Neighbours trees interfering with my Sky

[SamW98]

The last few weeks my Sky keeps breaking up. I got a mate who's an engineer to have a look in case there was a fault and he said the reason is that my neighbours have very high trees which have grown and are now directly in the line of where my signal is being received.

So I gave them a knock and, very politely asked if they could just cut the tops down a bit and explained why. The man who lives there looked me up and down and said 'how sad is it that you think watching tv more important than trees that have been there since before I was born' and shut the door

Now I'm not asking him to cut the trees down just cut the top back so I can watch my Sky without it breaking up

AIBU if I now cut the tops back myself? They do overhang into my garden anyway?

Pay for getting your dish moved will be cheaper than you paying for a tree surgeon. You can't trim trees this time of year either.

I'm surprised your neighbour was that polite tbh. I would have thought you were a loon thinking your Sky signal is more important than nesting birds or the immediate environment.

your neighbour is right. Trees are definitely much more important than watching TV.

Can your engineer mate not just move your sky dish? Or you could get Virgin instead, no dish required.

@Liverbird77

He sounds like an utter dick! I actually would prefer to look at the TV rather than a tree.

What??????

When sky first came out if it rained the signal went, thunderstorms were even worse. So I think moving a sky dish to avoid trees is an awesome option. All we could do was curse the weather and wish it would feck off.

Thank you for all of the polite responses. I've taken on board what's been said despite the incorrect assumptions been made about me

I did ask if the dish could be moved but was told that the it can't be moved any higher than it already is (its already on a pole having been moved previously) and that it needs to be on that side of the house - looking from my garden, all the houses on this side have their dishes in a pretty much identical position.
But I will call Sky and get someone to look at it properly rather than just give it a quick once over as the previous bloke did

With the trees, they do overhang my garden quite a lot. We've trimmed branches before that were lower down.
They've grown a lot since we've been here. I've still got the pole up from a basketball net the kids used to play with when we first moved in and the net used to be above the trees. Now the highest branches are a good metre above the top of the net

I like the trees, it gives a nice bit of privacy between our house and the neighbours - its actually our side and his back garden but without any trees, my bedroom window would be in full view of thee garden so I don't want to lose the trees, I only really want the top bit trimmed down but I accept others think this isn't a reasonable request and I will look at what other options are possibly available

Unfortunately, we don't have fibre option or cable available where we live. We seem to be in a bit of a blackspot - we only have BT or Sky internet available and service is pretty hit and miss on both.

@Caramelsmadfuzzytail

When sky first came out if it rained the signal went, thunderstorms were even worse. So I think moving a sky dish to avoid trees is an awesome option. All we could do was curse the weather and wish it would feck off.

That still happens now. I lost my signal for a few hours on Friday when we had a storm

I used to have a 23 storey office block interfering with my TV signal, I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t ask the owners to knock off a few floors.

What sort of trees are they? If they are leylandii forming a hedge you may have some recourse.

I'm surprised your neighbour was that polite tbh. I would have thought you were a loon thinking your Sky signal is more important than nesting birds or the immediate environment.

Both are important. it comes across as a bit faux-snobby to suggest that a householder should just have to completely do without access to television, because of one specific tree in one specific place that apparently represents the whole of nature.

@Temp023

I used to have a 23 storey office block interfering with my TV signal, I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t ask the owners to knock off a few floors.

Daft. 😂

@Temp023

I used to have a 23 storey office block interfering with my TV signal, I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t ask the owners to knock off a few floors.

Funny though! 😂

I used to have a 23 storey office block interfering with my TV signal, I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t ask the owners to knock off a few floors.

But did they originally build it much lower and then just keep adding another storey on top every couple of years?

Absolutely chop off the overhang. And call Sky.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I'm surprised your neighbour was that polite tbh. I would have thought you were a loon thinking your Sky signal is more important than nesting birds or the immediate environment.

Both are important. it comes across as a bit faux-snobby to suggest that a householder should just have to completely do without access to television, because of one specific tree in one specific place that apparently represents the whole of nature.

There's no question of op having to do without access to television. She just needs to move the dish rather than the neighbour's tree 😆

You’re perfectly within your rights to cut any part of the tree that overhangs your property. Make sure you give your neighbour back all the cut off bits!
For those of you tutting about cutting a bit off tree, it’s a living, growing thing. Trees get cut back all the time - they still grow!

