Bought a small holding the owners are chopping down the trees.

They are, but nothing has been sold yet. There isn't even an agreed contract to sell or buy, specifying what is and what isn't for sale. But the OP ought to phone the sellers and say no trees, no sale, if that's what they want.

If they are paying tree surgeons (team of 2 is £750 to £800 per day), then what it costs them plus time and money to split the logs, plus time and space to season the wood (it being illegal to sell unseasoned firewood) then I can't see how they could make any money out of it with seasoned bulk firewood costing £150 per m2.

The only way selling firewood is profitable is if you are already getting paid to remove say ash die back trees and the owners don't want the wood. Even then there's very little money in it.

Was the property advertised in the details as having an orchard? If so your solicitor should act upon this fact surely? As obviously there’s just a bit of land now and no trees if they’re chopping them all down. I’d be absolutely gutted.

You need a felling licence to chop down any large trees. They could report to forestry commission or Welsh/Scottish equivalents

It's the sort of idiot behaviour farmers and others of that ilk are all to prone to getting up to

There are licenses required if you cut more than a certain area of woodland

The vendor could be in all manner of trouble which the buyers may inherit

Pull out and report the matter to the Forestry Commission

I wouldn't have any more to do with these people.

If the value is degraded in your opinion, then you can adjust the offer you made till you re satisfied. This might mean walking away, which is better than being very unhappy with what you bought.

I would speak to both the estate agent and solicitor, if no response then I’d be pulling out as it sounds like the trees were an important/desirable part of the land and sounds like the family won’t be easy to deal with. Even though it’s their right to do it, it’s normal to want to buy something that is in the same state as when you viewed/offered on it. I would not be very pleased if the owner of a house I’d offered on replace all their double glazing with single glazing for example, even though they’re allowed to do it

It seems to me that the last sibling was left behind as the carer and ‘believed’ (wrongly as it turned out) would continue to live in the property.

POA probably held by all siblings allowed two of the siblings to decide to sell overruling the one who has undertaken all caring responsibility who is now aggrieved and taking vengeance to block the sale.

The solicitor should find out who the vendors are ie whether all the holders of the POA or just one or two overruling and acting with out overall consent.

It looks a mess. The solicitor conveyancer has not undertaken professional due diligence to establish whether the property can be sold.

Tell them through your solicitor you understood the trees were part of the sale-, or talk to them yourself and say you will withdraw from the sale.

Anyone can take out a TPO on trees, they don’t have to own them @justasking111 contact the Local Authority.
They will send out an emergency prevention/protection order, so the current owner (and their children) will have to cease all tree removal immediately until an inspector gets out to see the trees.

TPOs are indefinite, so the new owners will have to get permission to remove the trees if they are diseased. In some cases they will need permission to trim the trees, although this is usually granted.

Worryingly, anyone can also take out planning permission on a property they don’t own. They obviously cannot do or build anything on that land but nonetheless it bothers me!

Are they cutting them for boxwood or something worth considerable amounts when sold?

I would ask my solicitor to ask their solicitor for clarity on the situation - so much more useful than speculation on Mumsnet!

I think the idea of another visit is good too.

Solicitor should make it very clear that the sale is at serious risk because of this.

What absolute bullshit.

Who are these people cutting down all these trees again?

Oh, they're country folk.

It’s still their property, they can do what they want. It’s a bit shitty as it was offered with the trees in place but nothing your friend can do about it. At the end of the day, your friend could still walk away with no penalty.

My guess is the child cutting the trees doesn't want to sell, but can't afford to pay out his siblings. He doesn't care if sale falls through, as it means his siblings don't get the money. He feels he should have been left it lock stock and barrel, as the child that stayed at home, and is on self destruct mode. All guesswork admittedly, but this is how it reads to me (based on people with this mindset I've met).

I know of a similar case. The son removed a boiler, and every socket and light fitting, pulled lots of electrical cable out of sockets and lights, sold radiators. Madness. A friend's relative was the purchaser and discovered on moving on day.

They won a court case and were awarded damages, but the house was uninhabitable when they turned up with all their belongings, 2 children 2 cats and a dog. A 10 year old house needed rewired and all sorts doing, because they had asked for the trees to be left alone. It ruined the place for them with all the bad feeling and work needing doing immediately.

I don't know how much they got, but it would never have been enough for me!

Haven't RTFT, sorry, but I watched a Sandi Toksvig programme recently where she re-wilded an area of forestry, and part of that was cutting down trees intentionally.
Admittedly it doesn't sound like it's being done in the interests of the land but if the buyers are really that keen could they maybe get whatever the appropriate expert is in to have a look and advise how much damage has been done, so they can make a decision if they wish to proceed or not?

If they're felling the lot for timber/firewood, then you don't hire a tree surgeon for that.

You sell it to someone who deals in timber/firewood, and they come and take it down themselves if you havent the skill/gear to do that.

So no need for storage or skill or extra folks, the timber merchant pays a lower price for standing wood vs already felled, logged, loaded etc.

Or, the seller is a total idiot instead of a cunty fucker, and tries to take it down himself, having heard on the grapevine that firewood is going for however much, not realising thats split, bagged etc (its currently around 100 a tonne here for seasoned dried logs) and not wet whole trees on the ground that still need processing.

The price per tonne for firewood though is irrelevant, the buyer needs to drop the price offered by the value of mature standing trees which is significantly higher because they take so long to get to be mature standing trees.

Honestly I would pull out reading all your updates. If the present owners are that attached to the land they going to be an nightmare to get rid of after exchange. Pull out and find somewhere else. Life too short for this sort of stress. Those poor trees

Additionally what can happen is that the wood is sold while still standing and its the buyer's responsibility to fell it and remove it. It would be easy enough to find out if the trees are protected but if the timber has been sold standing then it will be a company doing it and you can bet they would have checked beforehand as an error could cost them dearly. once they have purchased the trees regardless of who owns the land, they are responsible for any TPO compliance so they could end up with a lot of timber which they cannot remove and no one will want to buy while standing.

Depends on the tree. Wood is very expensive at the moment. The OP mentions Elm ? Valuable wood if so, there are v few mature Elms in the UK.
They sound the sort of tree species that could be cut for timber, rather than firewood, especially as they are healthy trees, and if so this makes them worth a tidy sum of money. Even firewood, eg decent logs, is not cheap any more.

🙄