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!

OP they havent done you a favour.
Anyone can chop a tree/large shrub down, the difficult bit is effectively removing the roots.
This can prove expensive especially if you get in a contractor to do it (properly).
Tell them to finish the job properly and remove the roots, it is the least they can do.
They can also get rid of the debris. You need to remove the roots to avoid honey fungus etc.

This is serious. There is a law against felling trees and shrubs during bird nesting season - between March and April. No there isn't. There's a law against disturbing a birds nest or a nest in the process of being built. If you are certain your tree does not contain any nests you can cut it down whenever you like. This is why developers put nets over trees - to stop birds nesting, so they can cut the tree down according to their schedule and don't have to wait till the autumn.

we have had a similar problem the strip of land down the side of our house has a HUGE tree on it the land belongs to this house but isnt part of our back garden. thw neighbour knows its ours since pretty much the day he moved in as he made a complaint that our bushes were making the alley too dark (he is blind in one eye) so he felt bad when he realised it was ours not councils responsibility so he helped us cut it all back as dh is disabled..... all seemed fine and he seemed a good guy then one day he tried dumping rubble there and dh told him he cant the land is on our property. anyway his house kept fetting raided by police so he installed security cameras so he could see the police coming ans cut a load of the branches off our tree as they were blocking the view of the car park for his cameras. i was soooooo angry i went mad there was a man in my tree at 11:30 at night sawing branches off it right outside my kids window and who gets the police called on them??? ME for shouting at him to get out the tree

Your neighbour is only allowed to cut back anything that hangs over the boundary. They are not allowed to reach over and cut or step onto your land to cut anything, whether it be a tree or a shrub. You are entitled to ask them to compensate you to the value of the tree. I am not sure the police would get involved, but you could try. You could even inform the local council and ask their advice.

I can't believe that PP are recommending contacting the police?!
It's a bush ffs.
It's entirely possible that our already overstretched police force are actually busy dealing with real crime.
Perhaps these PP also attend A&E when they stub their toe or have a case of the sniffles 🙄

Q19: Is it illegal to cut down a tree/hedge whilst there are birds nesting in it?
It is an offence to cut down a hedge or tree intentionally or recklessly whilst there are birds nesting in it.

Reckless is a term often used in legal definitions. In this context it means that if you cut the tree down and you knew there was a chance that birds were nesting there and you didn't check, and there were birds nesting there, then you would have been reckless and, therefore, guilty of the offence.

The penalties are imprisonment and/or a fine. If there is more than one bird, nest or egg then there will be a separate fine for each one.

That is from the Police site. If your neighbour did not check and you have evidence then your neighbour is in the wrong. There are other opinions which state that there may be grounds for a case even if it turns out there were no nests. The law, apparently says that trees should not be pruned or cut between March and August. It is no different to killing game out of season.

I can't believe that PP are recommending contacting the police?!

An item worth hundreds of pounds has been wilfully destroyed by neighbours who would have been trespassing. That's apart from the fact that it's nesting season. Absolutely no harm in asking for police advice.

Hi, Thanks for all the replies. Some of your stories make me think we got off lightly!
I dozed off whilst putting the kids to bed. My partner managed to catch the neighbours when they came home and asked them what was going on with the garden. The neighbour apologised and said he'd clear the debris off his front, to which my partner said, no not that, you've cut our tree down! The neighbour said it looks good doesn't it, we've also got rid of the bin shed!
Partner: not from our side it doesn't, it looks awful.
Neighbour: I thought I mentioned we were going to speak to landlord about doing some work to the bin shed and possibly the tree
Partner: we assumed you meant your tree
Neighbour: I didn't think I'd be allowed to cut my tree down, plus I'd have to agree it with the tenants in the flat upstairs!! [NOTE: WTF!! I am v incensed by this.WTAF.]

Partner: well you can't just come on our land and chop our tree down either
Neighbour: sorry. Really sorry. Some of it was hanging on our side though
Partner: well you could have cut that back or spoken to us, not just stump it
Neighbour: apologises some more and says it might grow back
Partner: not a lot that can be done about it now

He says we will bring our plans for driveway forward. I think we could have kept tree with driveway, so will see what people say when they come round to quote and then ask for appropriate compensation to rectify from neighbours.

Keep us posted.

I'd also pop something in writing to them.

major CFs

please keep updating

What the fuck they're soooo cheeky!!

Hope your hubby is now suitably angry!!! That is ridiculous- these people need to understand this is not acceptable.

It must be devastating to have your bush chopped. I know how it feels. Have you tried counselling, as in joining your local council? No point in working from the outside.

Our neighbours have a number of large trees growing on their fence line in the back garden. These now form a hedge. When younger and when the trees were smaller, I was able cut these back to the boundary of our property.

