Garden trees too big? neighbour complaint

[Gary C]

DozyGit said:

The problem with trees is never caused by trees themselves, it’s the people who own them.
Lots of it comes to pure selfish ttish behaviour.

1. Tree planted 20m from owners house but 1m from neighbours, why not plant it 1m from your patio door??
2. Trees ideally should be no taller than the distance to the boundary of your neighbours. So if 5m gap keep to 5m tall tree. And keep branches inside boundaries. However tt will have a 30m tree with 5m gap.
3. Manners and law, if you have anything legal doesn’t mean it’s good manners. If your tree sheds or shades, sort it.
4. Privacy idiots, a long time ago curtains and blinds were invented. You don’t need a conifer hedge.

England expects people to be well mannered and polite, so we don’t have silly laws, but I guess soon we will need laws like,
Strict liability for trees with 25% of value of home escrowed by council to pay. Immediately you will see well maintained trees and good garden manners.

When I look at a house if it has oversized trees for garden I knock off circa 2-5k off the value, a giant conifer 10k off. This will pay for its removal and making amends with the punished neighbours.

In urban gardens go for shrubs and you can prune them to look like a tree. Maintenance is the key, beautiful gardens need pruning, pollarding and cleaning. If someone has to ask you to do something, you are inconsiderate in most cases. People leave notes because in the UK we don’t jump queues nor do we speak in a silent coach. Gardens are gardens not forests.
OP sounds reasonable, just cut them down and get along with your neighbours. I did the same and my neighbours (retired) even drove 60miles both ways to pick wife up when my car broke down on the motorway at 1am. Chopping the forest blocking daylight to their windows was the right thing to do. Did they have to ask, no. I saw the problem and fixed it once I moved, they thanked me. Were wondering how to approach it.

Humm,

Our house has three very very big ash and beech trees. They drop huge amounts of leaves that us and the neighbours have to clean up,every year.

They were there before the houses were built and a just part of the nature of the area. Each person knew they were there before they moved in and we are not allowed to cut them down.

I have to keep an eye on them and am liable for them and as they spread across a lane to the rear I need to ensure there are no dead branches that could fall, but if someone put a note through the door about them, I'd shove it up their arse.

To the OP, at 15m how long has this tree been there ?

[8-P]

My neighbour has 3 trees along my border, they block the easterly sun but they also block him and beyond so I have a bit of a love hate relationship with his boundary. What annoys me is he doesnt give a crap about his garden so I have to ask him to get them cut when they get out of control which they do - one is a conifer that grows like a lleylandi it gets stragerly. Ive offered to help him stay on top of them as Ive got some high reach electric trimmers but hes too lazy to even do that. Eventually I had to ask him to get them chopped which he did but they did a poor job. No need for letter though, we just talk - makes things easy. Think of it from your neighbours point of view though.

As for the leaves, thats tough luck and hardly the end of the world now.

[PurpleTurtle]

Uggers said:

I have a tree over the wall from me that was starting to get a bit big. But it was growing slowly and steadily for 5 years without much of a problem.

Spoke with the neighbour and he was happy for me to cut it down to a sensible level to let a bit more light in. Since I have done this every year now I have to get the thing cut back, seems to take cutting back as some sort of invitation to grow at 3 times the rate it used to!

Wish I'd not bothered now to be honest.

In your position I'd go speak to the old guy. Tell him with xmas coming up and it been a busy time that it will be on the back burner until next year but promise to address it. Most the leaves have already dropped by now, so if he's reasonable he'd see there is nothing to be gained by doing it right now. Use it as an opportunity to get to know the neighbour too!

Good idea, but be sure to set the level of expectation. My parents are late 70’s and have gone from being relaxed carefree types to constantly obsessing about the most trivial things on a daily basis. Both of them still have their faculties but I just think neither has enough hobbies or interests to occupy their time, they have completely forgotten what it was like to lead a busy working life. If they were the OP’s neighbours they’d be asking him every other day about when he’d be getting round to it!

[Kermit power]

g3org3y said:

I love our trees, but I must admit the constant collecting of leaves in the autumn is a chore. It is however a minor grumble for an otherwise lovely benefit.

Why do you feel the need to collect them, out of interest? Can't they just be left to rot away and replenish the soil?

In the event that there's a very obvious answer, my defence is that we don't have any deciduous trees in our garden!

[nonsequitur]

Robertj21a said:

Just a general aside. I guess that there's no maximum permitted height for a tree in an urban environment, just as long as it's 'safe' ? Some are so very high that I wouldn't have any idea how the top could be lopped.
Can/do the council step in if it's a very tall tree, in a private garden, where there are concerns over its safety ?

Many local authorities have a 2 metre limit on Conifer / Lieylandi due to the problems they can cause. I've just had a major cut back on all my trees with a cost of £750. The garden looks great.

