Massive trees next door, blocking the evening sunlight

[Tahlbias]

Next door was previously a rented house. It has now been sold and a lovely young couple is going to be moving in. When I saw them, I briefly mentioned about them having a lot of work to do in the garden, with all the massive trees there. They just nodded and said "I know, we have loads to do"

My problem is, now the evenings are lighter l, I want to enjoy my garden in the sunshine. But I can't! I will add pictures to this post to show you how big the trees are and the sunshine we don't get compared to my other neighbors.

Would I be unreasonable to ask them to cut their trees down when they do move in?

Our neighbour kept complaining about our one tree. Year after year. We ended up cutting it down to shut them up and now our garden floods every winter. We hadn’t realised the tree was preventing it. Too late now but I wish I hadn’t relented.

Cost us £400 to have the massive tree in our tiny garden cut down recently (I actually love trees but it was way too big, we've replaced it with a couple of smaller ones).

Took us 12 years to get round to it.

You’re not unreasonable to ask but they are also not unreasonable to say no.

I suspect you would need to offer to pay as it’s not cheap and having just bought the house it’s likely to be low down their list of priorities.

This. The trees aren't exactly new, are they?

Also, no-one should be cutting trees back at this time of year - birds are still nesting.

You can ask. They can say no. You should definitely offer to pay, and absolutely do not get in a strop with them if they won't do what you ask. They may well love the trees.

You might be out of luck anyway, a lot of large trees have TPOs on them.

That's a good point, nobody will cut your trees until the nesting season is over.

But you could pave the way by offering to help financially as a one off if they cut them down to a more reasonable height? No need to get rid of totally if you could just top them?

We have very large trees in our garden which we love. None block light though as garden is north facing. If you want them cut then I'd offer to contribute towards it. It's not cheap, especially if there's loads for them to do. Will the trees also block their sun?

I had this and you can complain to the council , it cost me £650 but was dealt in my favour , the council granted a high hedges bill saying the trees could never be over x height again

It looks like you, and most of your neighbours have almost nothing green in your gardens so I’m sure your neighbours trees at least soften the look of the street?

The cost when they’ve just bought a house may be prohibitive op, they might have stuff in the house that takes priority

Jungle? How judgemental you sound. Those trees were probably there before your house. You don’t have a right to evening sun.

Were you planning on contributing to the cost of a tree surgeon?

Our NDN's have got a massive tree right on the boundary, and it's got a TPO on it. Over the years, it got closer and closer to our house to the point that I had no light in the kitchen and it was really getting me down. We had to use lighting all day. In the end, DH knocked on their door one night on a lovely sunny evening and got them to come and stand in our kitchen. I was nearly in tears with it. They were so apologetic, they had no idea that it covered more of our garden than theirs and even though we offered to go halves they sorted out the planning permission and paid for tree surgeons. It's been absolutely life changing. We did buy them a very expensive bottle of wine and some flowers as a thank you.

I would let them move in, then invite them round so they can see for themselves.

I have been in this situation but the opposite way around. When I moved into my current home there was a HUGE sycamore tree at the end of the garden and while it didn’t really bother me as it gave a lot of shade to a part of the garden that needed it and it was quite a long way from the house, the neighbours at the back were always mentioning it and saying how ‘it wasn’t a garden tree’ too big, blocking the sun etc., there was even some talk of them chipping in to have it removed but nothing concrete. Anyway, I left it a couple of years as I had other bigger things to think about (renovations etc), when I turned my attention to the garden properly I had to agree that it wasn’t really an appropriate tree for a garden, as I said, it was huge and it dropped seedlings everywhere and sticky sap over everything in the Autumn. So I finally decided I should do something about it so got some quotes and arranged for it to be taken down. I told the neighbours just in case there was any disruption while they removed it. She just said ‘about time’ in a snooty fashion. Anyway, long story short, the sycamore was taken out (at great expense) and everyone was happy. Except now it looked a bit bare where it had been and I felt a bit overlooked. So I bought a new tree and while it’s not a sycamore, it’s certainly large! It looks beautiful, I love to look at it in the evening as it catches the sun. My neighbour is not quite so pleased. Hope this helps!

I don’t think the high hedges thing always works. Or not everywhere; anyway. Someone tried to get one against a tree that looks like it’s in our garden, but isn’t. The council took the fee but decided the tree was there first and there’s no legal right to sunlight, so there was no reason to offset the environmental damage of cutting it.

Would trimming them make any difference? You could over to contribute to that, if so - or pay all of it, because it’s purely for your benefit, really. But realistically doing anything with the garden/trees is unlikely to be high up their priority list and they may well have bought because they like the trees. We have three around us and really like them.

Surely if you’ve got a really big garden, there are still parts with sun?

Trees need maintenance, and can be an absolute menace. It’s perfectly possible to maintain them so they are still a decent height but don’t completely dwarf everything in the surrounding area. yANBU!

Our new neighbours asked us what we thought. We said our preferred option and they went with that (subsidence worries)

They cut down the tree, we gave them £200 in b&q vouchers so they could enjoy their garden

Tree surgery isn't cheap so is unlikely to be a priority for a young couple who've just bought a house. Maybe if you offer to pay for the Tree surgeon they might be more amenable.

Are you willing to pay to get them cut?

So you introduced yourself to the new neighbours by telling them what they should do with their garden?

I just can’t get past this.

I think they might do something with the garden, even if it is just tidying it up. They didn't realise they had a fish pond because it's that overgrown.

From their back door, it looks like they have a tiny garden. (I looked at the photos on the estate agents website) My husband have recently trimmed our side because it was all over our side. 17 bags of branches later and our side looks a lot better!

We were chatting for a while before I mentioned the garden. I had told them about the fish pond and I slipped in the tree issue.

Why would rhe neighbours even want their trees removed?

As an aside it doesn't even look as though any part of their trees over hang your property OP. sorry just saw you have already done what you are legally entitled to do and cut back overhang.

There is no such thing as a right to sunshine, evening or otherwise.

I agree with the poster above. Offer to pay for it.

We did in a previous house, although we were the ones moving in, just put a card through the door saying it was obviously completely up to them but if they wanted to get the trees cut back we would pay for it to be done as we knew how expensive it was to hire a tree surgeon and it seemed only fair to offer as we would get the benefit.
They said they were happy and trees were cut back, wasn't cheap but it transformed our house.

You’ll be better off paying for it

They may say no but at least cover the cost

They were planted around 30 years ago, when I was a little girl. The tenant who lived there called it a jungle herself. But I wasn't living here then. My mum passed away and we inherited the house.