that you shouldn't be allowed to have high trees in small gardens in estate homes

[marryj]

So my neighbour planted quite a few trees maybe 5-6 years ago. They are now growing and blocking out the view from my house. Legally there is nothing I can do. It just doesn't seem right to me that you can, when living so close to other people in small gardens, have trees much higher than homes that cause a nuisance.

The flipside would be that trees allow some nature, and some privacy, when you're cramped in with loads of other people.

I'd much prefer a view of trees to a view of someone elses' house/fence/car/whatever.

Yes, what was your view of before?

Well my neighbour has already got a 2.5 m hedge in between us has plenty of privacy.

These trees are blocking out a view of the valley, the hedge already blocks out all homes etc.

I agree, my neighbour has a 100' plus garden, mine is 30' and so are my side neighbours he has planted a Sycamore and Oak.
I can't dry washing I the winter. They are saplings at the moment but when they are fully grown I will not be able to grow plants in the garden either.

I have a 30 x 40 foot garden with two scots pines and an oak, all the gardens on our estate have lots of trees. The trees were there before all the houses (used to be a huge garden) and the trees have conservations orders. I think they are lovely and gives the estate a lot of character.

Trees should be an appropriate size and type for the size of garden. Planting trees that grow to be huge and block people's light or views is antisocial.

chinup at the rate oak grow you'll be dead long before it gets very big.

OP I think it depends on the situation. Out neighbour has a 300 year old oak in their (tiny) garden. It's an old farm tree and pre-date the whole estate. Do I think it should be cut down - no. We all knew it was there when we bought our houses.

Do I think people should be able to grow 40 foot leylandii hedges everywhere. No.

Well in my situation my house was built 80 years a go and has had a view all this time and these new trees were only planted a few years ago. But the length of time a house has been there for makes no difference legally.

No, no legal difference. But I feel an awful lot more sympathy about people in your situation than someone who buys a house next to a woodland then starts complaining (I'm a woodland manager and this happens all the time).

chinup at the rate oak grow you'll be dead long before it gets very big.

Agree
When i moved into my house (see above) we had an oak removed but had to replace under the conservation. We bought a 15 year old oak which was barely 6ft high and now over 20 years later it has hardly grown.

There's one thing to think about if you plant a new tree in a small garden. How close is it to dividing walls, houses, garages, drives, even drains? Roots can have a devastating effect on all these.

House owners around here have had to cut down their weeping willows and silver birch. We had to cut down our robinia because its roots were too close to our back garden manhole for our comfort and it grew too big for the lawn to grow.

Well that's just stupid buying a house next to a woodland then complaining.

I'm upset as the view I bought the house for each year is getting taken away by someone inconsiderate and there is nothing I can do. I thought trees grew slowly but these aren't.

Heres hoping for high winds or the local yoofs go in and set fire to it.

Happy makes a good point. Planting large trees too close to houses can cause serious problems, including subsidence (because the ground shrinks fro the volume of water the tree draws up) and root damage to walls and drains.

They would have to be serious trees and pretty close to the house, but if they are then it's an issue.

A friend's next-door neighbour planted a horse chestnut tree in their tiny back garden, not 20 feet from the back wall of friend's house, in a conservation area. I advised her to ring the council's tree officer and report it.

I have sympathy for people in your position OP but not so much for those who buy a house where there are already trees in their neighbours garden and then complain about said tree.

It's not just an urban, tiny garden issue though - I live in rolling countryside and this house, and the others on this side of the hill, have had beautiful views since they were built over a century ago. The spoilt entitled princess distant descendant of the local gentry has planted a 'wild copse' behind her enormous sprawling farmhouse holiday cottage further down the hill. Note behind, she hasn't spoilt her own views and she is only there every few months, but in 10 years houses on this side will have nothing to look at but her scrubby trees. There's nothing like thoughtless tree planting to screw up neighbourly relations, but I imagine they're going to get even worse after someone has a 'hedge trimming' oversight with his tractor and she is left with a row of stumps

I agree with you, having suffered from a knob of a landlord of next door's house, who planted leylandii which grew to 80ft + and refused to take them down.

Have you had a word with the neighbours? Many people buy trees without actually realising that they can grow very tall....

Here's ironic - if you google 'how to kill a tree discreetly' all the ads up the side are for fast-growing trees!

Not making any suggestions, just looking...

Yes had a word with them, didn't go well. I asked if we could get some of the high branches trimmed that block my view and offered to pay. He got on the attack and went on about it being his garden and he can do what he likes.... Selfish brick wall.

Ha I have googled that too, but after I've already asked them to trim the trees would look very suspicious if one or two started deing and I would wory about the consequences as they are a couple in their 70-80s with a lot of money and time.

I did buy a telescopic trimmer and trimmed back the new growth a bit at a time but now the branches are too thick for that. The new growth is about 4-6ft just in two years.