@Dontate

I have nothing constructive to add but just want to out myself as very technologically lacking - I though you meant sky as in proper real sky, the type with clouds and sun and rain.

Me too. Was going to suggest moving to Suffolk.

@SamW98 You have had a hard time on here from many posters. (Including me !) And as @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll said, I guess you have a bit of a right to have a moan.

Could you speak to the man again and say sorry if you upset him, but would he consider having the tops trimmed if you paid for it?

That's if the SKY engineer says there is nowhere on your land or home that the satellite dish can go, to enable you to get a picture... See what he says first.

Cut them. You are allowed to cut anything overhanging your side of the boundary. The council can also be approached if the trees are conifers, it’s called High Hedge law. It would be reasonable in this case because you can’t move the dish any higher.

I used to have a 23 storey office block interfering with my TV signal, I’m now kicking myself that I didn’t ask the owners to knock off a few floors.

But did they originally build it much lower and then just keep adding another storey on top every couple of years?

😂

@Suzi888

Cut them. You are allowed to cut anything overhanging your side of the boundary. The council can also be approached if the trees are conifers, it’s called High Hedge law. It would be reasonable in this case because you can’t move the dish any higher.

Problem is though, if the OP cuts her side, it will look a bit odd. Coz she can't cut his side.

@Suzi888

Cut them. You are allowed to cut anything overhanging your side of the boundary. The council can also be approached if the trees are conifers, it’s called High Hedge law. It would be reasonable in this case because you can’t move the dish any higher.

Also would it include trees? Or is it just hedges?

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

We've had a sort of similar issue - we get on very well with our neighbour, who has been kind in trimming back the branches that get in the way, but she still has a similar attitude of 'trees and nature are so important and it's only telly'. I don't see why we can't have and enjoy both. I love trees very much, but they do sometimes need to be maintained and in suitable places. I don't see why you have the right to just plant a tree and leave it to grow untamed, regardless of the effects on other people.

Her tree was way smaller when we moved in. Our own trees were growing crazy high and threatening to interfere with the telegraph wires, so we chopped them back down to a much more reasonable height - seemed the obvious, sensible thing to do.

In order to prevent the potential issue in the future, we're going to have our Sky dish moved well away; but I don't think you can blame people for not knowing 10/20/30 years in advance that a tree would be planted or grow massive, when deciding where to locate their dish. Even after we've moved it, who knows who might plant a fast-growing tree somewhere in the street that grows and blocks the signal out again?

Not everybody has fibre in their areas - plenty of rural areas and small towns don't.

Thank you for being one of the few posters to give a polite, considered response.

Sounds like a very similar situation except you did manage to come to a arrangement with your neighbour.

For context this isn't jus a tree, there are trees running along the length of our side fence (which is the back of the neighbours garden). I'm also not attempting to 'hack down' any trees, I like the privacy and our house was built on what used to be greenbelt so the neighbours house and trees were there way before our house existed.

From what I understand from another neighbour, the guys with the tree actually objected to the houses being built and he also objected to the extension on our house being built by the people we bought it off of so I could unwittingly have walked into a bit of history regarding my houses very existence.

And as I've said, I'm not talking about chopping any trees down, its the branches and maybe a little bit at the top - and the beaches hang quite a long way over my fence despite that fact being ridiculed further back in the thread

I'll call Sky tomorrow to see if they have the same opinion regarding moving the dish or not then I can take it from there

And same as you, there's no fibre optic or cable available here

I feel your pain but there's nothing you can do.
We are the only house on our street that can't get sky because of our neighbours trees.
There is no cable/virgin etc where we live.
We've got Now Tv which is better than nothing and apparently sky are looking at a streaming option but until that happens we're stuck with Now Tv.

She just needs to move the dish rather than the neighbour's tree 😆

That's not always an option. It certainly isn't at our house.
We have to do without Sky unfortunately

@imscaredpleasehelp

We need more people like your neighbours in this world

The man who lives there looked me up and down and said 'how sad is it that you think watching tv more important than trees that have been there since before I was born' and shut the door

I love this man. I want to live next door to him