Enormous tree in neighbour's garden

[treewoes]

I live in a small terraced house. At the bottom of my next door neighbour's garden there's a huge tree. I'd say it's at least three times taller than the surrounding houses... probably about 100ft if I had to guess?

Every day the tree blocks the sunlight in my garden for about 3 hours solid in the early afternoon, before the sun swings back round again in the late afternoon/early evening.

I would really love to get the tree either significantly reduced in height or removed altogether, but obviously it's on my neighbour's land so it's not my call.

I don't know the neighbours at all well (we only moved in six months ago and have barely seen them) and am really nervous to ask them, in case they're annoyed or think I'm interfering.

I'd be willing to pay for some or all of the work if the neighbours weren't happy to do so. DH thinks we should go halves but since we're the ones who have an issue with it, I think it's only fair that we cover the full cost if need be.

Does anyone have any advice on how they would deal with this situation? Do you think it's worth exploring getting the tree cut since I do get sunlight in my garden for about 6 hours a day (but none at all from 12-3)?

And does anyone know how much it would cost to get such an enormous tree cut back or chopped down? Logistically it could be a challenge as the tree is located between two rows of terraces.

Thank you!

The OP may think the tree looks beautiful but still not be able to enjoy her garden because she gets no light.
If having a well lit garden was a priority then surely you'd buy a different property with a South facing garden and not overlooked by trees?
We didn't buy a property when we were house hunting and one of the reasons was the nearby trees would make it all too dark. It never crossed our mind to buy it and then go and ask people to remove their trees.

Now if OP had been in her house a while and a new tree/shrub had suddenly taken off and they called round because it was affecting their garden, I'd be 100% on their side.

frostedviolets
I agree. I'd be polite and it wouldn't sour neighbourly relations, but I'd find it a bit odd that someone bought a property with a large tree near by and within 6 months wanted to see if it could be cut down so they can have 3 hours more sunlight. I'd find the whole thing a little weird.

If a neighbour came to me attempting to bad mouth another neighbour for asking them to cut back their tree I would think they were very odd indeed to put it mildly.

“Reading the whole thread (again) by far the most aggressive person is the OP...”

Frosted in your numerous posts you’ve said “How bloody cheeky and arrogant can you be?!”, said you think I’m a “cheeky fucker”, called me selfish, arrogant, entitled and unbelievably rude. You’ve written numerous posts attacking and attacking.

Yet when I responded to call out your posts as rude, you have the gall to say I’m the aggressive one? It seems like you’re more than happy to give it out but can’t take it back.

You come across as very wound up, hysterical and massively over-invested and it’s a bit odd to be honest. Can you just leave me alone please? I don’t want to engage with you any further.

I think it is worth having sounding out the neighbour to see how they feel, but just keep in mind that they might like the tree.

I’ve been in the situation of being the neighbour with the big tree who was approached a couple of times (different gardens). The first time we said yes if they paid for it because actually we wanted the light and space but just didn’t have the money spare to pay to have the work done.

The second time, fairly recently, we said no because the tree in question. gives us privacy. The person asking was a property developer who was aware that the tree would block a lot of light to the property he was proposing to build close to our boundary. But we like the tree and don’t want to look at a house instead.

Cost will depend hugely on type of tree, more than the height.

Come off it.

You posted in AIBU.
AIBU is an opinion board, 'am I being unreasonable?'
In my opinion, yes you are.
What you are proposing IS 'bloody cheeky' and 'arrogant'

I said if I was your neighbour i would think you are...
Which I would.
Am I not allowed to secretly think that of people?

I haven't been 'attacking' and 'attacking' at all.

I've given you suggestions to help you maximise light without cutting the tree and told you how I personally (and quite likely your neighbour based on the number of similar posts) would feel if I was your neighbour.

You have put out post after post calling out everyone who dares disagree with you 'rude', 'nasty person', 'unreasonable' etc etc etc

Because you can't seem to handle anything other than 'yes OP go and ask, it'll be totally fine!'

I think the OP is getting unnecessary hard time.

We have some huge 100ft plus trees in our garden, a neighbour came and asked if we would reduce the height/remove one for similar reasons to the OP. They offered to pay half and I didn't exactly 'laugh them out of the garden' but I didn't take them up on it. If they had offered to pay for all of it I would have said yes.

