Neighbour’s tree is basically living rent-free in our garden — now she’s offered us a leaf blower 🙃

I don't think you can easily force her to pay. Yes she should get it done, at her own expense, but since she won't I think your rights are basically to get your own work done on the tree, up to the boundary, assuming there is no TPO.

Thankfully everyone round here are much better neighbours and do pay for the work on their own trees. But tree surgeons tend to cost hundreds at least, and some people just can't stretch to it. As long as it's not overhanging a public road you're more or less on your own.

If you are planning to get it done yourselves check for TPOs and keep her fully informed. Tread carefully, these things can cause massive fallings out between neighbours.

We have a line of beautiful old trees on the fence line at the bottom of the garden. Most are hundreds of years old and have TPO's on them but the FB posts about them are unreal, branches going to kill small children and dogs, suing The Council, lack of light etc etc.
Occasionally a near neighbour will get them trimmed back ( Illegally in some cases) and ask if we want to get ours done and reduce costs but its always a no from us and after around 6 months of reduced privacy for them they grow back just the same anyway

Now the roots are pushing up our fence, and the leaves are back in full force.

Yes the leaves will be back 'in full force' EVERY SPRING FOREVER that is normal for trees

Is this for real? She's not taking the piss, exactly....

YOU bought the house! The tree was there! What did you think would happen? That she would come and remove the leaves in autumn for you? Nobody does that.

Talk to her and tell her you're having serious problems (roots damaging fences is a serious problem) and you need to come to a compromise. Bring the names and numbers of a few tree surgeons. Say you'd like her to at least get a consultation about what she can do about it. She won't like it because it potentially means her paying for something that doesn't really bother her and she doesn't have to deal with. But if you're smart and charming then she can hardly refuse to at least talk to a couple of experts.

I've dealt with this problem in that I have a neighbour who bought his house next to a big tree in my garden which doesn't overhang but does shade his garden somewhat. I didn't mind having it reduced a little but he would like it reduced a lot more - however my view is he bought the house with a large, 100-year-old tree right there, so that's on him. I have taken advice from a tree surgeon and done what the expert was comfortable doing so as not to harm the tree.

HE has a tree which (because of prevailing winds) drops most of its leaves and brash in my garden and I have never once complained because I could plainly see the tree when I bought the house, so it is what it is. I rot down the leaves for leaf mould, and I pile up the twiggy bits at the end of the garden for insect habitat.

If our neighbours' trees overhang our fences too much I trim them (obviously not between March and September because birds). I don't ask permission because I dont have to. But mostly I just enjoy them.

You could replace your fence panel with one that has a cut out to allow for the roots.

No need to over dramatise it.

A neighbour of ours bitterly objected to our mature beech that overhangs his small garden. There’s a TPO on it, so we had to get permission even to thin it, which was allowed.
However it would have cost several hundred ££ and although we offered to split, he didn’t want to pay. so it didn’t happen.
The tree was there when he bought the house not that long ago, so IMO he should have realised the implications.
One of the things he objected to was the noise of squirrels in autumn, dropping beechmast (nut) shells on his decking. Not much we could do about that!

Agree with this. Talk about it as if it's a fait accompli.

doubt it suddenly has new roots pushing up your fence. At the risk of stating the patently obvious, tree roots do grow bigger over time.

I think you’re supposed to ask if she wants them rather than just putting them over the fence.

Trees are lovely but some are too big for the space they are planted in. This is not really the fault of the tree.

If the tree is big, then in all likelyhood it was there a long time before you moved in. It has more right to the space than you do.

Look up on the gov site for information on what you can and can't do with overhanging trees in your garden and more info on things like who is responsible for damage the tree may cause.

Wouldn't bother me at all then again i love trees.
Having spent many years living next to a busy road.
I am now surrounded with huge trees that give me plenty of privacy.

But we can’t in good conscience pull it down.

I would. Then put in a few smaller ones. The right tree in the right place is key. But it would be really hard to do without disturbing all the birds. Neighbours around us have removed mahoosive leylandii for good reasons but they housed a lot of pigeons and it made me sad.

