Tree in my garden

[PumpkinP]

Just had a letter posted through my door from a neighbour, must be the house behind, saying they want me to cut my tree down, I have never spoken to this neighbour so this is the first I’ve heard, they have said that they have been in contact with the council to get the tree cut down, before even speaking to me?! (Mine is a council house) and that the council will be contacting me to arrange it but that it may take up to a year and that apparently they are not willing to wait a year! They are also saying they’ve had issues since 2010 but I’ve only lived here since 2015. Aibu to not want to cut my tree?

Is the council your landlord? Often “council” houses are owned and rented by a social housing company not the council themselves. Regardless, the decision is up to your landlord. You can write to them and say you’d prefer the tree to stay.

We have 4 massive 20ft conifers in our garden that are a frigging nightmare. They were here when we moved in about 18 months ago and they've never been maintained properly so they're really brown/dead at the centre and can't be cut back too much as they'd just be dead, brown messes. Our neighbour came round the day we moved in to ask if we could cut them because the previous owners never did anything and they block loads of light for him. I was pretty taken aback given we'd literally just moved in but we got the trimmed back about 6 months later as I felt really bad. Cost £200 and to be honest there wasn't a huge difference as they're in such poor condition they couldn't be taken back enough.
Neighbour is the nosiest sod I've ever met and I like the trees because they give us some privacy but they're out of control again. We're getting a quote this week for removing them entirely but given there are four and they're massive I'm not sure we can afford it. However I certainly wouldn't be doing the work if I was in a rented property. If the council have said they'll do it in a year, then he'll have to make do with that unless he wants to pay for the work himself. Don't let him bully you!

Conifers need to be trimmed each year or else they get really woody and lanky. They are not generally suited for gardens as they grow very fast. They're often not very popular with birds either.

But your neighbour can cut back branches that grow over his garden.

I am another who cannot understand people who move to a property then start complaining to various neighbours about trees, hedges etc in their gardens which were clearly visible when they bought.

I can't understand selfish arses who plant trees on boundaries that get massive then get pissy when people complain.

Once again I didn’t plant it

I was replying to the quoted poster not referring to you.

You’re a tenant; the tree belongs to the landlord and they get the final say on whether the tree stays or goes.

I don't think that's true.
If a tenant planted the tree it's got nothing to do with the council unless it's a danger. Same as if a tenant planted a rose bush or daffodils. I can't imagine that the council planted it originally. Tenants are allowed to garden.
If you like the tree keep it. It's your garden.

The neighbour cannot require you to do anything since the tree is the landlord’s, not yours. If he is not willing to wait that long, he’ll need to move house. The council will decide in due course what needs to happen with the tree and you can either sit tight or try to influence the course of events, but you don’t have any particular duty towards the neighbour for an established tree in a property you started renting 5 years ago.

@PumpkinP

People need to remember I didn’t plant the tree I have lived in the house 5 years, my house was built in the 50s

But have you been maintaining it, pruning and having tree surgeon etc out each year? That's the responsibility of it being in your garden. I'd also respond to the neighbour that you have spoken to the council and nfa will be happening. But as per the law any overhanging branches he is free to cut and dispose of.

Tree surgeon every year for an established tree? I have 15 huge pines, protected, in my garden, an oak and a horse chestnut. We chop off dead branches as and when and remove processionary caterpillar nests. There is not much more you can do with a conifer, they don’t take kindly to being ‘reduced’.

OP I like them! I have some at the bottom of my garden admittedly they are not massive about 7/8 foot and are kept trimmed (my house doesn't back onto another house)

Your neighbour doesn't have any right to natural light so if he's coming from that angle he won't get anywhere with the council. As long as they are not posing a danger to any house but from what you have said they don't appear to be then I can't see why the council won't let you keep it. It's up to your neighbour if he wants to keep it trimmed back on his side.

@madcatladyforever

Tell the tree nazis to piss right off and then say it again. Tough shit for them, you are not obliged to cut the tree down and you can contest it with the council as it is compromising your privacy. They can bluster all they want but there is nothing they can do about it. My neighbours went on about the trees for the whole 15 years I lived there and got nowhere, I got a protection order on the tree just before I left to piss them off and they were livid. Not to be awkward but trees are being felled so much we practically live in a barren landscape and there is nowhere for animals and insects to go.