Three years later, said tree starts ditching huge branches so we have paid for it to be reduced considerably (100ft to 20ft) ... at our own cost!! (£750 @treewoes South Manchester area)

We have a big pine tree and had 1/3 cut back as we felt sorry for our neighbours (it doesn't cast any shadow on our property at all). It cost £800. One Thing to bear in mind is certain trees can't be cut back very much in one go; they need to be done annually in small amounts. It's not as simple as just paying a one off cost. Your neighbours may not be in a position to commit to an annual expense.

"Because you can't seem to handle anything other than 'yes OP go and ask, it'll be totally fine!"

That's not true - lots of posters have expressed different opinions and have been able to do so in a constructive and polite way. Why are you incapable of doing that?

I also mentioned a few pages ago that I have a lot going on in my life at the moment and yet you STILL keep on. I will ask you again - please leave me alone.

We were the neighbour with the big tree - huge pine that shed needles & cones everywhere but me & dh are basically lazy arses & so we’d moan about it occasionally too each other but do nothing

NDN came round and said impinging on their light/loads of needles etc & son was a tree surgeon, would we mind if they trimmed it? We said you can take the whole lot down if you like. They took it down and it made a huge difference to the garden. The tree was so big it had ruined the soil in that part of the garden by taking all the nutrients & nothing would grow around it. Few years later lots of lovely new plants where it used to be

OP it’s worth a polite chat - you never know! X

That's not true - lots of posters have expressed different opinions and have been able to do so in a constructive and polite way. Why are you incapable of doing that?

I also mentioned a few pages ago that I have a lot going on in my life at the moment and yet you STILL keep on. I will ask you again - please leave me alone

There's nothing particularly aggressive and attacking to you personally in what I wrote!
This is just ridiculous.

And plenty of us have 'a lot going on in our lives', myself included.
You aren't the only one suffering.

I will leave the thread but only because I think you are being beyond silly finding aggression where there isn't any and I have no interest in being accused of being vicious when all I've done (along with huge volumes of other people) is tell you that I personally think you are unreasonable (which is the whole point of AIBU) and tell you how I would feel if I was the neighbour.

To be honest it's pretty rude to have a
Large tree on your property and not manage it. Big trees need looking after. OP you can't expect to have a specimen tree cut down but it's entirely reasonable to expect a neighbour to look after their tree. I suspect some of the posters on here have large trees in their garden that they don't want to pay the significant costs of management.

OP doesn’t say the tree is not maintained, she’s complaining it’s blocking her light for 3 hours and for that she wants a big tree which brings huge benefits to her environment chopped.

Even though she presumably did notice it when she was buying her house.

Big trees need looking after. I wonder how they cope in the wild?

@gwackywacky

@Djimino I'm actually pretty pissed off that that comment got deleted, because it makes it look as if I was indeed being rude to the OP. In reality that comment just said to stop being a planet killer

C’mon, that’s simply not true. 🙄

But they are not in the wild (which also need looking after btw - suspect your local councils parks dept spends a significant budget looking after its trees) are in a residential area and owners have a duty of care to their neighbours to manage their trees.

We have a massive specimen beech. Over 100 years old (as is the house). It needs looking after and by being looked after will hopefully have another 100 years.

We had a huge tree with a TPO on in our last house. Trunk was probably well over 1m in diameter and the garden was only about 5m x 3m, so it took over our garden and about 3 others.
It was, and still is, a beautiful tree. Absolutely stunning-in a park.
It did mean that we could keep the washing out even if it poured as no rain ever got through it.

We paid half with the neighbours to get it trimmed.

However they offered after I'd said to them we'd just had a quote (and permission) to have it trimmed and we weren't going to be doing it that year as it was more than I'd expected. A few weeks later they came and offered to pay half, which was lovely of them, but certainly not expected.

It's also worth noting that when the tree preservation chap came round, he said it shouldn't have been left when they built the houses, because it was too close. BUT if it was taken out now, the roots would then shrink and it would almost certainly cause subsidence to not just our sets of houses, but also the ones opposite.
He gave us the maximum amount of trimming he reckoned the tree would cope with, which, if I remember rightly was about 30%.

