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?

@DickBastardly

uprooting the entire community with your demands

The master of hyperbole. OP isn't even planning to uproot the individual tree with the offending treehouse in it.

OP, find out if they're breaking rules, and if so, let the council deal with it. Otherwise, laylandii will fix your problem within a year of two. But I think the former is more likely than the latter.

Your drawing is great.

I'd just pop over with the before and after photos abs explain that you now feel very overlook. I'm sure most people will be horrified and take it down. I doubt the parents have any idea it's like this your side as they won't be going up the tree and might be more covered their side still

I don't really understand the 'you should have noticed when you bought the house' argument. The structure is likely to be breaking regulations.

If you don't notice that the neighbours dog keeps coming through the fence and fouling on your lawn until after you move in, does that mean you just have to put up with it, because he's been doing it for years?

There's no way that structure is reasonable! Council .

Do try and talk to them, if you complain to the council it will have to be declared when you sell and will put their backs up. Invite them into your garden to see for themselves and discuss options for moving it or screening it. For example would you be happy with it staying if they replaced the see through panel with a solid panel on your side?

@GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat it's north west facing so very little light at all at the moment. The kids aren't particularly noisy but they do sound like they are hanging out in our garden, and it feels like they are as well....because they are right there at our eye level. I'm working in my dining area facing the glass doors out to the garden and I see them playing there. We only moved in recently so we haven't been here over the summer when I suspect it gets more use.

I am more concerned about the effect this thing might have if I try to sell in a couple of years (which was the plan). I doubt there'll be anywhere near as much leaf coverage by then.

That tree house is newly built. If you lock at the bottom of the build you can see nice new shiny silver brackets holding the base together. I doubt it was there when you looked at the property as it has nil signs of weathering.
I would speak to the neighbors and if they don’t come up with a decent remedy to the overlooking issue I would go the council route.

@Eckhart

I don't really understand the 'you should have noticed when you bought the house' argument. The structure is likely to be breaking regulations.

If you don't notice that the neighbours dog keeps coming through the fence and fouling on your lawn until after you move in, does that mean you just have to put up with it, because he's been doing it for years?

I think the onus is on to notice because if it's a deal breaker then you wouldn't buy the house would you? Nobody in their right mind would buy a house knowing that the garden would be overlooked by a tree house if they knew it was breaking regulations and that you'd have a legal battle over planning permission or building regulations, you'd run for the hills surely?

PPs are right about the plant species, eucalyptus and laurel are both fast growing (especially the eucalyptus, one of the fastest growing tree species) so with a bit of luck next year they will grow back and obscure it again. If it was back to how it was before, would it still bother you? I think in the meantime I would want to block the view, so I would either attach trellis to the top of the fence and grow something speedy on it (Clematis montana perhaps, rather than the Polygonum "Mile A Minute" although both are somewhat enthusiastic in growing style), or the sail thing that PPs suggested, or bamboo but only the non-invasive clumping type. Fortunately as winter approaches they are less likely to want to play out there.

I do think it's worth a try inviting them round to see the issue and being pleasant about it. They do seem helpful and considerate type of people, after all they did employ somebody to sort out the broken branch and it was probably not their fault that the resulting work exposed the treehouse, it's unlikely that they instructed the tree surgeon to do that.

I invited my neighbour round (for a different reason) and he was startled by how much their trees overhung our garden and loomed over us; their garden is twice as wide as ours and he genuinely didn't realise how imposing and enclosing they were in our smaller garden. He now keeps them pruned to a sensible level, so he still has privacy but they are not too overwhelming for us. It's one of those things where a picture speaks a thousand words, and if your neighbours see just how obviously you're overlooked now, they might actually want to place a screen at the side of the treehouse that faces your garden? A lot of people are reasonable when you are reasonable to them.

And BTW, I've never gone poking neighbouring gardens and parting leaves to see what's there when viewing houses, nobody I know ever does that. I don't think you're to blame for not doing that, it seems ridiculous!

[quote Spooked7]@tasmaniandevilchaser yes it reminds me of the viewing platforms at the zoo.[/quote]
viewing platform is the phrase that came to my mind when I saw your photo
apalling!
I'd be reluctant to complain.... if they are so lacking in self awareness/so entitled that they've not seen it's a problem I don't imagine they will cope well with a request to compromise their wishes!
I'd put up something to block their view!

