Does anyone live in a house with trees in “striking distance”?

[Harpings]

Looking to buy a house which has quite a few protected trees in striking distance on the house. Not sure how this will affect insurance premiums. Will it be a massive headache for us?

I'm on an estate where there are lots of trees, and any bigger than a certain size automatically have a preservation order on. In our old house we had a beautiful beech tree, taller than the house, with a trunk about 5' in diameter in our 15' garden.
There are a beautiful set of very tall trees (over 30m tall I'm told) through the estate, and houses are built around them.

Some insurance companies will not insure any house on the estate, I'm told. Even our current one, which had no trees that will even tickle the outside edge of the house if they fall directly towards it.
However, we've never had a problem, and no one has not been able to get insurance at all.

Trees do sometimes come down. We had one storm where 4-5 came down, two landing on houses/garages, but it's not common. It's not always predictable, but if you keep them checked regularly, you'll bring the likelihood down.

The biggest issue is that for some houses the roots get into the drains, so it will be worth getting your surveyor to send cameras down. Again, it isn't a problem we've had, but it's the biggest one round here.

We’ve got loads of trees. Many in our garden and then we back onto a small woodland. Insurance has never asked about it.

We do, not our trees though and we are not responsible for any maintenance. Never affected insurance. The way the strong winds blow, they are likely to hit the owners houses anyway.

Your wisest move will be to have a tree surgeon advise and maintain it. They can check the health of the tree, and remove any risky branches/ reduce if needed.

A bigger issue with trees isn't them falling, it's when they die. If you have large trees near your house, you absolutely must take exceptional care of them.

DO. NOT. LET. THEM. DIE.

Tree roots don't actually go very deep, but they do grow out in a circular pattern and can easily spread horizontally over two times further than the actual height of the tree itself. So a 100 foot tall Ash tree may well have a 200 foot root spread.

If a large tree dies, the roots will also die, and eventually (it will take years) they too will collapse. If those root structures are supporting the foundations of your house (which is very likely) then subsidence will follow.

I've never had to answer a question about trees when getting an insurance quote. Did have to answer about our proximity to water courses though.

We did (massive conifer), they had the top 2/3 removed and now while we have a few trees at the end of the garden none would reach the house if they fell.

The main problem we have is lack of light/sunlight. In Summer, the sun goes behind the trees around 4pm and that's it, so not very plesant/light in Summer evenings. So you'd be wise to check the orientation to ensure trees aren't to the West of your patio/decking area.

The other problem we have (Scots pine trees) is the sheer amount of debris, literally hundreds of pine cones and thousands of pine needles (which don't compost). After a gale, we can easily fill our green waste bin with just cones and needles - they don't decompose, so you have to pick them off your lawn/beds or they'll just stay there for years!

Also check if there's a TPO on them. Our council won't even give permission for routine maintenance without a formal application supported by a qualified tree surgeon's report.

Yes they do have tpo on them unfortunately. They are front garden so dont really affect the sunlight in our back garden and all the important living room are in the back so should be ok from Light point of view

I’ve never thought about this, for insurance purposes. Our neighbour has a huge eucalyptus tree in their garden, do I need to tell my insurer about this? We would love them to get rid of it/make it smaller but I can’t see it happening. It also loses a lot of leaves, even in the summer.

Our neighbour has a TPO on her oak tree. I don't know if this is the same everywhere, but she has to fill in an application with the council- to then get it trimmed. It can only be done by a qualified tree surgeon, and only at certain times of the year. She has it done every 2-3yrs- because it goes through the main electrical wires for the street. This year it cost her £1200 (it was £800 3yrs ago)! We are in East Anglia! 😮

I'd get an idea of costs from a tree surgeon in the area- then multiply that by how many trees there are!!!

We live in a conservation area where we need permission to do anything with leaves. Makes no difference to the insurance at all.

We have an absolutely enormous oak in the front garden, at least twice the size of the house. Plus a huge elm in the back garden. Never affected insurance!

I bought my DD and SIL a really nice knife set for Xmas a couple of years ago and as I was showing them what fab, sharp knives I'd bought them, I sliced my finger open.

Totally irrelevant, but your post just reminded me of that

Think I may be on the wrong thread

We do, its never affected the insurance...BUT the mess they leave drives me mad, not to mention EVERYTHING gets covered in sticky sap and they cast such a depressing shadow. The cost for maintaining them has gone from £800 3 years ago to £1200 this year. Honestly, if we ever move ill never buy a house with trees in the vicinity again!.

Same, not an issue at all.

Just check the insurance when you renew. We've shopped around virtually every year and there were never questions about trees in close proximity, but for the last two years, it's been one of the many questions about the property. I didn't notice any price increase because of them, but the insurer could well refuse to pay out a claim if they didn't know you had large trees close to the house, so it's well worth checking with them.

Our trees are about 7 metres away, never had an issue with this in 18 years