To think my neighbour is being unreasonable

[princesstiasmum]

I have a very large fur tree in my garden which hangs over my neighbours fence too
I know it was cutting some of the light out of their garden so go someone to cut it down quite a lot.also to cut at the sides as it was getting very bushy and spreading enough to cut light off from my living room
The young man has been to do it this morning , and cut loads off
I havjust had a phone call from my neighbour to ask why he hasnt cut some off their side of the fence, she had apparently already had a go at him, and he said i didnt ask him to, but the general rule is to cut only the side if the person whose tree it is.
Anyway she rang me again and i said ididnt know how it worked only that i had asked him to cut it down to a certain point and cut the top off, which incidentally wasnt bothering me,
My neighbour said well its your bloody tree, and i am not paying anyone to cut my side,
I had told them last summer and before that they could cut some off if they wanted to
I am really annoyed and sad that it has come to this and her being nasty, as i have lived here for 35 years, and looked after their house when they went away etc, and also offered to shop for them as they have both got health problems,
I told her i couldnt afford to pay anymore, couldnt really afford this but apart from the sides the height didnt bother me
I wish now i had left it,
We are both pensioners, but they are older than me and much better off
When the tree was cut down at the top i rang her and asked if it was better and lighter, she said yes much better, but now being nasty because he hasnt cut at her side ,low enough not to cut any light out
Just wondered if it is usual to cut just one side or go all round, in others experience

If you have a tree that spreads 6 ft .

You plant it at least 3 ft from the fence.
That is all.

Your tree is causing her issues and you've only trimmed your side of it - WHY!!

You sound like the type who would let your dog shit in someones garden and not pick it up yourself because "its her garden not mine".

Yabu. Sorry that you didn’t know but I would say it’s one of the most common sense laws of the land.. it’s your tree and you are responsible for it

You know they have ill health but did not consult them about trimming their side. How odd.

My neighbours have a whole row of fruit trees along our fence. They never ever maintain them. When we bought the house , their trees were overhanging a good 3m into my garden, dropping fruit all over the place.
It really really hacks me off. We absolutely refuse to pay someone to cut back their sodding trees so we have spent about 4 years slowly cutting them back to the boundary line, and chopping up branches and putting them in our bin. We are now at a point where we can just about maintain it and not have rotting plums all over our lawn.

If they hired someone to cut back their trees and didn’t tidy up our side, I would be genuinely angry. They are their trees. They are an absolute nuisance. Why on earth should I have to pay to chop their overgrown trees. It’s a big job. It isn’t like a bush or something.

So I think you are being totally unreasonable. Have some consideration for your neighbours.

Honestly if we moved house and I saw fruit trees along the fence I wouldn’t buy the place. I had no idea how much of a pain and how quickly they grow.

Sorry, I did deviate from your OP a bit

Cut the whole thing down, if it's such a problem.

The law is that it is your tree and you should be maintaining it and therefore paying the tree guy to do a proper job.

However if you refuse to trim/pay to have their side maintained they are allowed to cut it themselves as long as they offer the branches back to you. If you don't want them then they dispose of them.

If you are paying the man to maintain it and have it cut properly why on earth didn't you get him to do a proper job?

Umsaywhat - that is really frustrating. My neighbours have sycamore trees all along the fence line. They create a terrible mess in my garden and I also refuse to pay someone so I trim them myself (when they cross the boundary). This summer another neighbour came out and yelled at me because she felt that the trees, which were growing from someone else’s garden into mine, were giving her privacy!

You can’t win

YABU and clearly hired a cowboy rather than a proper gardener. It is not good for a tree to trim in a lopsided fashion - destabilising for a start. Also once you are doing the job anyway the marginal effort of doing both sides is very little.

If I were your neighbour I would be tempted to trim back to bald branch thus likely killing the tree, or just get out the weedkiller.

As far as I'm aware, she is responsible for whatever is hanging over her land but the rules are anything she cuts down has to be returned to u !

It has to be offered . Which they will no doubt refuse . (Unless its a fruit bearing tree)

If I do that, I cannot lob the branches over the fence (fly tipping) so I'd need to dispose of the branches (which I'd have to pay for)

NDN tree is a total pain, many times I;ve asked them to reduce it.

I do stealth cutting of branches hanging of my garden but make sure they're going to fall over the fence. So laws of gravity , not fly tipping .

(Life would be much easier if they had the bloody thing lopped)

“I thought the neighbours were within their rights to trim any branches overhanging the fence.“

Yes, neighbours have the right to cut down anything overhanging their side of the boundary, but this doesn’t absolve the tree owner off legal responsibility to keep their nuisance trees under control.

*of

How can it be fly tipping to give someone their own branches?

OP - whilst aI don’t necessarily think you are obliged to have your neighbour’s side of the tree pruned, it would have been neighbourly to have done so.

I am sorta out the upset - fraught neighbourly relations are upsetting

The right to light only applies in extreme circumstances and is rarely enforced when it comes to trees. The principle is mostly used in conjunction with planning applications.
In fact you could build a fence right in front of a window, blocking light, and they could do nothing.
The OP has stated she cannot afford to do any more work on the tree and she had it trimmed more in consideration of her ndns than herself so I think it is unfair for posters to gang up against her.

If as you say you have cut the top off, the tree will die anyway, so you might as well get it filled.

Her responsibility to cut what overhangs her boundary

Your responsibility to cut what is on your side but blocks their light

She is not BU, you are. This is your tree hanging over her side - why should she pay to remove something of yours from her garden? Especially when you had someone there to do it for you but they left her side. It is possible though that the gardener thought she might like the choice whether to cut her side or not.

It’s not ganging up, it’s simply the majority opinion.

Her tree is a nuisance. It doesn’t usually cost 2x as much to do a whole tree as half of it - the gardener is already out.

In my opinion, OP should have worked out what she could afford to pay, and had the gardener trim evenly to that cost.

And I love 'fur tree', haha!

How can it be fly tipping to give someone their own branches?

Its if you offer them back (which you have to) and they say "Nah, I don't want them"
You have to dispose of them yourself (we have to buy bags)

If you just throw them onto their land regardless , that's tipping .

(Which is why I'm damned if I;m going to pay for their tree)

I had a tree cut down by a Tree Surgeon, the tree covered our garden plus encroached over either side. They have the Insurance to cover damage and all the branches were secured before cutting then disposed of. Cost nearly £500 .
But had to be done.

I'm waiting till this tree (NDN) does damage then I can put on my "I told you so" face (and claim on it)

A fur tree ! Does PETA know?

From your neighbours point of view you must seem very petty only having one side of the 'fur' tree cut!

We have this issue they have a fur tree and we have roses ... both hang over the fence in different areas. Old neighours, no problem, both took care of whatever was our side. New neighbours want me to cut the roses on their side but no thought to maintain their tree. Result, polite but firm 'its on your side you deal with it, the same as I've had to cut your tree'

You cut your side and your neighbour is entitled to cut their side and as it's your tree put the cuttings over your side to dispose of.
HTH