[treehack]

FiF said:

To set the OP's mind at rest re costs, but no neighbour dispute here, we recently had the council parks dept in to remove one tree, same height as house, and sort out the shape of 5 others, including one a cherry blossom which had got out of hand and was exhibiting some die back.

They weren't the cheapest I guess but it avoiding all the competition, either expensive or members of All Oirland Caravan club, plus stuff properly disposed of. They rocked up, took a day, proper trained arborist, £360. Four guys.

I was happy with that.

Edited to add, tell the neighbour you are going to consult with an arborist as to suggestion what to do and when. In order to get an

Edited by FiF on Sunday 18th November 16:47

£360 for a 4man team for a day is insane. Think about it, 4 people's wages, insurance, vehicles, plant, maintenance, training, the list goes on and on out of £360 is not possible, unless you are using public funds to support these activities.

[nonsequitur]

Kermit power said:

g3org3y said:

I love our trees, but I must admit the constant collecting of leaves in the autumn is a chore. It is however a minor grumble for an otherwise lovely benefit.

Why do you feel the need to collect them, out of interest? Can't they just be left to rot away and replenish the soil?

In the event that there's a very obvious answer, my defence is that we don't have any deciduous trees in our garden!

Leaving leaves can cause problems. On soil they can be absorbed after being broken up naturally by frost snow and rain. On lawns they can prevent sunlight and other natural effects from reaching the grass and cause damage. A lot of leaves willl be blown away by the wind, but others can hang around for months.

Thank you Percy.

[g3org3y]

Kermit power said:

g3org3y said:

I love our trees, but I must admit the constant collecting of leaves in the autumn is a chore. It is however a minor grumble for an otherwise lovely benefit.

Why do you feel the need to collect them, out of interest? Can't they just be left to rot away and replenish the soil?

In the event that there's a very obvious answer, my defence is that we don't have any deciduous trees in our garden!

I understand that if they are numerous they will block too much of the sunlight so weaken the grass. Consequently moss is more likely to flourish. In addition, if the layer is quite thick they can act to 'suffocate' (for want of a better word) the grass.

More info here: https://www.lawnsmith.co.uk/topic/lawn-cuttings/le...

Once collected they can be mulched down and spread to nourish the soil.

I bought a leaf vacuum but the leaves need to be quite dry otherwise they clog the mechanism. Plus it's corded and I'm too lazy to get out the extension lead etc. As such, it's all about the raking.

[FiF]

treehack said:

£360 for a 4man team for a day is insane. Think about it, 4 people's wages, insurance, vehicles, plant, maintenance, training, the list goes on and on out of £360 is not possible, unless you are using public funds to support these activities.

I don't doubt you, it was originally quoted on the basis of two guys for a day, which I was happy with and didn't seem out of the way. They'd quoted £80 to sort a single tree out for a neighbour.

Surprised when four turned up, I guess they had nothing on, but who am I to argue? They got a good tip each on top mind, plus probably about 40 quids worth of tea, joking of course, only slightly.

Councils I suppose, not very efficient, had to remind them to send me a bill.

[Cheib]

I’ve got a similar issue to the OP. Have a line of fir trees in our front garden next to our boundary wall. The lady next door has asked if we can get them reduced in size as they are shading her garden/house and also says that she had an issue with subsidence quite a few years ago which she says was caused by the trees. I don’t know anything about the latter but i do know that two larger trees that were also near her hoose were felled as there were a couple of tress stumps a bit further along the wall. I’d say the trees are less than 20 ft from her house.

I don’t mind particularly getting them reduced in size a bit but they do provide good screening/privacy for us.

[So]

g3org3y said:

I like trees. We have trees. Neighbour has trees.

Look lovely, leaves are a bugger though. Our leaves up in in neighbour's garden. Neighbour's leaves end up in our garden. Lots of raking/collecting in the autumn.

Crikey, the council houses in Essex are posher than those around here. Trees! and not a sniff of an abandoned sofa.

[MrChips]

To add another story in the mix. We have a neighbour at the bottom of the garden with a very large oak, blocks all the light for our next door neighbours but only a small amount of ours. Next door isn't one to raise concerns with people so i popped over to see the owners on their behalf. All amicable, and found out the tree had a TPO on it.
I think the owners are now waiting/hoping it falls over rather than have to pay council approved contractors to come and trim it, so even after chatting with them, nothing has changed and it continues to grow.

Ultimately i'll have to wait until it actually causes me an issue and then raise it with them again. I'd be happy to contribute towards the costs if we can gain the view of a nice size/shape oak tree as it was about 5-6 yrs ago!

[treehack]

MrChips said:

I think the owners are now waiting/hoping it falls over rather than have to pay council approved contractors to come and trim it,

You don't have to use council approved contractors just because the is a TPO present. Once permission to carry out work is granted then you can use any contractor you like, as long as work is carried out to BS3998 specs.

[g3org3y]

So said:

Crikey, the council houses in Essex are posher than those around here. Trees! and not a sniff of an abandoned sofa.

This is norf Essex, we iz more classy up here.