To refuse to pay to cut neighbour's tree?

[Latetotheparty26]

Neighbour has a tree on their land which shades our garden in summer. I mentioned 3 years ago that it would be great if they could trim the height. At the time, they refused as they had just opened own business and couldn't afford it. I accepted that and felt bad asking.
I asked again last summer, was given lots of excuses about nesting birds (I didn't expect it cut until it was the right time to do so), that it was a noise barrier (very new house with great double glazing) and also a security measure (tree is between fence and main road which is 10-15 foot high off road).
Met with them this week for them to tell me (in a very round about way) that, yes they finally had sorted someone to come and trim all their hedges (out of which this tree grows) and that the guy would quote on the tree - I was very pleased but, they then went on to say that they guy would let me know his quote to sort the tree and that with their permission he was to quote it be trimmed to a (very specific) height and that he was to not trample/flatten the bushes surrounding it.
I was left speechless! They want me to pay, to cut their tree with very specific requirements!
I know legally we have no leg to stand on, the tree does not obstruct daylight from our house, but...SURELY I can expect my neighbour to be...reasonable and neighbourly and maintain a pretty big tree!? It's only going to get bigger!

Yeah, I think that's the point.

They found out they were under no legal obligation to trim the tree so now don't want to pay for it.

Our neighbours wanted us to cut down some big trees. We weren't bothered by them. They paid so they came down. I wasn't going to pay.

Claudia I think you need a sit down, cup of tea and a quick read of the law!

As do a few other posters who think the tree owners have any obligation to cut a healthy tree that happens to overhang their land border. They don't!

That isn't a guess, a hope or an opinion, it is how the law stands!

When we moved into our new house our next door neighbour immediately kept on at us to get it cut (literally brought it up in our first "hello" conversation ). I was taken aback, but get the impression it was a long standing issue. I never thought to ask them for the money, as I agreed it was massively overhanging and stupidly the previous owner had planted it on the boundary. We were frustrated to spend £200 of our refurbishment budget but agreed so as to keep neighbour relations reasonable as they are the type to fall out with you easily.

Our other neighbour also has large trees hanging over our garden which is stopping some light on our lawn, we are saving to get the tree surgeon out again to trim theirs this year for our benefit.

So I can see it both ways, depends on whether you can afford to do it, what the relationship is like with your neighbours.

Neither of you are unreasonable though.

What Catness Everdene said. We are in a situation where we have huge trees in our garden, with lots of nesting birds. New neighbour moves in and sends a tree surgeon round to ask if they can chop down tree to a lower height to allow more light in their garden. We declined as the trees give us privacy, we love the birds and the trees were one of the reasons we fell in love with the garden. Recently a different tree surgeon visited and was very bolshy, saying they have a right to chop them down, we are not budging, if you don't like huge trees bounding your property, don't buy/rent it in the first place. Of course if there were safety issues, we would sort it, but at present trees are fine and birds enjoying a well-stocked garden.

KitschBitch
Exactly the same situation here. The trees have been there 80-100 years. Neighbours 1 year, the house they’re in 20 years, my house 100+ years

Why buy a house with a small garden which is completely shaded and expect the neighbours to cut all their trees down.

Most are TPO’s but they’re sending solicitors letters to all the neighbours under the high hedge act.

I got the council round who said this is not a high hedge issue and they have no right to light. If they touch your trees again they may get fined upto £10,000.

They still send the solicitors letters though. I understand why they’d like them cut but why buy it in the 1st place?? Going to take 3 neighbours and a few TPO fines to make their garden sunny.

Oh yes let me cut my only non tpo tree down so you can get light and in the process devalue my house by 100k whilst increasing yours by 30k... sounds like a completely fair deal.

so you really think it’s ok to have a tree on your property that ruins the neighbors sun/quality of life/decreases property value?

It's not ruining her quality of life, or decreasing her property value, is it? I don't like the sun myself, so a tree blocking the sun so I could use my garden would be fine.

Poor trees, they seem to have such a hard time of it these days!

MN is very anti trees.

Makes me very sad.

We need more trees, for better air quality, for noise lessening, as a habitat for birds and insects. But no, every bugger’s itching to cut them.

Ok, so you might get less light now, but you will also have some lovely shade in the increasingly hot summers we are having.

Even if it was cutting out light there isn't much you could do. There is no right to light.

The tree bothers you not them. They are saying if you want it trimmed you can pay for it. How badly do you want it reduced?

