They've cut our tree!

[Auntieobem]

We have a twisty willow at the bottom of the garden. I love it. Had it topped a couple of years ago - cost £££ but looking good. It overhang/ overhung next doors garden. Neighbours moved in a while ago - we've only spoken briefly but all pleasant enough.

I've just noticed that half the tree has been cut off. Tree looks ridiculously lop sided. Why onearth didn't they speak to us? I know they have a right to cut off anything which overhangs, but who not just warn us?? I feel really sad. Poor bloody tree!! Don't know when it was done, I've been working from home and never saw anything? They must have waited until we were all out? Aibu for being a bit annoyed?

I am a bit here and there on this one. Yes they have a right to do what they need to stuff over hanging but I love trees.

On the other hand next door have a massive normal willow and it's a right pain. Willows are not really ideal for gardens. We get twigs in winter where it looses LOADS, leaves in autumn and fluff in the spring that gets everywhere.

You should have dealt with the tree long before it intruded into your neighbours garden. YABU. I expect you're the type who thinks they love listening to your screeching kids and barking dog.

Who wants to look at a bare, orange stained fence panel?

How much of the neighbour's view of a fence panel do you think those bits of tree were covering?

To me, it looks like it's been cut to clear the street light that is next to it but that might just be the angle.

@SoupDragon so many people want bare gardens and complain of shock horror, leaves and twigs in their garden! . It’s a pet hate of mine.

Is there an alleyway inbetween your gardens? What's with the lamppost?

[quote Benjispruce5]@SoupDragon so many people want bare gardens and complain of shock horror, leaves and twigs in their garden! . It’s a pet hate of mine.[/quote]
I have a big "wild" garden and loads of trees. 🙂

YANBU, it was a lovely tree. Your neighbours and most people on this thread are weird

@daimbarsatemydogsbone - Sorry, should have written

My neighbour also has a Salix Matsundana similar to this tree, not the same one however, as that would indicate that I am the tree lopping neighbour. I do however, live next door to someone with the same style of tree as the OP.

Better?

@rutabagger

YANBU, it was a lovely tree. Your neighbours and most people on this thread are weird

Would you appreciate your neighbourparking on your driveway? If its all about sharing space and having no boundary issues, lets go all in.

OMG OP, some people are so stupid. It's just a tree, not remotely the same as parking on someone's drive. Plus it's a twisted willow - they don't have dense canopies, only have small leave, would have caused almost no loss of light. It was hardly a 10 ft leylandi.
Yes, poor tree. At least you know what knobheads and shitheads these people are and can avoid all contact.

Utterly selfish to plant a tree so close to the boundary and to let it grow so high. It’s also a totally unsuitable tree for what looks like an average sized suburban garden. Willows grow very fast and are known to suck the moisture from the house foundations, which can cause subsidence.
It baffles me that people like you cannot see what this is like from the point of view of your unfortunate neighbours.

That's such a shame, can't understand why they would want to cut it. Sometimes I think neighbours just like to be difficult and cause animosity.

What a pity. It looks like a beautiful tree, and would have brought life and movement to their garden, as well as yours.

It would also have provided privacy from the neighbours behind your house, who will now be able to see straight into their house! Perhaps they will be less keen to cut back the regrowth once they've become tired of being so overlooked.

@fromdownwest not the same thing at all. As a PP said, the tree was just taking up airspace, not anything usable. And it is a garden, in which trees etc are kind of nice.

Is that a willow? In the pic?

Those gardens look quite small and that is a big tree in comparison. They have done no more than they entitles to do and if you didnt want them to do so the tree should have been planted further from the boundary.

I like trees - but you are BU to expect people to make an effort to walk around into a different road, find your house number and tell you.

I do think it’s you in the wrong here op. You should have spoken to them about the tree, after they moved in, and asked if it was acceptable to them to have it over hang, and if not then had it properly maintained to make sure it didn’t.

Whoever planted that is an idiot, it’s in a terrible location, I’m assuming previous owners. Sometimes people plant things small and have no clue what they are planting or what it will look like in a few years.

You’ve no entitlement for your trees to over hang into their garden, that’s why the law allows them to cut it back without question, if you go down that route.

Personally I prune back anything of my neighbours that comes into my garden I don’t give it a second thought.

But waiting until you all went out before damaging your property (even if it is legal to cut it back to the boundary, your tree might not survive it is not the right time of year for pruning due to frost etc) makes it clear they are shitheads.

Soulless bastards. Why couldn't they just enjoy it?

I agree with majority it has been planted way to close to a boundary fence to maintain an equal spread.

Shame.

Talking to you first wouldn't have done anything much except caused a row imo. There isn't really any middle ground between your tree branches hanging over the fence and your tree branches not hanging over the fence.

I love willows. Am so sorry your neighbours desecrated your tree Auntieobern

I would certainly be ensuring that not one millimetre of their plants encroach over the fence now. Unfortunately the precedent has been set and their shrubs may no longer be symmetrical either. The fence is clearly a no-grow zone. Two can play at that game.

@fudging

But waiting until you all went out before damaging your property (even if it is legal to cut it back to the boundary, your tree might not survive it is not the right time of year for pruning due to frost etc) makes it clear they are shitheads.

Or scared that they will be approached with this irrational response and did it to keep the peace.

It isn't jsut taking airspace though, it is also taking light? Their lawn may be a moss ridden squib for all you know, and they have cut the tree back to allow light to land on their lawn or plants.

You can have all the emtion in the world, however, your tree is growing into your neighbours garden, they don't want it there, so cut it back. Simple

If you love the tree that much contact a tree surgeon or a specialist gardening/landscaping company and see if if you can get it moved forward away from the neighbours fences. Or just accept that the new neighbours don't like it and will chop off any overhanging bits.

They didn't have to ask you, but whatever the rights and wrongs, it would have been much better if they had come to talk to you first.

What they have done is pissed you off, but will probably make no difference whatsoever to their garden.

They would probably have ended up with a far better result - perhaps by having it pollarded - than the stupid mess they have made.