The trees are now about 20 feet tall, so no way I can easily reach to cut them back. The trees over hang our garden by several feet and block out light. They will probably grow much higher, but I have arthritis and cannot now cut back a 20 foot hedge. Our neighbours do nothing about this, although they often boast that they have plenty of money.

The neighbours are quite elderly, so our long term plan is to wait until the lady who owns the house departs this earth or needs to move into a care home (the male who lives with her is an old cock lodger). We will go to the estate agent selling the property and explain the problem with the hedges. If the family do not deal with this at that point, we will go to the council under the high hedge laws and ask for it to be dealt with before another buyer moves in and leaves us with the same problem.

Tinkerbelle57

Yes a neighbour can cut back anything over the boundary by law. But if there is a tree 20 feet high or more and the neighbour cannot easily reach this, it becomes a problem.

treeless

We have massive problems with our neighbours growing trees which also grow over our garden and block out light. I am no longer fit enough to cut these back for them on our side.

Maybe your neighbours should not have cut your tree. But perhaps you could have trimmed your tree back so it did not hang over the neighbours garden?

HazelNutinEveryBite Tue 07-May-19 01:10:31

My neighbour's trees are as tall as our house now and are damaging my fascias and guttering of the single storey extension. I have borne it since 1995. A few years ago I spoke to the Council about it and they said I would have to pay them £500 and keep a log of everything that happened with the neighbour, how many times I asked him to cut them and what he said. I cannot do that. Since the week he moved in he has made life a misery. I have not spoken to him since that first week.
Then the woman on the phone from the Council told me that even if I do this and the Council got the Court to make him cut them to the legal limit, THEY COULD NOT ENFORCE IT, so I saw little point in doing all that.

The only success I ever had with the police was that when he fixed trellis to the whole extension wall of almost 40ft and planted climbing plants on it they told him to remove it. I have to say that the extension was built for disability purposes and was between 15" and three foot inside our boundary and he refused to give us access to put back the fence.

Before my husband died this man was approaching me every time i went into the garden, which is mostly in the front and open plan. My house is set right back from the road and the front is almost level with his back. It is open plan and without fencing I cannot keep him out. There are no houses opposite mine, just the school field. I was told he wanted this house. My husband was a lot older than me and I am disabled, and he thought it would not be long before we turned our toes up and he would have this place at a price set by him. that was almost 25 years ago. Then when the stalking law came in he started damaging the property instead In 2017 he came into the garden and hacked the branches of my 30 year old rambler from the trunk when it was all in bud.

I think he has friends in high places. Last year when the vandalism took place the police told me that I have to prove it was him, even though he is the only one who has access to that area in the back garden. THEN the policeman told me that I should be more friendly to him and then perhaps these things would not happen. Just how friendly should a widow be with the married man next door?

llizzie 😨You need The A Team. pityy it was just a tv show/movie>

((((((((Madd Hugs))))) for all the tree victims here🥦🌿🌳🌲

Definitely illegal. Your property. Put in report to police so you have record of it. Then go to small claims court. Or solicitor if you can afford.

Maybe your neighbours should not have cut your tree. But perhaps you could have trimmed your tree back so it did not hang over the neighbours garden?

Maybe the neighbours shouldn’t have been trespassing on OP’s property and maybe they shouldn’t have been cutting down her tree?

You seem really lovely, Hazel.

I can't believe what the cf neighbour said about it all!

I guess I'll know more when we get some quotes in. We need to get some builder recommendations. I'm not going to go through police or insurers or solicitors, but will find out whether I ask them to make right by replacing and replanting or just removing roots, depending on what builders say.

For those that say it shouldn't overhang their garden, that's a fair point, but one that was never raised with me. However, the trees in their back garden overhang much more significantly into my garden. I've never complained about this because it doesn't bother me, in fact I quite like it. I wouldn't dream of saying to them I'm going to do some work in MY garden as a chit-chat comment and then hop over the fence and lop their trees down! The comment that got me the most was when they said they didn't think they'd be allowed to cut their own tree down! Oh well cut mine down instead then!

On a brighter note, I'm having a baby scan this afternoon.

Good luck with the scan. I would be fuming at that comment too. It makes no sense.

I can't emphasise how important it is to get the roots removed asap especially if you intend to put down a driveway. It takes a while for the surrounding ground to settle and you could end up dips and holes as the ground settles.
Don't just poison the roots and leave them to decompose as that means your driveway could slowly gently subside.
At the end of the day it is your neighbours responsibility, and you need to make sure it is done properly.
Unfortunately DS1 has had problems after removing mature shrubs from his front garden then putting down a driveway.