Neighbour cut down our trees!

[BeccaM91]

Hi everyone, looking for some advice on this please.

I came home this morning after dropping my son at nursery to find my side gate open and a ladder propped up against the neighbours house. No one was around to challenge about it so I shut the gate and waited for them to come back. I don’t know this neighbour as he is the landlord who is doing up the property for his new tenants who are about to move in.

He knocked and asked for access to remove the ivy growing on his house as our side fence goes right up to their property. I told him not to access my property without asking. I said I’m perfectly happy for you to access with permission but it’s unacceptable to just come in. He responded saying that he knocked and no one was in. I replied that it didn’t matter and that he should have waited. I had a stroppy one year old to deal with so just politely said it’s fine and went inside.

Ive just looked outside and in order to get a ladder close enough to remove his ivy he has cut almost all of my small, admittedly wild and unkept trees which grew in front of the fence down and now he can see right into my garden.

I’m not one for confrontation and my husband is round there now challenging it but the landlord is not around.

Any advice on where I stand on this? Should I have expected it? I assumed he would be able to remove the ivy without cutting everything down.

First time poster and not sure how annoyed I am allowed to be?

TIA!

Down to ground level?!?! Who does he think he is!

OP, he is in the wrong legal wise, certainly gaining access without permission and chopping your trees down. But, is it possible that a survey has pulled up foundation issues with the tree roots, being as they are so close to your houses?
If they did need to be removed for this reason, the stumps should be removed also.

I think you were a bit rude with him to start with. Are your trees very close to his house? It’s a bit unreasonable to have large trees very close to neighbours, as they can damage the foundations. Cutting them down though, without consent was out of order.

I think you were a bit rude with him to start with

for asking someone not to enter her garden without asking?

@Bessica it’s rude to tell people to not come on your property while you aren’t home? I’m sorry but that confuses me. Does she not have the right to say who is allowed on her property?

Definitely bill him

What type of trees were they? He shouldn't have done that without asking but it could
be that it was well intentioned especially if your garden is a bit overrun.

Ivy can be very distructive. It's a good sign that he is trying to look after his property I suppose.

What type of trees were they? He shouldn't have done that without asking but it could
be that it was well intentioned especially if your garden is a bit overrun.

Why does he get to decide how OPs garden should look like?

What did he say to your DH when he went round? What a CF

I can't picture this. Can we have a diagram please?

Why does he get to decide how OPs garden should look like?

I agree. He shouldn't. However if her trees were really overgrown it might explain why he did it.

He did it because he's a wanker.

Would any decent person go in someone's garden and get lopping off trees?

Your friend here is 101, as that's dearly criminal damage and theft. The police won't give it priority but you will get a police reference number.

You need to do this now, not leave t, as that will form part of your small claims . Talking to the landlord will be useful but make the 101 report first - it's not the landlord that did it but a contractor in his behalf. We don't know if landlord told him to or not. If he did you won't get anywhere with landlord and time is ticking in your response., so make that call to log it first,

I need a diagram too.

I can’t picture how your trees are in the way of the ladder.

He needs to buy you a replacement tree , what the fuck does he think he is doing cutting down your tree !!