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AIBU?

To ask the man next door to cut down his trees

241 replies

FeynmanDiagram · 08/05/2013 18:27

I'm having some problems with my neighbour and created an account to hopefully get an impartial view from you. I'd be grateful for your feedback.

Approximately five years ago a new neighbour moved next-door to me and inherited a garden that was a bit of a mess. We'd had problems with the previous neighbours garden in that the trees at the foot of the garden overhung quite badly into ours. In the end the we managed to get them to cut them back, but the problems haven't stopped.

Now the same trees are so high that they are blocking the sunlight from getting into my garden in the morning. I'd like to be able to enjoy breakfast in the summer sun from the comfort of my own garden, but can't because of the height and the fact that they are covered in ivy.

Rather than going through the courts, I approached my neighbour and explained the situation and he said he'd go away and look into it. They weekend he came back and said that he'd gotten quotes, but said that he wanted me to pay half!

I told him how in no uncertain terms how ridiculous it would be for me to have to pay for his trees to be fixed when its him that's causing the problem. Especially since I'm on a single income and they are both young professionals with no children.

What are your thoughts? AIBU?

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Blodplod · 26/05/2017 13:57

I have added a picture for perspective but the trees behind the garage/car and fence belong to my neighbour.. when we moved in they were about as tall as the tallest one you see and went alongside the whole boundary out the front of our house (about 40-50ft high/would that be about right?). They definitely blocked out any of our light and our house was covered in green moss as a result. I asked my neighbour if we could cut them back and cut them down.. they were in rows about 4-5 trees thick. It was like a wood really! My neighbours were thrilled! They've never in the 38 years they've lived there spent any money on their house apart from essential maintenance. It took 3 tree surgeons and 15 man days (1 week) to cut them down and we've got enough wood to last us years.. never even considered asking them to deal with it. They got light back into their house which they were delighted with, as were we. Additionally the post and rail is on their boundary but we paid and and arranged it as their old fence was held together with twigs and baling twine and I didn't want their aggressive labs getting into my garden to get to my dog. I think the OP is unreasonable too.