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Original poster

Last fucking straw

591 replies

sarahC40 · 09/03/2021 15:34

Handhold please and advice (on how not to utterly lose my shit or get arrested for this). It’s not been a great lockdown.

Saving Grace: my garden. Lovely tree, probably in the wrong place but predates the houses, was cut down without warning, so that my view, which was of said lovely tree, is now of the back of someone’s house. They have now closed all of their blinds because, yes, we are now overlooking each other.

The tree is in no man’s land between the gardens - it doesn’t belong to them. They’ve got down everything that overhung my garden (my son woke up to find men climbing over my fence and most of tree gone) and they’ve left a twenty foot high stump. My other neighbours were open mouthed in shock, so this isn’t just me sounding off; it’s horrendous.

I know there’s nothing that I can do, but I would like some vengeful suggestions that I won’t act on but will help me as I try to stop crying at the fucking awful sight of their fugly house.

OP posts:
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Peachee · 09/03/2021 17:54

If it was me I would weep a little.. get myself together a plant a row of quick growing trees at the end of my garden. Now. So they grow soon and you haven’t got to look at said fugly house. I’m so sorry about this it’s such a shame xx

RickiTarr · 09/03/2021 17:55

Take legal action if you can. Don’t let them just get away with it.

neverreachingtheend · 09/03/2021 17:55

Call the police. If it wasn't their tree, they are not allowed to cut it down.

You have my sympathy, my neighbours instructed their hedge cutters to take height of my hedge growing on my land, behind their fence. Also illegal, which we told them nicely.

Cutting down property that you don't own is illegal, as in your case.

Shenadoah · 09/03/2021 17:56

Totally feel for you. I know it goes against the norm, but we have a eucalyptus and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It grew fantastically fast (which was what we needed) but we now get it pruned every other year which means that a) it is kept at the perfect height for us not being overlooked and b) it is never big enough to be complained about by other people!

wandawombat · 09/03/2021 17:56

Yep, we had people move into a house that backs onto our garden with a couple of big oaks. They've been hacking away at them and now they are spindly and very tall. Look totally unsafe. Last bird season they got tossers in, who cut branches with actual nests on. I'd have taken a video but I didn't think they'd actually cut away branches like that. Like you, I'm distraught. The house owners just seem to want to have these sterile tidy places, rather than gardens.

I'm getting to the point I hyperventilate at the sound of chainsaws, particularly after the council let an insurance company cut a massive local oak down...even the council tree man said it was a travesty.

Definitely have a word with your council tree bloke.

Dentistlakes · 09/03/2021 17:59

I’m surprised the tree surgeon would do it if they couldn’t prove ownership or that all the adjacent properties has agreed to it. We recently tried to get a tree taken down and the tree surgeon refused on the grounds it’s a conservation area. They seem to be very careful about what they will and won’t do.

I would look further into the legality of what they’ve done OP.

Kdubs1981 · 09/03/2021 18:02

@SplendidSuns1000

How crap of them!

In my old house we had a lovely blossoming cherry tree on our driveway. Came home after a weekend away to find new NDN had cut it down and dug up the stump as they were replacing the original victorian railings between our driveways with horrific grey fencing. The tree was growing into the railings and so they removed it all. The railings belonged to us as well as the tree and they'd taken them to a scrap metal place! It was a young couple who eventually got in a lot more trouble when they took out and replaced the windows with plastic double glazed monstrosities in their grade 2 listed building.

If we're talking about arson I'd like to chuck them in your neighbour's shed before we set it alight please!

What the actual fuck?! There would have been murder! Murder, I tell you.
Kdubs1981 · 09/03/2021 18:04

@mrshonda

Plant crocus bulbs on their lawn to spell out 'Fuck Off' when they flower next year.
Winner!
BeforetheFlood · 09/03/2021 18:04

My NDN also living in listed building did loads of work without planning permission including replacing wooden window frames for plastic. They were taken to court and got criminal records so lost their teaching jobs, could no longer get insurance on cars etc and couldn’t get credit cards or mortgages. Just because you own a property doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want to without consulting others. That includes cutting down or trimming certain trees

I have massive envy Camphillgirl. We live in a street of listed buildings, within a conservation area, and our ndn on one side uses their property as a business and has cut down all the trees for parking, and remodelled the house without any permissions, including ripping out original georgian staircases and fireplaces and replacing wooden windows with plastic. The council couldn't give a toss. I have tried to get something done about it several times, but no one is interested. On the other side, planning permission has just been granted to build a 5 bedroom house in the garden (conservation area), which means - you guessed it - cutting down all the trees. Again, we made a detailed objection based on professional advice, but it went through.