Does she know about the roots pushing the fence up? I'd be having another (nice) chat and going 'hey so I'm not sure i made myself clear last time, the roots are damaging our fence, just wanted to check on timescales for you sorting that out as we've got a few holidays booked this summer and wanted to make sure we're around for when you get the surgeon round to sort that out?' Basically talking as if it's a done deal, as it's harder for her to brush it off? Apologies if you have already tried this!

This ^

Was the tree there when you moved in? What did you expect? Why put a fence right next to a growing tree in the first place?

I imagine the tree was there before you, and doubt it suddenly has new roots pushing up your fence. How about you calm down and enjoy having a beautiful tree to admire? But yes, you can legally remove any overhanging branches if leaves cause you such anxiety.

We have lots of trees, many over 250 years old and quite a few with TPOs. A new estate was built behind our garden and my god, the tizzy some of the neighbours get into over our trees! They don't overhang and they were there first, but "they block the light", "they're not safe", "leaves land on my lawn", "I'm frightened to let my grandchildren play in the garden".

We need trees, trees are beautiful, trees are essential. How did humans get to a point where we can't accept leaves falling from trees ffs? And where we prefer plastic grass to the real thing?!

cut it yourself and throw the cut off bits over her fence

She certainly isn't taking you seriously, is she? I would be annoyed by the offer of a leafblower too, she's either taking the piss or not quite with it...

I would point out to her that you are entitled to cut off branches that are overhanging your property and that if you do, it will unbalance the tree. I would definitely point out the damage to the fence as well, if this is yours then she should compensate you for repairs to it. What species of tree is it? Some are notorious for causing troubles with surface roots (cherries, I'm looking at you) but any planted too close to structures can cause issues.

The leaves falling in autumn is just one of those things. I actually sweep all in my garden up and bag them - they rot down in black plastic bags and you can just stick them behind a shed out of the way for a couple of years, then put the result on the beds/borders. Or sell it if you'd rather. I wouldn't put it in my garden waste bin as I use that for stuff I don't want in my compost heap.

I get it’s annoying. But seriously we do need trees to breathe.

You should see where we live. It’s dire. Our garden is 5m in length from the house and we have 20m tree in it. It’s annoying. Literally right next to the house. Squirrels jump to our roof and often pull tiles and enter the attic / cause leaks. South facing so blocks all the light.

But we can’t in good conscience pull it down. All the surrounding houses have removed every tree. It’s a hideous sea of fence work for about half a mile in every direction. Our last remaining tree keeps all the local birds. We have crows, a variety of tits, blackbirds and sparrows. And unfortunately some pigeons.

And actually we realised if we did remove the tree the garden would feel teeny tiny. Trees actually give this odd optical illusion of lowering the ‘ceiling’. It’s why an inside room feels huge but that same space outside feels like nothing because you perceive it in relation to the infinite sky. So a tree will often make it feel much larger than it is.

I am not trying to berate you with all this. Just wondering if it helps to reframe it. Yes it is annoying. But also super important and there are some benefits for you that you might not realise.

Even if a tree has a TPO or is in a conservation area you can apply to have it trimmed. And you are entitled to cut back the overhanging branches.
Unfortunately that is all at your cost and there's not much you can do about that. You are also not able to charge for disposal of their tree leaves and nor are you actually allow to throw it back over. You can offer them the cuttings back but you can't just dump them.

*OFFER them back. Lots of people think they can just chuck them over, but that's actually classed as fly-tipping.

BTW, document the damage to the fence and put something in writing to her that you are concerned her tree is going to damage the fence and that you want her to do something to stop it. It might make her think a little more clearly

You’re supposed to trim the branches and give them back to her over the fence

if the roots are causing damage and it’s interfering with your right to light you need to take legal advice

The tree might have a TPO on it.

You can turn the autumn leaves into nature's gift, leaf mold for the cost of a few bin liners.

Photo?

Would cutting it right back to her property line be possible and would it help?

Ive several large trees and I pay to have them maintained and cut back regularly so they don’t annoy my neighbours. I’ve also paid to remove some ugly evergreen trees that some idiotic previous owner had planted right next to the boundary. It’s normal decent behaviour.