To ask the man next door to cut down his trees

[FeynmanDiagram]

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?

[TidyDancer]

You want to ask your other neighbour to pay so you pay nothing?!

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

OP, I don't think you read my posts properly, your neighbours trees would not come under the High Hedge Legislation as they are not evergreen or semi evergreen.

I can't actually tell what trees they are from your photo but I would be pretty sure they are deciduous trees.

[MrsOakenshield]

so, you now want another neighbour to pay instead? What?? Or get them to offer to go halves and you'll give them the money - I hope that's what you mean!

[LazyMonkeyButler]

OMG, so now you accept that your neighbour was being generous offering to pay half and you are trying to off load the other half of the bill onto another neighbour?

Just how rude, selfish & entitled are you?

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

If you remove the ivy and think few of the lower branches it would make a big. Difference and would not cost much at all. You could offer to clear the ivy yourself.

Ivy is great for wildlife but it can be a bit rampant for urban areas. I completely removed it from my garden a monumental task but I have planted a variety of other, prettier and less invasive animal-friendly shrubs .

[maddening]

Btw I was suggesting the two complaining neighbours went halves so the neighbour with the tree didn't have to pay.

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

Thin not think

[LetsFaceTheMusicAndDance]

So did you trespass to take that photo?

[Floggingmolly]

You're going to ask another neighbour to split the cost with him instead?
Why would they?????
And as to getting the Council to "force his hand", again - why would they?
You sound quite, quite deluded, op

[QuintessentialOHara]

I agree the trees are unsightly. They are ugly in the extreme!

I reckon she did not have to "trespass", dont you think such tall trees are perfectly visible from her garden if they block her light and her sun?

Tall trees should be no less than a meter from your fence or boundary. If they are less than a meter you can demand they are cut down at their expense (If I remember this correctly)

When we bought our house, we put a Leylandii in a gap in the boundary hedge between the street, our property and our neighbours property.
Being foreigners neither me nor my husband had any idea how tall they would grow. 10 years down the line, our house was let and we lived overseas, our neighbour emailed me to ask if I minded chopping down the tree, and split the cost. He had a mate that was a tree surgeon and could give me a quote. Mates rates it cost £95. I thought it was a bargain. I told my neighbour that he should just go ahead, but to email me the invoice. I paid the full price. I did not want a tree sour our neighbourly relations, and £95 was pretty reasonable. He had the job of getting quotes and arranging the job, so I thought it only fair that I paid the entire bill. I did not tell my neighbour this until I saw the invoice though, as I did not want him go and get a ridiculous quote in the knowledge I would pay, iyswim. All is good.

I did have a quote to have a different leylandii taken down, and that was £350, so it is extremely expensive!

[ReallyTired]

There is a something called the high hedges act which can force your neighbour to reduce the hieght of certain trees.

www.highhedges.com/

However when we looked into it, it costs £500 to make an application to the local council and there is no guarentee that your neighbour will be forced to reduce the height.

Prehaps there is some compromise you could make with your neighbour. It may well cost less than £500 to go halves.

[Devora]

But you are assuming that the council can and will force his hand? I think that's very debateable. I hope it is, anyway [thinks nervously of the tall tree sitting in my garden and hanging over neighbour's fence].

And why do you think the other neighbour will agree to go halves, if you won't? Why do you think you should be the only one NOT to pay, when you're the one who is complaining? Tread very carefully here: you could seriously piss off the whole street!

[LetsFaceTheMusicAndDance]

Quint I believe the OP actually said s/he had taken the photo from the neighbours garden - but I can't be bothered to go back through the thread.

And you are wrong about tall trees and boundaries.

[Floggingmolly]

Trees can be planted anywhere you please with the boundary of your own property. Any overhang into the neighbours garden can be removed by them, but they can't force the removal of the tree.

[QuintessentialOHara]

Unless the roots are disturbing your property, I think. But I accept I may be wrong on this point too.


I know, I am not very helpful. Sorry.

[QuintessentialOHara]

Maybe it is different here? We are in a conservation area, I was checking about a tree that worried me in my neighbours garden. (But also, every tree aside from Leylandii has tree preservation orders on them. )

[boschy]

Sorry, havent read the whole thread, but we have lots of trees. If they bother the neighbours, I try to be reasonable... but now they are taking the piss (we have lots of neighbours! - funny set up) So now I am afraid that if the trees are bothering them, but are not actually dangerous (have a tree surgeon on tap) I say that if they want them cut down they can pay for it to be done, or do it themselves and remove the debris. I actually dont want to lose any more trees, but can appreciate loss of light etc. In our case, all our neighbours bought their houses with the trees already in existence - caveat emptor.

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

Altinkum. The £300-£400+ figure was mentioned earlier in the thread in relation to the cost of making an application to the Local Council to enforce the High Hedge Legislation BUT as the neighbours trees are deciduous the High Hedge Legislation IS NOT APPLICABLE.

The OP was told by the neighbour that they had a quote for £600 for chopping the trees down. We don't know if that includes removal of the waste and stump grinding but even so it seems reasonable based on the photo.. ........ which is, obviously VERY hard to judge.

Quotes from tree surgeon vary a lot. There are untrained cowboys about who can undercut the professionals as they don't necessarily bother with training, safety equipment, insurance etc etc. I would only ever use a properly qualified tree surgeon. I pay a day rate in excess of £400+ for a tree surgeon, a tree surgeons assistant and removal of waste. I live down South. (He does send me a Christmas card though )

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

boschy
That Sounds very reasonable approach .
I had the opposite problem in that some of my neighbours were not thrilled when I got rid of all the incredibly ugly fir trees in the garden of my new house. The neighbours were all lovely and polite but they would have preferred it if I had kept the trees. I cut them down because my garden was completely overgrown with ugly non native trees and was permanently in complete shade.

I have now planted some beautiful native trees and everyone's happy again.

[boschy]

I agree with iiiiiii some of the prices on here seem really cheap. We are in SE, and have used a 'proper' tree surgeon for the last few years as and when necessary. Thing is, if they are going up big trees they need to be kosher - insurance, enough guys on the ground to cope with the one up the tree, etc etc. We get a discount, because our guy puts the chippings into my chicken run, and knows he can do it a couple of times a year if he wants. But tree surgery is expensive - but it's an art. If you want a big tree cut back so it becomes more manageable, use a proper guy, not the cowboy that appears on your doorstep! here endeth the tree sermon...