Bamboo in the garden: legal help and advice

Questioner

Good day, Our neighbours have planted bamboo in their own garden against the shared fence. The bamboo is now spreading metres into my garden and the shoots of bamboo are coming up between the joints of the tiles and the wooden decking. Every time I remove the shoots but this is like mopping with the tap on. To solve this problem the garden with bamboo needs to be dug up and a bamboo barrier needs to be placed between us and the neighbours. Since I am absolutely not handy I will have to outsource this to a professional. I have spoken to the neighbours about this and they indicate that this is nature and that they cannot do anything about it. They also want to keep their own bamboo. Can I hold them liable for the damage and the costs I have to incur to have the bamboo dug out + a bamboo barrier installed?

Lawyer

In my opinion, you can rightly take the position that your neighbours are causing you an unlawful nuisance and that is not permitted under neighbour law. In my opinion, the best thing to do is to have the neighbours place a bamboo barrier themselves with compensation for you to solve the problems in your garden. If desired, I can help you with that.

Lawyer

This may be a species that is prohibited for planting as a property boundary, you can check with your municipality. Then a request for enforcement is also an option.