Neighbouring treehouse

[Spooked7]

I will append a diagram if it helps, but AIBU to ask neighbouring family to take down large wooden treehouse that sits above the level of our fence and dominates the view?
I don’t know the neighbours and don’t want to start a dispute with them, especially as we only recently moved in. However, we had no idea there was a treehouse overlooking our garden. It was disguised by overgrowing trees as the previous owner of our house had passed away over a year before we viewed the house...and the trees hadn’t been cut back for a while. After a few days living here we started to see heads of small boys popping through the trees about 4 feet above our fence. I still didn’t realise it was a treehouse. Then a month later they employed a tree surgeon to cut back the trees as they were overhanging our (small) garden and blocking light from getting in. This exposed the entire, very large, wooden treehouse. It is a platform about 5.5ft off the ground, with a see-through fence panel about another 3 ft in height around its edge. The whole structure sits above the level of our fence. It has some bits of camouflage netting and a sheet of canvas loosely attached, that flap and wave in the wind. It is both intrusive and unsightly and I have no idea what to do about it without angering the neighbours. I have had advice from the council who said they will happily go round and investigate anonymously whether they should have sought planning permission for it, but it would be completely obvious that we instigated it, as it doesn’t really affect anyone else. I know that if/when we decide to sell our house this treehouse will put a lot of people off. It dominates our very small garden.

Has anyone managed to resolve a similar issue without it leading to a dispute?

I'm on your side in this OP but just to echo QueenOfLabradors, please do not even think of planting a Russian vine.

I would HATE this if I were you. And I would be embarrassed as your neighbour if you told me how awful if it for you. I hope it gets sorted.

If they got a tree surgeon to cut down your trees then that's the real issue here. My neighbour cut my seven foot to four which ruined the trees and privacy. Explain to your neighbour that these trees shield the view of the treehouse.

Wow that is very very intrusive. I hope the neighbours are reasonable about it. If not you need to make your garden worse for their children to look out on so its in their interest to take the thing down. Maybe rig up an outdoor cinema with inappropriate films or something

@pollymere
If they got a tree surgeon to cut down your trees then that's the real issue here. My neighbour cut my seven foot to four which ruined the trees and privacy. Explain to your neighbour that these trees shield the view of the treehouse.

Not my trees. They had grown quite some distance into our garden but they are their trees. We didn't mind them at all apart from the dangerous branch that had come down. Their tree surgeon went a bit gung-ho and cut it all back so that literally NONE of their branches overhang our garden at all. I am 100% sure the neighbours didn't ask them to do it. He told me he "opened it all up to give you a bit of light" and I heard him tell the neighbours he'd opened it up so that the boys had some light in the treehouse, and that he was going to come back to cut a third of the tree's height.

Spooked7, you are being amazingly polite to the dim-witted thickos who are incapable of reading.

It’s desperately intrusive, I’m not surprised you’re upset by it.

You can't put a fence higher than two metres, but you can put a free-standing garden feature, eg wooden planters with trellis attached to the back panel of each planter. Put some canvas onto the back of the top part of the trellis to start with, and grow a pretty climber that will eventually cover the whole trellis.

I don't know why people are insisting that you must have know it was there before you bought. When I bought this house I had a tree taken down in my front garden and there was a whole house that I hadn't know existed with a back garden backing onto the side of my front garden. Even my tree surgeon after he took down the tree said "There's a house there, did you know there was a house there?"

@spooked7 My mistake. Maybe a giant buddleia at the bottom of yours then? Mine grew ferociously to over seven feet one summer. It's beautiful, attracts butterflies and covers the view of a car yard.

Can you get a higher fence ?
I would let them keep it it’s probably doing them a lot of good having a place to play at the moment if you get a higher fence or trellis etc maybe it won’t bother you as much

@milkncoffee
Can you get a higher fence ?
I would let them keep it it’s probably doing them a lot of good having a place to play at the moment if you get a higher fence or trellis etc maybe it won’t bother you as much

I have looked into it and would require planning permission for anything over 2m (including appended trellis) and it would need to be 3m to cover the height of the platform and the children on it.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar
Planters and trellis attached would be fine it it wasn't needing to span 3 metres in height and width. I'm not sure how it would be supported against wind.

