Neighbour asking for unreasonable amount towards a tree.

[fingerlicking]

I have a long garden that attaches to a garden at the bottom from a house 5 doors awa, but split by a thick hedge. The majority of my garden runs along side my direct neighbours house, but our garden and the garden of the house 5 doors away are long and 'kind of' circle the 4 houses' gardens inbetween.

My dh and I were clearing old trees and bushes from our garden as it was really shabby. We topped a number of large evergreens and removed 4 pine large trees and cut back shrubs etc.

There was a 6 foot tree in the middle of the thick hedge at the bottom of the garden that was bent over and collapsing. My dh cut out the tree.

The neighbours 5 doors away were hysterical. They moved to the house about 6 months ago. The woman came over crying because we had removed all the trees and topped others. It has opened up her view to houses, where as before her view was of green trees.

All the evergreen trees were in our garden and we were well in our right to remove them. However, the 6 foot tree in the middle of the hedge she claims was her tree and it was an 'arch' not bent from collapsing.

We apologised (even though we didn't think it was 'her' tree) and said that we really thought it was collapsing and would replace the tree. We offered her £150 towards a new tree.

Her husband came round shouting the odds and my dh felt physically threatened, even thought the guy was going to punch him. They said that they wanted a new tree that was over 3 metres tall, which cost £320. As we don't want to fall out we agreed to the higher amount. Even though it was not a like for like replacement.

Now they are asking us to pay for it to be dug in and they want it in a different position (not in the middle of the hedge at the bottom of our respective gardens), but higher up. This will cost us well over £500 in total.

We know that they want the new tree bigger and in a different position so to block the view of the houses that they can now see because we removed and topped pine trees that we were well in our right to remove in our garden.

We have agreed to the additional cost but I feel really aggrieved. We agreed so to keep the peace. But even after bending over backward to their demands, they are still being really grumpy and rude to us.

I am so upset by this situation. I don't know what to do.

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OP, before you do anything or have any more communication, I suggest you put the details on this site, so you get expert advice.

I haven't RTFT, but if the tree was on your boundary I wouldn't do anything, except in future discuss any works on boundaries with neighbours in advance to avoid such unpleasantness.
If it was their tree the most I would do is replace it like for like in the same place. They are taking the piss.

Replacing a 6 foot tree with a 3m tree at a cost of £500 is quite frankly ludicrous unless you felt guilty?

Tbh I'd be peeved too if a neighbour (similar set up it sounds) lopped all their trees leaving an open view where previously there had been privacy afforded by trees.
We removed some dead hedgerow at the bottom of our garden with full consultation with the tenants in the house behind. We replaced the dead hedge with a panel fence and trellis up to the allowable height.

Does the lack of trees affect their privacy more than yours? I'm guessing so.

If the H is an unreasonable and aggressive arsehole (as known by you) then I'd have been a lot more up front beforehand tbh. Could have saved a whole load of hassle

But she spoke to the husband beforehand.

The OP has paid the money for those who haven't ready the thread but I do worry this won't be their last problem. I feel bad for the OP. I really hope they don't have any more trouble from them but I would still get the CCTV cameras installed just in case.

But if you want to ensure tree-related privacy, you need to plant the trees in your own garden. Otherwise your neighbours might decide to chop their trees down. They'd be perfectly reasonable to do so.

But if everyone just planted trees willy nilly there would probably be issues with light and roots getting messy though Calamitously, although I sort of agree with you.

I guess its about respecting ones neighbours and treating them as you'd like to be treated yourselves and so on.

OPs neighbour acted an arse with her dh. A devils advocate might say he reacted in an un-neighbourly fashion as he felt that was how he'd (they? he apparently wasn't bothered but knew his dw might be the knobber ) been treated. Sort of.

I agree its their right to do as they please in their garden. But that approach has caused a series of happenings which has resulted in OP forking out £500 on it! So maybe a different approach might have had a better outcome is all I was trying to say really.

I do sympathise with OP. Making an error in judgement is one thing but nasty aggressive neighbours can be tortuous for people

Tbh I'd be peeved too if a neighbour (similar set up it sounds) lopped all their trees leaving an open view where previously there had been privacy afforded by trees.

If you want privacy afforded by trees, you would have to plant your own. You can not control what someone does to the trees in their garden.

But that approach has caused a series of happenings which has resulted in OP forking out £500 on it!

No, the fact that the neighbours are nasty, aggressive, money grabbing twats has resulted in the OP forking out £500

What a depressing outcome.

