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 think they're would be diplomatic ways of raising this, being sensitive to timing and consideration for their point of view...

Hope you've thought about acoustic insulation for your cinema room though as outbuildings aren't normally very sound insulating and I hope your neighbours use of their gardens isn't going to be affected as that would be rubbish.

Sympathise with your wish for more light, and if you're lucky the desires of the new owners may coincide with your hopes for change and allow for a mutually agreeable action, but I'd be patient and tread very delicately, you don't know them or their circumstances from Adam yet.

Beautiful trees. I agree with others it would be rude to say that at first. What about Welcome to the street? The first thing our neighbours did when we moved in was cut down something bothering them that we loved and it was really gutting when they hadn’t even said hello or asked. We moved there for the garden so it was extra shit.

This sounds awful.

In terraced houses like yours (and mine) the houses have been carefully planned with gardens back to back to give some sense of space - although the houses are literally attached along one axis, back to back gardens dilutes this a bit.

When someone essentially creates another dwelling at the bottom of their garden, it has a real impact on their neighbours and takes away from that sense of space. The gardens were never designed to be used like that and 100 years ago technology did not allow amplified sounds to take over other people's gardens as they do now. The work itself in building, plastering etc is really annoying and unsettling. Once it's there, it creates a whole load of new angles from which the neighbours are overlooked and intruded upon. As other people have mentioned, the noise is horrible and you are basically making your neighbours' gardens unusable when you are in there with the TV on or playing music.

What is really annoying about it is - you HAVE a house already. Your shed thing is just a room! We don't need more buildings, more rooms! The terraced houses which already exist just are rooms! the outside space is something different and is valuable in its own right. Just because you don't like outside (weather, trees, sounds of birds, natural neighbourhood sounds) doesn't give you the right to unilaterally take that experience away from everyone else who deliberately bought a house to use as a house and a garden to use as a garden.

Mumnset is full of threads of desperate people trying to mitigate the impacts of neighbour noise. This is really really hard on your neighbours. Take a stroll around the site and read the threads. It's not just me.

People will do what they can under the circumstances to feel that they have a little outside space - one of the things that can make their garden feel a little less intruded on is.... trees and other large plantings...

Def not unreasonable.

Go ahead and ask recognising they have a lit to do ask if theyll prioritise it so you can benefit from the summer sun.

The sun is rarely seen? Ffs get a grip. If Wales gets so little sun (not true, it gets more than many other parts of the UK) I don’t see how chopping down trees will help.

The problem is your choice of residence. I’m in Wales and it gets so bright May-September every year that we often can’t have the curtains fully open due to the glare.

Trees are good, support birds & wildlife. Tough shit basically.

We have huge trees in our garden which I would happily replace with smaller ones. but I live in an area where trees, including ours, have Tree Preservation Orders so have to cope with the shade they throw on our house.

Hopefully they’ll see this post with the fabulous pictures and get the message

Why don't you invite them over for a coffee so they can see the impact for themselves. Would you be happy to offer to contribute to the cost of a tree surgeon?

I would pop them a note in - ‘Welcome to the street! I know this will be way down your list of priorities but when you get around to looking at the garden, if you want to consider cutting back or removing the big trees we would be prepared to pay % towards this depending on the quote, as it would really benefit our enjoyment of the garden.’

I'd say don't disguise your animosity with offers of coffee or with housewarming gifts as a PP suggested.

I was the recipient of this sort of thing once & as the invitee, it's crap. You think a new neighbour is being nice, then you realise it's been done to entice you into contact so they can demand that you do something at your own expense which you don't want to do & which will only benefit them.

Now you feel you've been fooled because you thought they were being nice. You also know that the neighbour doesn't care about you & will be a PITA about this issue ever afterwards. Your opinion of your neighbour nosedives & you no longer trust them.

Trying to sugar the pill like this only shows that the demand is unreasonable & the person making it knows that. A request at the right time & in the right way might be reasonable, but only so long as the request-maker fully accepts that this is a one-off & the other person's answer is final.

The trees are far too tall and I’m sure do restrict the light but a young couple moving in prob don’t think this will be a financial priority for them . Could you offer to pay half in a years time maybe when they may have more financial resources ?

'... & when you cut them down, as an added bonus you'll be able to see & hear our trampoline & our TV shack so much better!!! This will undoubtedly benefit your enjoyment of your own garden, so win-win.'

😂

(Comment on the general situation, not getting at you @AmiShitsaline )

We luckily have a tree surgeon who understands that some trees just don't belong in residential gardens and that they can affect quality of life if they plunge another garden into shadow.

We have a tree that is affecting our neighbour's enjoyment of their garden and the tree surgeon will be back to reduce the crown for them. They are lovely people and I would hate it if my own garden was in constant shadow.

Wildlife. No trees so far fewer birds and the associated ecosystem. The new occupiers might trim the trees for you but to ask them to cut the trees down isn’t great. In their shoes, I would not. Wildlife needs all the help it can get.

Speaking as someone who has just finalised an insurance claim because next door's willow tree roots made our house subside, it increases them A LOT and we now also have a 5,000 excess for anything subsidence-related in the future.

Total ecological arsehollery.

I've just spent the last few days trying to rediscover my back garden including about four foot of trees. The rain has made everything grow to huge sizes. Just ask if they'd be happy to lose some tree and blame the rain etc. Offer to pay towards costs if needs be. It probably will need a pro with a chain saw.

You might be glad of a little bit of shade when it is really hot?

They won't be able to do any tree works for another couple of months, by which time evening sun won't be as strong.

No harm asking

We cut 2 large trees in our back garden down to appease neighbours, both of which bought their houses when the trees were already grown. I miss them greatly and the back rooms of our house are unbearably hot in the morning now. I really wish we hadn't agreed to do it, but the money it was costing us to have them shortened every few years was getting ridiculous. 😢. It was a bit of fait accomply as their moaning got to us

Our lovely old neighbours planted a short hedge made of leylandii trees between our houses that they kept immaculately pruned and shaped. They died and the house was traded between several money grabbers. We saw how things were going and I went over the fence between money grabbers with an electric saw and cut the trees to the ground.
I am so glad, the house has been owned for some years by the actually prosecuted worst local landlord, for whom pruning trees would never have been a priority.
Neither has maintaining his property, but that's a whole different story.
But we do have our sunlit patio!

I can see your issue, when we moved into our house our neighbour mentioned the trees in our garden and if we'd be getting rid of them as it blocks some of their light.
In their case it's the front of their house it affects so not their back garden but for us a big selling point was the garden and trees so I said sorry no we love them.
They weren't rude and I didn't mind them trying no harm asking and all that I'm sure as long as you are breezy about it and accept it if they say they are staying it will be fine.

Openly admitting to illegally and opportunistically cutting down your neighbour’s hedge in a manner that suggests you expect to be congratulated for it is quite something.