Neighbour/tree dispute who is BU?

[HisHX]

Hi,

We moved into our property 10 years ago and a huge selling point for us was that we’re surround by trees which afford us total privacy in the garden (and look beautiful!). We’re in a conservation area so automatic TPO.
We have 3 neighbours on one side, as their gardens join ours vertically IYSWIM. The gardens in that street are much shorter and shadier than the ones in ours. We’ve always got on well with all 4 neighbours.
A few months ago a new neighbour moved in, and within days came over to ask us if we would cut the trees down so that their garden would get more sun. We immediately said no, but that the tree surgeon was due that week anyway so they’d be tidied up. They were clearly unhappy and said things like “can’t you just cut them down completely? Your garden is much bigger than ours so it seems selfish you won’t let us enjoy ours”. This annoyed me, as nothing had changed since they bought the house, but we remained polite.
Today, they’ve been round again to say that the roots of our trees have cracked a (decorative, not structural, single brick, looks to have been built about 40 years ago) wall in their garden, so we really must take them down.
My view is that the trees have been here much longer, the crack could be caused by anything - ground movements, general maintenance etc. and the wall shouldn’t have been built so close to huge well established trees in the first place, or at least not expected to last forever.

AIBU? Should we apply to the council for permission to chop down the trees that we love, giving the neighbours line of sight into our garden?
Could they force us to based on the wall?

I really don’t want to fall out with neighbours, but equally don’t want to feel forced into something I don’t want.

If he is the bolshy argumentative type, here's another vote for getting yourself armed with all the right information now, in case things do escalate:

1. Get the council to confirm exactly which trees in your garden are covered by TPOs or other protection, and what that means legally.

1. Ask a qualified arboriculturalist to survey all the trees and large shrubs in your garden, and produce a report on the varieties, size and condition of everything, and whether they recommend that any action should be taken in the short or long term (reducing size, felling, pollarding) if they see any potential issues with roots, subsidence etc.

Not only do you then know where you stand if the neighbour starts trying to claim that a tree is dangerous or in bad condition (two of the reasons that a council will allow, or even require, a TPO tree to be felled), but you will probably find other useful things out from the survey.

We had to do one for our insurance company when we moved house, and the guy identified some ash saplings, said we should remove those immediately as totally unsuitable for a suburban garden, recommended suitable replacements, and advised on the size to maintain other trees at to avoid the roots reaching our own foundations, plus a staggered plan to gradually remove a huge ugly conifer near our neighbour's wall, to avoid ground heave cracking anything on their side. Was well worth the couple of hundred pounds.

PS the "It was here first" argument has surprisingly little weight when it comes to trees. Many houses are built way too near beautiful old trees, which are protected during the planning and building stage. But once someone's living in the house it seems to be way too easy to get insurance to state the tree is causing problems of subsidence or cracking and get it removed.

Far better to start throwing around the council's own reasons for applying a TPO or conservation status, or some of their marketing spiel about how they value and protect their green environment: maintaining wildlife corridors, preserving certain species, maintaining visual amenity between neighbours or whatever.

Of course if you have a neighbour like ours, who just takes things into his own hands, such as hiring someone with a bulldozer to knock all the trees on his land down because no tree surgeon would have touched them, you have a different kind of fight on your hands...

Yanbu op they bought the house knowing the tress were there I presume so they should have realised that they block some of their sun.

Most sensible advice on the thread

Your neighbour is being unreasonable since they clearly bought the house knowing you had mature trees on the border.

However - not all trees should be left 'unmanaged'. Sometimes people plant totally inappropriate trees in domestic settings - e.g. oaks in front gardens, weeping willows right next to houses! Not to mention god awful Leylandii hedges that drain soil of water and plunged their neighbours into darkness. Even foresters 'manage' tree planting.

Removing trees=roots die=large cavities in the ground and possible subsidence. I heard somewhere the other day this is happening due to the fissures opening up due to the dry conditions currently.

Is bolshy bastard aware of the TPO? He will surely have been told by his solicitor that the trees can’t be removed. If not, maybe his solicitor should have run better checks?

I had the same issue last week with a neighbour complaining my tree was shading his patio on the evening.

he wasn’t particularly nice about it - but I have booked a tree surgeon to come next week to look and see what I can do to ameliorate the situation - without cutting down my beautiful tree.

there was no offer to contribute to the cost - which kind of annoyed me. The tree is healthy and beautiful and was here before the houses were built.