When we moved house a few years ago our next door neighbour came to introduce himself the following day and mentioned the 2 beautiful trees in the front garden. He said we should get them cut down as he doesn't like leaves in the autumn!
We were quoted £850 to have them cut back but to be honest I like them so didn't go ahead. His front garden is completely tarmac and has plastic flowers in tubs! He has a go at us every year about the trees and to be honest I'm getting really fed up with him.
Apparently he had been haranguing the previous owner as well

The tree height doesn’t bother them so why would they pay to trim it?

You want the height removed, it’s not your tree
Neighbour has said if you want the height on the tree removed, yes we will accommodate your request, but you pay for it.

I’m not seeing the issue here, I think they are being reasonable

We have the opposite problem, our neighbour has removed some trees in his garden that bordered the end of our garden. We enjoyed watching the trees change throughout the seasons and watching the birds and squirrels that lived in the trees. I'm hoping that the lack of leaves falling in our garden next autumn makes up for the lose of the trees but I doubt it.

We've just cut down 4 trees at our expense for our neighbours. However they were leyandii and even though legal we all back onto a national park with amazing views, my trees did block the view which I love so felt bad they couldn't enjoy it. However we also have some mature silver birch and old damson trees, I wouldn't cut those down.
They have some evergreens I'd like gone (blocks view from other way) but they show no signs of returning the favour. So I think if you want the tree gone you need to pay unless it's illegal, even if it seems unfair

Most are TPO’s but they’re sending solicitors letters to all the neighbours under the high hedge act

I'd be filing those in the bin. There's no such act nor is it a solicitors place to decide high hedge complaints on behalf of the council.

Haven't rtft but yabu. Our next door neighbors had a tree that we felt was unsafe, when it was really windy it always looked like there was the possibility it would blow into our garden. They were quite happy to keep it but when we asked if we could have it cut down, if we paid, they agreed. We wouldn't have dreamed of asking them, it was bothering us, not them. I was just happy they allowed it as they didn't have to. So yeah, yabu and a but of a cf actually

High Hedges are covered by Antisocial Behaviour legislation in England here;

www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-hedges-complaining-to-the-council/high-hedges-complaining-to-the-council

Unfortunately, single trees are not covered by this act.

I think if you want the tree cut, then you gain permission and pay yourself, oh and don’t throw the branches over the garden fence... you have to offer them back and if they don’t want them - dispose of them - or you could find yourself in legal trouble, especially if you damage anything in the process of throwing them over into their garden.

I have a garden bordered on all three sides by trees. My neighbour actually complained when I trimmed some of them as they felt it reduced their privacy. Unfortunately, if I wanted to cut them all down (I really don’t) there is little they could do as they are my trees, on my land and aren’t protected by a TPO.

I think if you’re going to have to swallow the cost if you want the tree cut back.

I'd be filing those in the bin. There's no such act nor is it a solicitors place to decide high hedge complaints on behalf of the council.

I take a photo for evidence and use them to start the wood burner. Which in turn gets put in the compost bin, which in turn once the ph is right grows all the trees for the squirrels!

I told him if he had a leg to stand on he’d pay the £500 fee for the council to investigate. I’ve told him the council office has already said they have no case. The previous owner opened the same case against the old owner of my house and was fine a few thousand for illegally trimming the TPO trees.

We love our trees, but 5 of them have TPO on them, which is a right pain as any maintenance has to go via Council.
Neighbour is very anti trees, he nips off any branches that dare to enter his airspace (off the non TPO trees)
He would like us to severely cut back the TPO tree nearest him, which we would happily do but the council won't give permission. My sympathy is limited because HE approached council before our house was built asking for TPOs, in an effort to minimise the development of the site.
Now he complains about being stuck with this tree in the garden next door!

hoist with his own petard I think breakfast! actually one of our TPO trees did come down and council were very quick to say that it was ok to remove it completely. It was a terrible shame, I went out on a summer evening and heard it creaking, and then it just collapsed. Like an elephant dying or something. So sad.

@Squirreltamer

Why would cutting a tree down devalue your house by anything, let alone £100k? What are you going to do if it falls down, or dies?

VanGoghsDog
I may over-egged on 100k but 100% 50k

The houses on my road with similar sized gardens with these newer builds behind go for 50k-70k more 10% more if the gardens are private with mature trees. Especially with TPO’s

Reason is the newer builds are on an elevated position at a angle so they’re a bit over bearing.

But if anything fell down or died. I’d buy a mature replacement. Sure it won’t be 30m high like the current TPO trees but at 6 metres would bring back the privacy. Yes it will set me back a lot for mature tree, plant hire and digging out stump but would be worth it to me.

Used to live in a house with 10 houses looking into my garden on a terrace so privacy is a big bonus to me.