Neighbours apple tree

[Rudolphian]

So we have lived in our house for over 10 years.
We have neighbours to the left and right of our house. We also have neightbours that border the back of our garden.
We have never met these neighbours and I'm not even really sure what street they live on.
We can see the back of their house. Their garden is really overgrown. I have never noticed anyone in their garden or their house. Their upstairs curtain dont open or shut depending on the time of day.
Anyway they have three fruit trees that border our back fence. A plum, apple and pear tree.
We cant reach the plum tree from our garden. If we lean over the fence we can easily access the pear tree. The branches of the apple tree over the years has started growing over the fence into our garden.
Early sSpring my husband was doing some work on the garden and was going to cut the branches that lean over the fence. I told him to leave it and we'll just take the apples when they grow.
In the last 10 years the neighbours have never collected any fruit from the trees and usually just leave them to drop off the trees.
Are we being CF's if we take the apples this autumn?
Extra info
both kids can reach the branches so they are always taking the unripe apples and using them to make potions or in the garden.
I wouldn't be able to locate the front of the house if I tried. I really dont know what street they are based on due to the layout of the local streets, and even if I could I wouldn't be sure which house is theirs.
Pic showing the branches and apples.

God I sound cheeky, the cherry tree hangs over my garden.

@Rudolphian

We dont take the pears. We've got our own pear tree and get loads. We also have a dwarf apple tree, we planted it 8 years ago, but it hasn't produced any fruit. I think we just planted it in the wrong place. The last 4 years the dwarf tree produces lots of blossom but they just fall off.

You need a cross-pollinator for your apple tree.... Apples need male and female to bear fruit. Some are self fertile (i.e. you only need one tree) some need another tree and some need two other trees. They need to come from certain groups to match your tree. If you tell me the variety of tree I can probably work out what you need to pollinate it.

Not cheeky - just choose to prune the branches when they're in full fruit :-)
Better still, pop round and have a word with them. You can look on the deeds?

Normal scrumpin' rules apply when the fruit overhangs.

I would take fruit from all 3 if I wanted it and they don’t touch it

Legally, like posters above say, you can prune the tree but have to give the branches (and I imagine the fruit) back. You have to offer them back - that's not the same as give. Giving back the branches without seeing if they want them is technically fly tipping.

Apples need male and female to bear fruit. No they don't - with one or two exceptions, they all have both female parts and viable pollen. What they can't do is pollinate themselves. So if you have two trees flowering at the same time, A can pollinate B and B can pollinate A. If you needed a male and a female, then the female would bear fruit but the male wouldn't. (The exceptions are a small number of varieties that don't have pollen, so aren't able to reciprocate, so you grow a 3rd tree to act as a pollinator for the pollinator.)

OP may simply not have a nearby tree which flowers at the same time.

@MereDintofPandiculation

Legally, like posters above say, you can prune the tree but have to give the branches (and I imagine the fruit) back. You have to offer them back - that's not the same as give. Giving back the branches without seeing if they want them is technically fly tipping.

Apples need male and female to bear fruit. No they don't - with one or two exceptions, they all have both female parts and viable pollen. What they can't do is pollinate themselves. So if you have two trees flowering at the same time, A can pollinate B and B can pollinate A. If you needed a male and a female, then the female would bear fruit but the male wouldn't. (The exceptions are a small number of varieties that don't have pollen, so aren't able to reciprocate, so you grow a 3rd tree to act as a pollinator for the pollinator.)

OP may simply not have a nearby tree which flowers at the same time.

this is pretty much exactly what I said..... why on earth the need to pull it apart?? Apples need the male and female to form (and yes they are on the same tree!). Some can fertilze themselves and some can't. They do need to come from certain groups to cross pollinate each other, so it's not just flowering at the same time. There are simple tables available online as to what cross-pollinates what. www.rhs.org.uk/advice/pdfs/applepollinationgroups.pdf So if the OP is unlucky and has a tree in group 6 or 7, there is very little that will cross pollinate, and she will need a 2nd tree.

The tree does get pollinated.
It's just when the apples are a few mm big they drop off. This year one started growing, it got to about 2 inches long before it dropped off.
I think the tree for some reason can't support the growth of the apples.

If a tree was extending its arms out to me offering me free fruit- i wouldn't be looking for anyone else's permission.......