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?

I’ve got beautiful mature trees and shrubs in my garden, I love them and my neighbours have told me how much they love them.
New couple move in and construct two sheds at the bottom of their garden, rip up their lawn, put down plastic grass and instal a hot tub which drones constantly all sunny days.
Then they have the cheek to ask me to have my trees chopped down because it puts part of their garden in shade for a couple of hours a day.
Absolutely no way will I be touching my trees, which have birds nesting, squirrels and hedgehogs in the shrubs beneath them.

Good god. 🤦‍♀️

Yes this happened to me too with a lovely old hawthorn tree that must have been a part of a very old boundary line.
The elderly retired neighbour would knock at my door every few months and show me the damage my tree was causing to his wall.
I'd had a lot on one year and finally said yes to him cutting it down just to shut him up. I've regretted that every single day and feel so sad every time I see the stump 😔.

One of my favourite things about my house is the cherry blossom tree outside my front garden. I really really enjoy it blossoming every year.

If it was your childhood home and you remember the trees being planted, I expect you have lots of memories of playing in the garden, and the evening sun. I think that makes it different to someone who buys a house next to trees and then complains about them. It doesn't mean you can force your neighbours to do anything, but I think it's not unreasonable to want your garden to be how you remember it.

I think when people buy a house with trees in the garden, they need to factor in maintenance costs. Some trees are fine, but others can need a bit of attention. Conifer-types in particular need trimming to stop them shooting up.

I would offer to pay for the removal.

I recently had a number of trees removed by a qualified/certified tree company and it averaged £1000 for every day they were here.

YANBU - I would hate that level of darkness on such a bright day. Completely irresponsible of the people who planted them not to maintain them. I certainly would ask and explain - offer to pay and hope they are willing to see your problem.

I take it you have consulted all your neighbours about the cinema room?

Dumb question but why not ask for them to be topped by a tree surgeon rather than taken out entirely?
Not only do trees produce oxygen, house birds and wildlife but they soak up a lot of water...and hold the soil together in heavy rain.

Can people stop claiming that it’s illegal to cut trees and hedges during nesting season? It’s not. It’s illegal to disturb a nest, but if there are no nests then pruning can go ahead.

I think those trees are beautiful. I’d be delighted with that view as they are far better to look at than the back of someone’s house, good privacy too.

Leave those gorgeous trees alone and move to a house more suited to your nature-hating human-supremacist barren wasteland needs.

Cinema room! That's way more intrusive, anti social and anti neighbourly than a few trees.

Are You offering to pay to have the work done?

I’d probably give them 6 months to settle in and then broach it, check if there are TPOs on the trees and if not then offer to pay.

If that doesn’t succeed then you could try this route. Not good for neighbourly relations and you’d need to declare any dispute when/if selling: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-hedges-complaining-to-the-council/high-hedges-complaining-to-the-council

That doesn’t apply here - the hedge needs to be “evergreen or mostly evergreen”
OP, do you enjoy seeing the birds which need those trees to live in?

Looking at the trees in the photo, there are a couple that could go ( the bushy firs ), but I imagine a good tree surgeon would be able to do work on the mature tree ( a crown lift ? ) to make it a better shape, which would reduce the amount of time you had shade and make the shade more dappled ?

when we moved to our house there was a huge leylandi at the front on our boundary and several large conifers and other trees making a huge high hedge at the back - plus a really high hedge on a boundary, made worse by neighbour sloping down blocked a lot.

The neighbour affected by the front tree said not a word to us apart from the moan about the front tree - she'd knock on the door and just be rude about it. Front tree blocked our lounge light but not hers - it did block one of her bedroom windows but this was her spare room so not a massive daily issue for her. She even got other neighbours to come round and tell us how upsetting g it was for her. My answer was the same every time - yes we were planning g to cut it but didn't have the money in the foreseeable as at the time had 4 very small children - never any offer to pay

Not a peep from other 2 neighbours about the back

fast forward a few more years and the conifer jungle at the back was getting worse, some rotten and i worried they was dangerous. So got tree surgeon around to see if they could get rid of some and trim other etc - they said they could t salvage much as so overgrown but agreed some were diseased etc - hedge by this point also couldn't be taken back to anything g sensible so we stretch to have that sorted as well - best part of 1500 so not cheap, and no way could i also afford the 450 additional for front tree as well.

Other neighbours were absolutely delighted - both offered money which we refused but what they did do was chip in together to have both their fences done and painted our side nicely to match as well - their fences but to be fair our trees had knackered them but we were left with looking at nice fencing. Other neighbour was fuming we hadn't prioritised front tree and also did t want to pay for it - this tree was healthy and not a risk so was left another year u til we could afford it.

OP if it's such an issue for u offer to pay for it - if it's in their plans they may do it sooner!

Let them settle in then next winter (before nesting season) you could offer to fund felling them

Respectfully, I think the function the trees are fulfilling is more important, especially with all the climate change, global warming etc, we need all the adult trees we can get.

Can cost thousands to cut trees we were quoted 3k for one!! Who’s going to want to pay that for a neighbour to have some sun a few times a year! Unless you are willing to pay the cost? But be aware it can change the ground and cause other damage, soo needs properly looking into

I live in an upstairs flat, there's just us and the ground floor. Her garden has 4 trees round it that got so tall we couldn't see out our living room window and the room was in darkness. I messaged saying this and that we were happy to pay to have them chopped back. So they're not removed just much much shorter. She didn't take me up on the offer but did arrange it herself. Could that be a solution for your neighbour so the trees aren't actually removed?

I think your idea of making the shed into a cinema room is much more concerning behaviour neighbour wise than these trees. Why can’t you watch films indoors so as not to cause unnecessary noise in the garden which will effect your neighbours?
Ditto trampolines which now seem to be ubiquitous in so many areas. Neighbours may not appreciate children bouncing up and down at height and probably being noisy at the same time.
I think hinting, let alone asking new neighbours outright to cut down their trees is a path to an uncomfortable relationship at best and could lead to much worse.

Correct in most cases but Not strictly true @ChockysChimichanga . It depends on the species of birds in the area- if there is a bird protected by schedule 1 of the wildlife and countryside act then it is illegal to disturb a bird nesting or attempting to nest. So if you chopped down a tree close to where a black redstart, barn owl or peregrine nested for example whilst those birds were nest building or had a nest and you disturbed them so they abandoned their nest then that would be illegal. But for most garden birds - if no nests and no young birds or egg’s it’s fine - but need to be careful for crevice nesting birds hence why most tree surgeons don’t do tree works until 31st August (and also much better for the trees health to prune when it is in dormant winter phase). You can also get bats roosting in old trees so if there’s a chance of bats roosting get checked by an ecologist or local bat group!

Just make a straightforward offer to pay for the tree surgeon to come and cut them down if that’s what you want. They’ll either say yes or no.

Out neighbour has mentioned several times he’d like our tree cut down but we have infinite work to do in our house and garden and if he wants us to prioritise that job I wish he’d just open his wallet!

So many of our neighbours are removing trees, it's depressing. Then they complain about how hot their house gets. Be careful what you wish for. New next door neighbour complained about our trees, until their first summer. They have now bought a massive, several feet wide, umbrella to cover their patio and French doors, whilst still complaining about the trees 🙄