decades, Ms Broeren has cherished her Newborough property in regional Victoria. But four years ago, a creeping darkness began to consume her home.

A towering hedge, growing unchecked just beyond her shared fence, started to block the precious sunlight, transforming her beloved abode into a shadowed shell, making it hard to see when she’s backing out of her driveway.

Her indoor plants have also withered away from a lack of sunlight.

“I’ve spoken to so many people and I just get told to speak to someone else. No one can be bothered to help, they say it’s not their problem,” Ms Broeren told Yahoo News, explaining she lives alone and the ordeal has impacted her mental health.

MORE NEWS

Aus councils unite to outlaw caravans

Home prices in every Aus suburb revealed

Aus council shock plan to ban popular backyard item

Margaret Broeren feels ‘helpless’ about her neighbour’s hedges towering over her home and blocking sunlight. Source: Google Maps

Repeated attempts to reason with her neighbour have been met with “rude and aggressive” hostility, and the local council has simply washed its hands of the matter, declaring it a private dispute.

“Driving in, I’m worried about getting scratches on my car,” she said.

We can’t trim my hedges back anymore, they’re down to the wood.”

The hidden property killer: A legal black hole

Ms Broeren’s plight highlights one of Australia’s most common, yet frustratingly vague, backyard disputes: overgrown trees and hedges.

While the “right of abatement” allows a homeowner to trim branches back to the fence line at their own cost, it offers little solace when the entire structure of a neighbour’s plant is blocking light and causing a nuisance.

In Victoria, unlike other states such as New South Wales, there are no specific laws preventing a property owner from planting large trees or plants that subsequently overshadow a neighbour’s home.

Ms Broeren now gets no sunlight in her dining room as the hedges continue to cast long shadows over her home. Source: Supplied

This leaves residents like Ms Broeren in a legal black hole, forced to negotiate with uncooperative neighbours or embark on costly and emotionally draining legal battles.

A spokesperson for Latrobe City Council expressed sympathy, when contacted by Yahoo News, but confirmed their inability to intervene.

“Council does not manage disagreements regarding trees or hedges along private property boundaries, with such matters being an issue that should be resolved directly between the neighbours,” the Latrobe City Council spokesperson said.

“In the case of vegetation that is overhanging a person’s property from an adjoining property, trimming of the hedge is allowed back to the fence line along with placing the trimmed branches on the neighbour’s side of the fence.

“This is known as the right of abatement and is completed at the cost of the person undertaking the works.”

She’s contacted her neighbours but to no avail. Source: Supplied

This hands-off approach means homeowners are often left with only two options: mediation through centres like the Dispute Settlement Centre, or a private nuisance claim in the Magistrates Court.

The latter is a significant undertaking, requiring a magistrate to determine if the tree constitutes a nuisance and who bears the costs – a burden many, especially pensioners, simply cannot afford.

The post Legal loophole plunges elderly woman’s home into darkness appeared first on realestate.com.au.