Neighbourhood Mediation

Keep communities on amicable terms

Neighbourhood disputes can cause a great deal of bad feeling between people.

Mediation is a quick, cost-effective, and private method of resolving your dispute, saving you from the stresses and costs of court or formal action. An expert mediator can get you and your neighbours talking again: clearing up misunderstandings, agreeing practical steps for how to make things better between you, and moving on from your disagreements.

Neighbourhood mediation is used to address:

Noise and anti-social behaviour
Boundary disputes
Disputes over hedges, trees, and fences
Parking and shared access
Upkeep of communal areas

And benefits include:

Working relationships are preserved, improved, and future-proofed
Costly and time-consuming formal action is avoided
Tenancies can be retained

How does it work?

1. Referring a case

A completed referral form, providing us with details of the dispute and of the parties, and a signed booking form all are that is needed to book in the case.

2. Before the mediation

The case manager will liaise with the referrer to organise the logistics, including timings, contact information, and online links (if required).

3. Individual meetings

The mediator will meet with each party individually to discuss the dispute to date. These private sessions will last for approximately 1½ hours each.

4. Joint meeting

Getting parties together for half a day allows for a comprehensive airing of views, as well as a discussion with a view to building an agreement.

5. The agreement

The agreement is a joint plan of action decided upon by the participants. The mediator can write it up as a good faith agreement to give to both parties.

6. Feeding back

If there is a third-party referrer, UK Mediation will provide them with a Mediation Summary on the next working day (subject to parties’ consent).

7. Follow-up

The case manager will follow up the situation after an agreed period by contacting the parties confidentially to see if the agreement is working.

Neighbourhood mediation FAQs

We understand that you may have some queries about how neighbourhood mediation works.

We’ve answered some of the most Frequently Asked Questions below.

What sorts of disputes can neighbourhood mediation be used for?

Neighbourhood mediation is effective at resolving disputes around boundaries, communal areas, high hedges and trees, and parking access, among other such issues.

It can help to re-open communication, promote honest and open dialogue, and help neighbours to see each others' points of view. The mediator is not there to review evidence, nor to make a legally-binding decision on who is right or wrong.

Does neighbourhood mediation work?

Simply put, yes.

We have been resolving neighbour disputes for over 23 years now, both privately between neighbours or in partnership with housing associations/local authorities.

The vast majority of cases end with some sort of future-focused agreement being written up, and the feedback we receive from parties speaks for itself.

Can neighbourhood mediation be done online?

Successful neighbourhood mediation cases can indeed be delivered online. Even now, we continue to deliver a small percentage of our neighbourhood mediation cases online. Feedback has been excellent and we continue to see superb results for the parties.

However, if given the choice between the two (online or face-to-face), we would still recommend having the mediation face-to-face. We find that that the physical human element can be extremely valuable and getting people together in a room often yields the most benefits.

Can neighbourhood mediation be done over the phone?

Yes - for neighbourhood disputes with only one or two simple issues, we can offer a two-hour telephone mediation process. Here, the mediator shuttles between phone calls with the parties, passing across offers, messages, options, and requests.

Please get in touch if you are interested in telephone mediation.

Is neighbourhood mediation confidential?

Yes, we ask parties to sign a Liability and Confidentiality Agreement on the day of the mediation, to make sure that whatever is said goes no further.

In addition, all notes related to the case are disposed of upon completion.

Is neighbourhood mediation voluntary?

Yes, people cannot be made to take part in neighbourhood mediation.

If parties are coerced or forced to take part on the day, we find that this often hinders the result of the mediation and makes it less likely to arrive at a successful conclusion.

What we will say, however, is that mediation is strongly recommended if things progress towards court.

Can a solicitor attend the neighbourhood mediation?

It is strongly advised that parties attend on their own to promote honest and open communication.

Our relational model of mediation...

Here at UK Mediation, we treat conflict as a failure of dialogue and as a breakdown in a relationship.

Our relational model, re:talk, aims to restore dialogue, repair relationships, and rebuild teams, while re:connect allows us to achieve the same objectives through online mediation.

What our clients say

"We have always found UK Mediation to be professional, helpful, and responsive with their services."

Sue Packman Nottingham Community Housing Association

"Another successful case! Do thank the mediator for me."

Maria Jacobs Moat Homes

"Mediation is a very emotional process. I would like to thank the mediator for their time, understanding, and impartial character throughout the entire process."