Neighbours 30ft high trees

[Rootsyproblem]

My lovely elderly neighbour has 3 massive evergreen trees in her garden. We've lived here (mid Sussex) for 5 years and in that time they've shot up to 35ft tall. When we moved in she said to let her know if the tree ever caused any bother. Our garden is fully shaded now whereas it used to get the sun. Its a bog at the moment. I'm worried the trees might fall onto our house, and the roots are making our garden uneven.

I've contacted the neighbour to ask if she can get the trees cut. It's a council house and her daughter has phoned the council who said it's the tenants responsibility. I think there's laws on evergreen trees and I have done some googling about where we stand but I can't find anything definitive for my council.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do? I'm not sure we can afford to get them cut ourselves, I'd be happy to go halves but I don't think she can afford to. Feel a bit stuck.

Thanks

I'd speak to her see what she'd be willing to pay to have them removed.
Then find out the cost and see if you can pay an difference.

At least she is willing to get rid of then, you just need to figure out how.

Thanks @Needanewname42 but sadly she can't afford to have then removed and we cannot afford the full cost.

She agrees they're a problem. The council owned houses round here have had a few trees removed recently that were also damaged or very tall so it's frustrating they won't deal with hers. It's hard as the housing company won't speak to me about it as I don't own a council house either so I have to go via her daughter, but I have to post a note for them to then get back to me about so it takes a while each time.

I'm so sad as our beautiful garden is a swamp for our toddlers

I'd phone round for a few quotes and see what she says.
It's all you can do, and if you can only afford to get 1 or 2 out the 3 removed then pick the most annoying.
Or even see what it would be to bring them down in height to a normal fence height.

Did she plant them? Its odd the council aren't taking responsibility if it's a HA home. Our HA deals with trees which were there when the renter moved in

We cut down our 35 foot conifer last year. It cost £1250 but the tree surgeon was adamant he wouldn’t cut it down from march to august due to the risk to nesting birds with chicks.
It finally came down in Oct.

I was really pleasantly surprised how little it cost to significantly cut down some trees when I moved house.worth getting a few quotes.

Can I ask how much you paid? I have a neighbour harassing me to cut down a beautiful tree that I love. He is making my life a misery. No offer to contribute of course!

Can you tackle them yourselves, bit by bit?

I'm guessing she must have planted them. Good idea at the time. Then they've got out of control and it's 100% her responsibility.

Oh gosh I get that there's wildlife in them but I might cry if I have to have a swamp until October!

She's been in the house for years but she told us when she moved in she had never planted anything there, it came as it was (and it is a beautiful garden, there's quite a few flowering trees and plants for a small space)

@KnickerlessParsons I could probably trim a few bits on ground level but I have no way of getting to the top, or even the middle of the tree (and hardly any time with 2 kids under 3 but that's the story of my life!)

Has she been in the house a long time?
I get the feeling she's telling porkies or being economical with the truth saying she didn't plant them (someone else did it for her).

The obvious answer is get them removed but that doesn't look like it will be cheap to have done professionally.
Get a quote and see where that takes you.

Plan B Is put it on Facebook at the end of summer / autumn "free fire wood / Christmas trees, taker to remove". Bound to be some cowboy willing to have a go at getting them down, and have a lovely bonfire!

The only way to get council to help is harass them daily!
Just watch your insurance now though, you might need to declare tree is there especially if you have admitted it's a problem. I don't know what's best but don't let them screw you over if anything happens xx

Only problem with cowboys is they may not have suitable insurance and won’t be covered if they bring the tree/ s down onto your or someone else’s house.

Then it will be an additional and costly issue to resolve.

The council do has a responsibility and they should have a trees department or similar who can deal with it. One of my neighbours had a similar problem with a council house and they did finally sort them. After much much hassling

IME the council always pull this, for as long as possible in the hope you'll go away.

You need to be annoying. Get on their case every day, say its affecting your mental health, you've slipped in the boggy bit, youve tripped up over one of their roots from a tree on their property, the roots are damaging your garden so you want to work with them to reduce future costs to them for repairing your garden etc. You can see it swaying in the wind, you're scared it's going to fall so its affecting you mentally, you can't enjoy your garden etc.

Keep on and on. Raise a formal complaint. Ring them, email them,every single day. Raise another complaint once you get a response from the first one. You'll get action eventually.

What cinched it for me, on top of being a daily PITA, was saying I'd arranged for a tree surgeon to quote for cutting the roots back. They came out 2 days later.