What a spiteful thing to do try to see things from their point

@YouDirtyMare some people will never see it from the other side until they are the other side. Luckily OP isn't a dickhead like this poster and actually sounds very reasonable.
This TPO reminds me of the dick who painted their neighbours side of fence grey just out of spite too.

"Your neighbour doesn't have any right to natural light" maybe not by law, but goodness me that's a sad reflection on society if that's the way people think.

@TheMostHappy - the council doesn't work on what is nice or makes people happy they look at law and the law states that no one has the right to natural light. Unfortunately for the neighbour that's just how it is, yes it might not be very nice for him but that still doesn't mean that OP should cut her tree down.

I think conifers should be judged by different standards to other threes. Not just light. If it is by the fence, it is affecting soil quality even behind the fence. Frankly they should be banned in small gardens unless in a pot.

Don't agree to cut the tree down if there's no need!!!!
It's your garden.

"If the branches of a neighbour’s tree start to grow over to your side, you can cut them back to the boundary point between you and your neighbour’s property, as long as the tree is not under a tree preservation order. If it is, you’ll need to seek further clarification. However, the branches and any fruit on them which you may have cut down on your side still belong to the tree owner so they can ask you to return them."

OK OP?

Not to be awkward but trees are being felled so much we practically live in a barren landscape and there is nowhere for animals and insects to go.

Insects and animals are actually quite picky about the trees they live in. In Scandinavian or Scottish forests conifers are full of wildlife and surrounded by undergrowth because they've got the right kind of insects and birds that eat them. Even in a Scandinavian forest you will never see a butterfly or a ladybird lighting on a fir tree: they stick to clearings with deciduous shrubs.
In a landscape where all the wildlife has evolved to live in deciduous trees, you're not going to get the beasties that thrive on conifers. So the contribution to wildlife by keeping conifers is likely to be zilch.

Not to be awkward but trees are being felled so much we practically live in a barren landscape and there is nowhere for animals and insects to go.

I certainly don't live in a barren landscape. Where on earth are you?

The right tree in the right place is key - not just any tree anywhere.

@PumpkinP

No because the tree doesn’t benefit him but I’m not interested in what benefits him it’s my garden and I want privacy

😟 really!!!

@PumpkinP

Once again I didn’t plant it

We do understand you didn’t plant and it’s not your fault the tree is there. You acquired it, we get that

However, if somebody acquires a lawn when they move into a property does that mean they shouldn’t ever mow it because it was already there. Same for trees

Trees affect more than one household if left to grow wild. That’s great in a park or large areas but not in an average sized garden

There were several large leylandai in my garden when I bought the house. My neighbours asked if I minded cutting them. I took them down, thinking I was being neighbourly.
Last summer they began erecting (badly) a kind of covered shelter on the boundary where the trees were. I now have to listen to thumping music, laughing, shouting etc until gone midnight most weekends, not to mention the constant fire he has on the go in the same area.

Cant help but think had the trees been there he would have sited his 'party barn' elsewhere and I'd have had some protection from the smoke. I'd never remove a tree at a neighbours behest again.

I am another who cannot understand people who move to a property then start complaining to various neighbours about trees, hedges etc in their gardens which were clearly visible when they bought

True to an extent but trees grow. You move in, and they're small. 10 years later, they've become 20 feet high! And the neighbour won't cut it down even though it could be really dangerous in a storm. My mum's neighbour has a hideous fir tree outside her house. It is huge and could hit several houses if it gets blown over or struck by lightning. I have even offered to pay for it to be chopped down but the neighbour refuses because she likes it. Council won't do anything.

That's kind of my point... it may be the law that people don't have a right to natural light, but that doesn't make it right, considerate, fair or kind to deprive someone of it.

I think you do have a right to light, if it's been established over a long [20 years?)] period of time. I wouldn't choose to have conifers/firs in my garden, but our garden had several when we bought it. We got rid of maybe two or three, due to them dying off. On one side of our garden we have a fir hedge. This is on a joint boundary and is trimmed every year by us, keeping it to around eight feet high. We employ someone to do this and it stretches for about 210 metres, so not cheap.

On the other side we have very high trees, including firs. I absolutely love all the wildlife making use of this, and the families that come back year after year. That side was adjacent to a school playing field - no properties affected by our trees or lack of light. As is so often the case, that playing field has been redundant for several years when the school was closed and merged with another. Now, nearly 200 properties are being built on the land. We have a one-storey house and I'm sure we'll be overlooked by many properties and lose most of our light. So, thank God for the part of our garden that has many large trees to block out those new properties from us.