I agree that nasty aggressive neighbours are the worst thing ever. We had a problem with a black poplar tree that was in next doors garden. Its roots were lifting our paving stones (the roots had travelled under a fence to our path). We tried sooo hard to nicely encourage them to chop it down and they kept promising to over the space of 2-3 years. It had made a complete mess of their drive and paving stones as all its roots were really prominent for yards and yards and their path was like there'd been an earthquake. It was all amicable but they just would not do anything.

We offered them a contribution towards its removal. They refused. We offered them a bigger contribution. They refused. We offered three quarters of the money and they said they couldn't afford the quarter (strange given they had just put in for planning permission to extend). In the end we thought sod it and we just paid the lot. I think they just waited it out for us to get fed up. All in the name of harmonious neighbourly relations dammit.

I didn't give them cash. I paid the company direct for the tree they chose. That includes the digging in fee.

Our gardens are very long; the Hawthorn was at the bottom of our respective gardens about 300 feet away from the houses. In the middle of our garden, about 150 foot down, we had lots of very large evergreen trees. It kind of splits our garden into 2 and our children play hide and seek and 'explore' at the bottom.

Some of the evergreens were falling over after the storms and others were just massive. We had to remove them and lop them. It is was the removal/lopping of those trees, at 150 feet away from the houses, that now offer a view of houses that the neighbour doesn't like.

The 6 foot Hawthorn, 300 feet from their house, did not offer and cover at all.

But neighbourly relations are worth a lot. Whether it ends up that relations are now damaged beyond repair, remains to be seen.

Do you at least know that you were taken for a ride? You live and learn, just make sure you do learn because they will very likely be back with more intimation and expect you to improve their home for free since your so naive as to let them get away with it the first time.

Your age has no baring here, you need to be assertive and ring the police if they harass or intimate you next time, don't just roll over.

I think if you cut down a tree that was not yours to cut down it is in you interests to go over and above what you are legally obliged to do. People can be very odd about trees and this kind of disagreement can cause bad feeling for years.

If it was your tree then you shouldn't do anything - they can plant their own tree.

You really, really need to check the deeds - this will establish whether they were taking the piss or were within their rights to be annoyed.

OP, I think you have done the right thing. It's over and done with now and you can forget about it. Battles with nieghbours are awful and it's often irrelevent who is morally and legally in the right.

I often read the GardenLaw website which is full of stories like yours, you would be suprised at how often posters are advised to concede to a nieghbours unreasonable demands. There are lots of neighbour disputes detailed on GardenLaw that have run for years and years and years. Sometimes it's just not worth it.

I absolutely hate leylandii but maybe, if your garden faces North you might want to consider planting a new hedge along the end of your garden. Give it a few years and you will never have to see your nieghbours again. It might be an idea to properly determine and document the boundary beforehand (photos, measurements etc)

I hope you don't give this anymore thought and maybe a couple of too.

Fingerlicking - I know why you did it ... I really do ..but don't take any more grief from them...if they overstep the mark in the future - no matter how minor - don't give in to them ...don't turn a blind eye...
I lived with a NFH for 10+ yrs - he was known in the neighbourhood (and by the police)....eg. one of the neighbours said he was glad we acted as a buffer!
He did a couple of things that made me but I wanted to keep the peace...then he built raised decking (we are on a slope) - right on the boundary and my 6ft fence became thigh high, about 1m away from my kitchen window - from it he could see clearly into the whole of our kitchen and garden and even part of the living room - it is like a viewing platform. (Worse he wasn't working, hardly went out - he spent more or less every sunny day sat on it ) Absolutely ruined our garden for us - only felt comfortable in there for 2 weeks a year when he was on holiday.... The council did come round a while later to look cos I asked them if I would need permission to build a higher fence (I did) - and the decking was illegal (too close to us) but I was so embarrassed I agreed to turn a blind eye...and it just got worse and worse! Eg I tried to grow a tree (on our side) for privacy - he took to trimming it as it suited him - not just leaning over but actually coming into our garden (through a gate and down our path) to do it...it went on and on, more and more - and when I eventually stood up to him it just got even nastier ...police were involved etc...
I really believe if I had stood up to him earlier - pulled him up on the first things he did (like planting some plants on our path and in our front garden while we were at work!!!) he and it would never have got so bad...
Good Luck! I'm really hoping that it hasn't set a precedence...

Bullies won't stop bullying, if you give in to them.

I hope you haven't made a rod for your own back OP.

This was hawthorn - the hedging plant - which will grow new shoots within 3-4 months right? This time next year will be higher than it was before it was chopped back.