I have ringed the new brackets. No way is this an old structure with the brackets this shiny. It was put up this summer as it hasn’t weathered yet.

So how was I going to notice something that not even my surveyor noticed (despite me instructing him to check what was over the fence, albeit to see if there was an electrical substation on the other side)? No substation but no mention of a treehouse.

Hmm in which case I'd be inclined to report. Your garden small with limited light and I don't think I could cope with the intrusion in the limited space (and into your house)

I wonder if it went up during spring lockdown. I'm curious what it's built on top of. It looks quite solid. Is it some kind of shed/wood store? I also noticed the new galvanised brackets.

Do planning queries count as a dispute that must be declared when you come to sell?

@slothtrot

I think the onus is on to notice because if it's a deal breaker then you wouldn't buy the house would you? Nobody in their right mind would buy a house knowing that the garden would be overlooked by a tree house if they knew it was breaking regulations and that you'd have a legal battle over planning permission or building regulations, you'd run for the hills surely

So if someone is breaking the law, it's everybody's responsibility not to buy the house next door to them, rather than the responsibility of the authorities to enforce the law?

If you plan on selling up in a few years what do you think will hamper a sale more. A tree house that if you don’t complain about the branches will be a lot more covered or a neighbour dispute within months of moving in?

Horrendous! Call the council, let them deal with it.

Re. My last comment about the solid base, it was more to do with whether the structure could be moved away from the boundary and substantially lowered (not so much fun for the kids admittedly).

If they're told they have to dismantle it and react badly there's the chance they might put a massive trampoline there and cut away the remaining trees just to piss you off 😬

If there's a woodstore/storage underneath less chance of the trampoline scenario!

@GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat no if they needed pp and didn't seek it then it will be flagged as a planning issue and not a dispute with me. It would be between them and the council. It would become a dispute if they didn't need pp and I still tried to get them to remove it, I guess. I'm not planning to get into a dispute with them. That's why I posted her for advise on how (if possible) to resolve this issue.

But does it matter how old the structure is? It was previously cloaked by evergreen foliage. The NDN didn't prune it to look like that themselves, it was a third party who decided the extent of the pruning. If they had taken off that much themselves then they would be aware that OP's house was now overlooked.

I would definitely want to assume that it wasn't a deliberate and entitled act, simply one of those things. Asking them to place a solid panel on the side facing OP is reasonable, wanting it torn down is less so and more likely to cause annoyance and upset.

@GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat they already have a massive trampoline right up against my next-door neighbours' fence....about 4m to the left of my photo.

@contrmary

Generally you'd need planning permission to build a treehouse, and part of the consideration for this would be whether it would allow them to look into other people's property. Ask the council to look into it and hopefully it will be taken down.

There is a risk it will sour neighbourly relations, but is that worse than having your quality of life diminished?

Failing that, now it's getting darker in the evenings, could you wait until they've gone out, hop over the fence and pull the thing down? Use a windy night as cover.

LOL!

I agree the brackets look new as does the wood.
Realistically you have two options and both may be needed. Firstly talk to them but put in writing the problem in a polite manner. Ask them to phone you once they have your note inviting them to come into your garden to see the level of intrusion. Be clear that you need a solution that is acceptable to you.

If this proves futile you then need to contact the council and put it in their hands moving forward.

It’s just too big and high, too close and too intrusive. This will be a nightmare next Spring onwards if not resolved. It’s selfish and unfair to build a structure like that so close to a boundary. Fine in a mansion with huge acreage and no immediate neighbours but not in your case.

You need to pop round and ask to have a chat about it. Show them the pics.

At the very least they need to make a solid barrier so that no one can peer into your garden.

Making a complaint to the council is a last resort as you'll have to declare it when you sell the house. However, if the neighbours are not amenable to doing something about the eyesore they've created than you should get onto the council asap so that it's resolved sooner rather than later, and hopefully it'll be the only thing you'll have to put on the sale forms.

If they’re you’re neighbour behind I wouldn’t worry too much about the relationship. It’s not like being next door. That looks like raised decking rather than a treehouse. We had this on my road at the end of a sloping garden so it was quite high up. Planning wasn’t granted (on retrospective app) and it had to come down in the end.