Neighbours have chopped our tree down

[treeless]

More of a wwyd as know I'm not being unreasonable...neighbour in terrace next to ours have chopped our tree down! It's clearly on our driveway and not theirs. Speechless!

Bloody cocks. It’s nesting season. It’s not the time to do stuff like this.
Let alone in your neighbours garden.
Please say something.

I also think you should ask them why they've cut your tree down without asking and tell them to dig out the roots so there's space for you to replant.

I think I would also ask for the landlord's address so you can establish the boundaries for the tenants. No reason for you not to 'accept' it as a genuine mistake if they apologise.

No need to say you won't be replanting.

I really hope OP has been round by now and told CFers that they cut down her tree and now they need to pay for a professional gardener to replant a mature tree or they need to dig out the roots and destroy the tree properly. Do NOT let them away with it.

Neighbours have been out all day. Didn't hear them leave this morning, so possibly they stayed out last night. Will update once I speak to them.

I am astounded that you are both simply going to accept the actions of your neighbour. If your dp is too much of a coward to go stand up for yourself an do it.

You realise if you don’t do anything they’ll just think it’s fine and do it again.

What is wrong with people? You have to say something to them about it OP. It would be bizarre not to mention it.

With photos now that does look like Photinia as PPs have suggested. Since the roots have been left in situ it will almost certainly start shooting again from the trunks. So all they have done is wrecked the shrub's top growth. What do they intend doing when it regrows..?

They haven't done you any favours at all, as if the plant does have to be removed then the rootball will have to be dug out too. They've just made your garden look less attractive in the meantime.

Unfortunately OP you will have to address this, as it looks as though they intend to infringe on your property whenever that suits their agenda. Do they have permission from the landlord to do all this garden work, I wonder...

Just got home and still no sign of them.

Report it to Special Branch

Even if it was something you planned to do the following day, of course you have to say something!

Leaving them think it’s okay will mean they will do worse in the future and possible take that land as theirs now as you left them unchallenged. They still need to reimburse you for it.

I hope you can get this sorted out as there is nothing worst than not getting on with your neighbors, and I would definitely talk to them about it as if you don't then what will they do next time. But it does sound like they've done you a favour especially with you getting a driveway put in. The builders who do your drive may of had to remove it anyway, and that would of cost you a lot more money and time . Good luck with it all

Now they have left the stump sticking out which is a trip hazard. Ask them to finish the job they started.

It’s a job for a branch manager!

This has happened to me. I was 36 weeks pregnant when I looked out of my window and found there was a man in my garden preparing to chop down my tree. Man said neighbour had told him to do it and not to mention it to me "in case I got upset".
Managed to save the tree and sent dh round to speak to neighbours.Mrs Neighbour went into a frenzy of shouting abuse at my bewildered husband and has specialised in writing poison pen letter to me ever since. If in doubt, blame the victim seems to be the motto.

I would politely point out that they've actually cut down your shrub and did they not realise it belonged to you? Ask why they did it (they'll probably say it was encroaching on their drive and they couldn't get past it properly) - in which case say they should have said something and you would have dealt with it, perhaps cutting it back rather than removing the whole thing.
I would definitely mention it to them even if your DH thinks they've done you a favour because you don't want them cutting down anything they decide is in their way or they don't like.
If they've left the roots then it's likely it will grow again ...

Also - it’s not much of a favour - would have taken five minutes and it’s a crappy job. They clearly aren’t gardeners!!!!

Whether they've done you a favour in the long run or not, they completely shouldn't have done it without your permission. If they're renting, surely they would have needed landlords permission to cut down anything that was on their side of the boundary? I hope you manage to speak to them soon OP xxx

It is a large finable offence - check with the local council as they will let you know if you are in a 'tree' preservation area. I know that if I lean over while trimming my neighbours tree/shrubs etc I am treading on their land so to speak and answerable by a fine. Usually you check with neighbours when your pruning etc to check.
So it is the local council who will give you some idea, anyway we are suppose to be planting trees. Were there any birds nesting or making a nest?

Have you managed to have a word yet OP?

Exciting this! Love a bit of boundary wars

My neighbour did this,,the conversation went like this

“ it is unacceptable to cut any of my trees, I have photographed all of the boundary and you cut even an inch off a tree/ shrub and I’ll take you to court. Do you understand!”

He never touched a tree again. I also put a very ugly fence in the section he cut. ( with a lovely plant on my side)

It seems so common for this to happen. I wish people could learn to get on with their own lives and leave other people’s gardens alone! Happened to me twice now

My neighbour went ape when I trimmed overhanging branches. I havent trimmed since so their hedge/bush thing is now about two feet over the top of the fence! My garden is tiny so it is quite annoying. But can’t be arsed having her yell again

This happened to me as well. I had a newborn and was completely sleep deprived so thought I might be hallucinating when I found the neighbour standing at the back of our garden pouring poison into a stump where a laburnum tree had been that morning, an axe lying incriminatingly at his feet. The conversation went something like this:

me "what are you doing in our garden?"
neighbour (cheerily) "oh I'm just finishing getting rid of this tree"
me "but you do know that, that was our tree, look it's clearly on our side of the fence and you have climbed into our garden to cut it down"
neighbour (nodding in agreement" "yes that's right but it was hanging over our garden so I've taken it down"
me (sure that I am dreaming) "you can't just do that, you can trim any overhang but you can't just decide to kill our tree"
neighbour "oh I think you can if it overhangs, anyway we're putting a big shed there so you'll have a view of that instead"
me (incredulously) "no really I am right you can't just decide to kill someone else's tree, we'd have had a chat if there was a problem but we want to see our tree not your shed"
him (confidently) "it's all fine, I'll look into it and show you"

Then about 2 hours later he pops round with a bottle of wine and said he'd been really surprised to google it and find out we were right!