I guess some councils are on it, and some are not. Sad Sad

Pbbananabagel · 09/03/2021 18:07

@SplendidSuns1000 We seriously need to know what happened after this?!

ArcheryAnnie · 09/03/2021 18:08

@Reinventinganna

Interesting to read about not being allowed to cut down trees this time of year, we have a new person in the village who has taken down around 30 trees around the boundary of their home. It’s so sad to see.
Report them, Reinventinganna!
WalkingAfterMidnight · 09/03/2021 18:09

How awful - totally understand your upset when it is something that can’t easily or immediately be rectified.

billybagpuss · 09/03/2021 18:10

Just had the same conversation with my neighbour as her behind neighbours cut down all the trees that were screening their garden.

I suggest you rent your garden out to a nudist colony.

Hoping the tree grows back.

CaptainNelson · 09/03/2021 18:14

I wouldn't plant a eucalypt. They're not native and can become very invasive. For wildlife, I'd do as a PP suggested an plant a lovely mixed hedgerow, on your side of the boundary, which you can allow to grow quite tall. And then many plant something like a copper beech on your side as well, so the neighbour can't do anything. Not fast growing, but beeches are fantastic for wildlife.
Also agree the ash could well sprout again, so get in touch with your local tree warden and get a TPO on it, or a conservation order. The latter is easier to get but means no-one can do anything to it without council permission - and you have to plant something in its stead.

TheDogsMother · 09/03/2021 18:15

I had new neighbours move in opposite who came over one Saturday and gave us 20 minutes notice that they were taking down a glorious willow that was my entire view from upstairs. They timed it so I couldn't get advice from the council on a Saturday. Bastards.

The prize goes to mrshonda

Jesus splendid they took out the original railings ! That would have been murder.

CaptainNelson · 09/03/2021 18:15

@EvilPea

I have this odd thought about our gardens that they don’t really belong to us, that we are merely custodians for the local wildlife.
Couldn't agree more!
polkadotpixie · 09/03/2021 18:16

I would be livid too but if it helps, my DM had her ash tree equally butchered and 4 years later it's bigger than ever! She's furious because she hates it 😂

Sitchervice · 09/03/2021 18:19

@sarahC40 if you can prove it was your tree, please look up tree law and take legal action

ChardonnaysPetDragon · 09/03/2021 18:22

There is a special place in hell for people like this.

It's hot, full sun, no shade, no water and no air to breathe. Hope they will like it there.

CaptainNelson · 09/03/2021 18:22

@RainingBatsAndFrogs

OP: are you going to do the one thing that you actually have power to do and which could end up costing them?

It is unlikely that a mature ash tree would not have a tree preservation order on it. They could be fined, a lot.

Contact your council.

Not true. We have several ash trees - none of them have TPOs. We are in a conservation area though
ChardonnaysPetDragon · 09/03/2021 18:23

I’m surprised the tree surgeon would do it if they couldn’t prove ownership or that all the adjacent properties has agreed to it. We recently tried to get a tree taken down and the tree surgeon refused on the grounds it’s a conservation area. They seem to be very careful about what they will and won’t do.

As if tree surgeons care. It's about the money.

5zeds · 09/03/2021 18:23

Sorry only read first few weeks ages. Will it not be an attempt at pollarding the ash? They bounce back and get a stocky trunk and a big head of green leaves. It’s often done to reduce size.

MrMucker · 09/03/2021 18:29

a 20 foot stump is not cutting down a tree, it is pollarding.

moanieleminx · 09/03/2021 18:30

Awful! I would contact the council pronto.

Did they use a tree surgeon?

MrMucker · 09/03/2021 18:32

Posted that too quickly oops.
An ash tree will seed all around and in additional swathes wherever the wind blows. They are a bloody nuisance. If you chop it back then it is less of an issue.
Ash is the fastest growing tree in the UK. It is also the only wood which you can use "green", so it is frequently hacked back both for maintenance and for use.
You don't need to get het up about it-give it three months and it will be growing like the clappers.