A lot of you are assuming the tree surgeon didn’t do exactly what was asked of him when he cut so much of the tree back. It is just as likely that he was asked to take so much off so that the children are less likely to injure themselves on a trip that has not been maintained. If they were just employed to remove one branch they wouldn’t have spent time doing all that extra work without being paid for it. Tree surgeons are not cheap and clearing that much tree wouldn’t be done Without it being part of the quote.

Honestly - not enough kids have tree houses!! I would have one if we had the space , or a tree big enough! Though i would make sure it wasnt an issue with the neighbours, which clearly it wasnt when they built it!

If it was there before you bought it it's not really their fault you dont like it, especially if you wanted the trees that hid it pruned so you have more light.

I would just add some screening.

Yet another post where the thread hasn’t been read.
I really can’t see why anyone would ask for advice on here when a good 50% of replies come from people who can’t even be bothered to read the ops posts let alone any of the replies.

Or are just stupid, Proudboomer.

Tree surgeon will of cut what’s been asked for.

“Neighbours complained about branches hanging over so can you cut all the over hang”

And that’s then exactly what’s been done. If it was only one branch that was the issue you really should of just stumped up and then none of this would of become an issue.

@PanamaPattie

I suspect the treehouse wasn't there when the OP viewed and the neighbours had it built during the lockdown summer to keep the kids amused.

Absoultely this.

@bemusedmoose

Clearly you haven't read the thread....
a) I didn't want the trees pruned or ask them to give us more light. I asked them to remove a dangerous bough that had split and fallen a good few metres in height and was hovering precariously over our garden by 5 ft in length. I've already said this many time over in this thread. I'm sure if the owners (or tree surgeon) themselves are reading this thread they will confirm this.
b) I have nothing against treehouses other than when they become platforms overlooking (and dominating) my small garden.
c)I will need planning permission for any form of screening that is over 2m in height (and this would need to be 3), or alternatively rip out our decking to expose some land in which to plant some huge hedges/trees and reduce the usable size of our already small garden by about a quarter.

@OneForMeToo

I could not have foreseen there being a huge treehouse behind the trees.

I'm jumping on from another perspective. If it's new, shiny, interesting, the children will be playing in it.

What normally happens is that they get bored quickly and stop playing in it. They might venture up occasionally and make a noise.

We've had big trampolines used a few times a week for 10 mins. A big play house with different levels used lots in the first few months and then only very occasionally after that, and a big treehouse platform with rope bridges to other trees that was used a grand total of 5 times!

Children will find the next new shiny thing soon enough. My advice to you is not to do anything for a few months and see. They are probably enjoying the novelty of you moving in and being able to spy you from their tree house. This will fade quickly.

Good to see you're back, OP.

You asked if I was drunk

This is what you wrote, now where did I say that?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

Sorry, it was actually pepsicolagirl in a post directly above one of yours and I must have thought it was yours. My apologies for calling you a loon.

@planningaheadtoday

Totally appreciate that they may lose interest, but it remains a blot on the landscape and as such will affect ability to sell. If we remain here for another 5 or so years it will most certainly become a teen hangout. I'm not sure I want to stare at a bunch of teens every time I go out in my garden, or listen to their drunken banter all evening. It's nice for the neighbours that they will be able to park their boys at the farthest corner of their garden and continue to enjoy peace and quiet in their home.

Assuming the tree house stays, in your situation I'd want to provide the screening myself so I'd remove the decking and plant something (possibly Eucalyptus). Otherwise you continue to be at the mercy of the neighbour's decisions about screening removal/reduction.

You mention the tree house would be a problem when you sell, but presumably as you've just moved in trees/shrubs will have time to grow.

When we moved to our current house, the end of our garden was screened by trees in the neighbour's garden which formed a hedgerow and provided privacy. Then one winter the neighbour radically reduced it, putting an end to the privacy we had. So we put in some of our own planting in to ensure we retained privacy. The hedgerow is also growing up again but who knows when the neighbour will fancy attacking it with a chainsaw again.