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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to refuse to cut down my tree?

201 replies

Ellybellyboo · 07/05/2017 08:48

I have a lovely old tree in my garden that my neighbour is insisting I cut down. We've told him no, but he keeps on and on about his right to light.

The tree doesn't overhang their garden at all. This neighbour is behind me. The tree is along the side of my garden and affects no one (we have a field beside us). He's claiming that it casts a shadow and leaves the end of his garden (where he's built a decked seating area) in the shade in the evenings

The tree in question has a TPO and we have to faff getting permission to have it pruned let alone cutting it down

I live in a little housing estate which backs onto a much larger one. Our estate used to be wasteland but did give views of open fields down to the sea. The neighbour in question applied for loads of TPOs in an attempt to stop our houses being built and spoiling his view so I kind of think tough luck

He's always been a bit difficult and constantly complains about anything and everything so I'm not feeling like I want to go out of my way

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
StiickEmUp · 13/05/2017 08:16

Good on you

BigGrannyPants · 13/05/2017 13:32

Well done OP that's excellent!!

TheMaddHugger · 13/05/2017 13:48

Happy Happy Happy

to refuse to cut down my tree?
AnarchyKitty · 13/05/2017 14:26

I'll happily make you a few of these windchimes to hang in it every evening. Grin
#teamtree 🌲🌲🌲

to refuse to cut down my tree?
TheWhiteRoseOfYork · 13/05/2017 15:06

I hope the letter from the council does not set him off again though. I have a mad neighbour and he goes quiet for while and then something will set him off, last time it was because we installed some new windows. He hates to see us spend money on our house! He came round with a list of things that needing fixing on his property with a load of ridiculous reasons about how they were our responsibility really and we should have spent our money on his property instead! Totally bonkers. Hope your neighbour does not act in a similar way. Official letters seem to spur them into action rather than shut them up!

BigGrannyPants · 13/05/2017 15:11

@AnarchyKitty I love that! I want one of those!

tiredvommachine · 13/05/2017 15:37

#teamtree 🌳

EweAreHere · 13/05/2017 15:54

Definitely TeamTree.

Brace yourselves. I doubt the letter will shut him up.

AnarchyKitty · 13/05/2017 16:07

BigGrannyPants
They're great fun aren't they! A great excuse to make it Wine O'Clock.

to refuse to cut down my tree?
Oldraver · 13/05/2017 16:40

TheWhiteRose I think we need to hear more bonkers stuff about how you are responsible for spending money on your neighbour..

neonrainbow · 13/05/2017 17:22

He sounds like a nightmare! Maybe a higher fence at the back? So he can't pop his head over?

Chloe84 · 13/05/2017 17:38

YANBU, it sounds like he enjoys an argument.

YABU for using an acronym (TPO) and not once saying what it stands for.

TheWhiteRoseOfYork · 13/05/2017 17:39

Ok Oldraver just off the top of my head...

  1. He has dodgy drains which constantly get blocked and need flushing through. He has been round several times to ask us to pay half because he says they are shared drains. Except they are not, our houses have separate drains. I have showed him a letter confirming this from the sewage company who did a survey for us, but he still will not have it.

  2. We have a shared concrete wall in the front garden. The concrete is slightly cracked on his side, it is totally cosmetic damage. Somehow he has convinced himself that the entire wall is about to fall down and needs replacing, and that we should pay for it. We have actually offered to pay for the crack to be filled but this would have to be done from his side and he won't allow anyone access to his side. Yet he still goes on & on & on about it.

  3. He has a tree in his garden with a patio surrounding it. The tree roots have caused some of the slabs to lift. Yet he insists it is due to the roots of one our trees on completely the other side of our garden to his, and keeps demanding we cut it down and compensate him for the patio damage.

Best of all, as it shows how bad his sense of entitlement really is, when he built an extension to his house he decided he wanted it to be bigger than the space he had for it, so he wrote to us and asked us if he could build over onto our garden. He was actually astonished when we said no, and still goes around telling anyone who will listen how unreasonable we were!

Despite him we actually like living where we do, which is just as well as we would never sell as all those ridiculous disputes would have to be declared and would send any future buyer running for the hills!

Sorry to derail OP but I have every sympathy with anyone living with a similar nut job neighbour!

BigGrannyPants · 13/05/2017 17:51

@Chloe84 Tree Protection Order - TPO

Gatekeeper · 13/05/2017 17:53

I love those wind chimes AnarchyKitty, do you sell them?

Etak15 · 13/05/2017 18:08

Oh we've got a
Neighbour with a tree obsession too! We've got a very big (fir tree type thing ?) at the bottom on our garden to one side, every since we've moved in they've been on about it, overhanging branches - which we've pruned, sometimes it's blocking their light, sometimes the problem is it's going to get in their drains? Now they've decided it's lifting the concrete up in their garden! Apparently he's going to
Get a solicitor and his insurance involved- well done I said, looking forward to the letter!
Their daughter bought the house at the back of us and chopped our hedge downShock I caught her starting on some of our trees too, she was going to
Replace it with a tiny fence?!
They seem to think that the sun isn't in the sky it's in our garden and our tree is blocking it!
Anyway over my
Dead body will I take it down, in fact I think I'll plant some more Wink

Etak15 · 13/05/2017 18:11

Ha just read yours white rose - our neighbour had apparently tried to
Buy the bottom of our garden off previous owner too - she told them to feck off I think so they've just decided they'll try and take over it anyway!

TheWhiteRoseOfYork · 13/05/2017 18:19

Etak15 Oh God there are more like him....

AnarchyKitty · 13/05/2017 19:17

Gatekeeper
I found them on Google. Etsy I think.

Katie6448 · 13/05/2017 19:37

Excellent news OP!

@Chloe84 a TPO is a Tree Preservation Order.

SauvignonBlanche · 14/05/2017 18:04

He sounds like hard work!

Cockadoodle · 14/05/2017 20:36

I dreamt about this last night! I was in his solicitors office and told him him I thought he was nuts! He insisted that he felt so strongly about it that he had to take legal action! 😂😥

Daddyof3lovelylife · 14/05/2017 21:27

Hiya; please stick to your guns!
I have worked in arboriculture and there is no such thing as a right to light. We have had so many petty complaints even to the extent of trees affecting satellite signals etc.
It really annoys me that a tree that has clearly been there for some time can then be annoying in our short time. The person concerned must have known the sunlight patterns and shade before they built their seating are (which will last a maximum of 20 years I would suggest (generously)) which I am assuming is a blink of an eye in the life of this tree?

ChasedByBees · 15/05/2017 08:14

Go team tree!

LurkingHusband · 15/05/2017 08:24

.

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