We were out for the day and when I came back I said it looked like a telegraph pole in the back garden.
However cutting it definitely stimulated it, and within a couple of years it was back with a vengeance (we'd moved by then, but you can see it over the top of the houses), and the PTO says you can't trim it more than every 5? years.
It really is a beautiful tree.

Yes, OP you are having a hard time, fallng foul of some of MN's unnecessarily spiteful bile.

Perfectly reasonable to ask politely if NDN would allow the tree to be reduced or removed at your expense.

Our NDN at the side, local almshouses, asked if they could remove some of our large tree as it was overhanging the area where they hoped to put a shed for their residents' use. Yes, why not?

Similarly we told the neighbours at the bottom of the garden that we wanted to remove a huge Eucalyptus that we had planted 19 years ago. They were thrilled, they wanted it removed but hadn't liked to ask.

You might find the same, OP, just ask nicely.

frostedViolets

I don’t know if you are being deliberately disingenuous or not but your posts are coming across as snide and aggressive. Your posts come across as though you are deliberately trying to upset the OP. Is that your intention or not? If it isn’t then why are you continuing with hounding her?

There have been plenty of posters who have disagreed with the OP but have done so in a perfectly reasonable way.

I only read to page 5 because I got sick of the posts assuming you want to chop down a centuries old oak tree and pictures of people's obviously not suburban gardens.

OP I too live in a terrace and there was a neighbour with a similarly large tree at the back of us. Horribly shading both my house and garden. Nobody dared say anything because of, well, read this thread. Then a new neighbour moved in, thought 'fuck this', went round and had a nice chat and lo! The tree was chopped down. The rest of us were all like the munchkins dancing round and singing ding dong the witch is dead as it went.

It wasn't a beautiful tree it was a huge monstrosity sucking the light and moisture from everything around it quite frankly. If only one of us had summoned the ovaries to do it years ago!!

I know you've said up thread you're probably going to leave it now but just a thought from me...

Live with it for a year and see how you get on. I know you've been there 6 months already but a tree giving shade from 12 to 3 in the summer months would be a bonus from my perspective. Lovely shade and respite on a hot summer's day. We have a couple of medium sized trees in our garden and during this summer the shade they gave us in the hottest part of the day was great with our kids - we could picnic under them or set toys up under them for example.

I know trees that have got out of hand for the size of the garden can be troublesome though. We've had a similar experience both in our last flat with a neighbours massive tree encroaching across our kitchen window (they eventually removed it when it started to damage their own property) and our current neighbour's massive pine tree which had to be removed as it threatened to topple in high winds as it had been neglected and left to get out of control. I did feel a bit sorry for the forlorn magpies that used to nest in the tree though and looked mighty puzzled when only a stump remained.

@frostedviolets

Come off it.

You posted in AIBU.

Yes, it's an invitation for people to give their opinions, not to be mauled in a bear pit.

i think it's ridiculous that you would buy a house with a feature you didn't like and that you are well aware is beyond your scope to affect... sure ask your neighbour. if you knocked on my door i'd be saying no.

I don’t know if you are being deliberately disingenuous or not but your posts are coming across as snide and aggressive. Your posts come across as though you are deliberately trying to upset the OP. Is that your intention or not? If it isn’t then why are you continuing with hounding her?

There have been plenty of posters who have disagreed with the OP but have done so in a perfectly reasonable way.

Honestly, genuinely, do not think I have been overly rude or aggressive or attacking.
I really don't.
🤷‍♀️

As I say, I won't respond much on this thread anymore because I'm obviously not coming across too well and upsetting some people but it certainly wasn't my intention.
I really don't feel I have been particularly horrible though.

I'm sorry you're having a rough time OP.

We have a small and very nice tree in our front garden. I'm quite fond of it. Someone on our road absolutely hates the tree (not next door neighbour but several doors down so not blocking light or overhanging or anything) because in the autumn it sheds leaves and sometimes they blow onto the pavement.

Every single year she knocks on my door around the beginning of October and asks if I feel like cutting it down. This year she had actually booked someone to do the job the next day (!!!!!) and knocked to ask if it was alright to send him round!

This is despite me saying a very firm no every time.

However, as the tree is blocking your light I actually don't think there's anything wrong with asking as long as you're willing to pay and as long as you make it clear that you totally accept their right to refuse. To be honest I don't mind my neighbour asking really, it gives me a small chuckle each year.