What should we pay for the tree?

[Anon22224]

Hello! We are in a bit of quandary with our neighbours. They are very nice neighbours and we get on well.

Our neighbours had a very large (over 100ft) soft wood tree in the very corner of their garden which bent over and so covered half of our garden (which is 1/2 an acre!) (it did not fall over their garden at all as bent). We didn’t mind too much but this year extremely large branches began to fall down, first it happened in a storm and then we had a couple come down with totally normal weather. We were very concerned about this as had a branch fallen on us or more worryingly one of our children they would almost certainly have died due to the size and height. We got a tree surgeon in and cut it right back over our side costing £1000 but the tree surgeon said there was no way to keep it 100% safe unless we cut the tree down completely. We could cut it right back to the trunk but it would continue to grow rapidly.

We discussed with our neighbours and came to the decision that it needed to be cut down to keep everyone safe. They got 2 quotes, one for £10,000 and one for £7,500 from original tree surgeon so went with that one. Originally they were booked for December and our neighbours decided not to stump grind the tree as this was an extra £1000.

In the meantime we were looking at our garden as with the tree branches gone we could actually get things to grow and grass to grow which we previously hadn’t done due to lack of light. Our garden is an L shape and we wondered if our neighbours would sell us the corner of their garden (where the tree is) to make it so that we could see to the end of our garden so kids would play at the bottom and we could still see them (cutting out the corner roughly 2 fence panels which is currently where the stump of the large tree is, the stump is so big that it is almost 2 fence panels in diameter)

We sent our neighbours a message and said that we wondered if they would consider selling us this small corner (their garden is also 1/2 an acre so as you can imagine this corner is a small piece of their garden), if so we would pay for the tree entirely (as it would become ours) as well as legal fees etc and also a new fence as the fence is broken and had to be pulled down to cut the tree. The fence is their fence as it’s on their right hand side. We did say regardless of this we would contribute to the tree.

The tree felling was brought forward as they had space and so it’s now been cut down, it took 5 days and considerably caused chaos to our garden as it was all done from our side, there’s a giant dent in our garden where the tree was felled, it also caused damage to our driveway as heavy machinery had to come in and out and it’s covered in wood chip and pieces of wood etc. We didn’t say anything as needed to be done obviously and not the biggest deal until the next message!

We got a reply saying they didn’t want to sell the land (fair enough no big deal) but that they wanted us to go 50/50 on the tree and the fence as we were the ones who wanted it cut down.

This I suppose is true but it was to stop dangerous branches falling? What were we supposed to do?

Total cost with fence for 50/50 would be £5000, and we’ve already spent £1000 on having it cut back so the kids could play out for some of summer.

What would you do? Obviously we have the money as we would have spent it buying the land but we feel that that’s too much on the principal that it’s their tree and fence and we’ve had the inconvenience of it all?

thanks for reading!

YABU - you owe 50/50

YANBU - you owe lews

OP doesn't own it, they do

Correct re offering the branches back, but the mutual agreement of the tree work had already been agreed and so it’s implied that the tree owners do not want them.

The tree owners are responsible for the safety of the tree as is the neighbour to ensure the tree is not made unsafe but cutting back branches and roots.

The key is to communicate with neighbours and not become entrenched in dispute.

I’d definitely want to see a bill before handing over anything. It’s way way too much and someone is trying to rip you off.

Agree with the cost seeming excessive
As someone who has had a lot of large tree work done for myself and my clients - all done by qualified arborists, that seems a lot.
However what's done is done, although I'd want to see the invoice & did they keep the wood?
I think you need to do some calculations on the costs to you (that includes repairing damage caused by access) and present a counter offer, although it's technically their problem for the sake of neighbourly relations then it might be an idea to contribute. Agreements should have been in place before work took place but that can't be changed now so you need to find a middle ground.

I am not surprised with the cost at all. We own paddocks with our house and while our boundary is very clear due to topography, there was a line of trees between ours and the road. The gap the trees sat on is wide at about 30 feet and the council said they did not own them. They were all old brittle ash mostly diseased and we paid for a tree inspection which came back with 80% of them amber or red. After much correspondence and severe delay by the council due to no money, we decided to get them removed which resulted in road closures and heavy machinery that grip and pincher the trunks. They removed about 30-40 medium sized trees which we then replanted. The total cost was £31,500 plus VAT. We had to do it as the risk of trees falling into our property or on top of cars was becoming too great and we did not fancy a legal fight. We sold half the wood and got to keep half.

That’s £1000 a tree roughly… the OP was told £10000

The costs element is subject to the location of the property and the tree in relation to access and proximity to dwellings etc.

What plant hire was required etc?

You could offer to go 50/50 in the whole cost. F
The whole cost being fence plus tree felling, plus the original £1000 you paid plus the cost of driveway repairs and the cost making good the damage in your garden. They're all costs related to the tree removal if they want to be fair about it. They're taking the piss, if they wanted you to pay half that should have been made very clear from the get go.

So many people shocked at the cost, my friend paid over £20,000 to have one huge tree removed from a back garden in London, it was causing subsidence to the whole and insurance eventually paid, it took several days, involved closing the street and cranes etc. It gad to come over the house and also through a neighbours house. Access is a big deal hence them using OPs drive. If the £7500 inc VAT this is working out at about £1000 a day inc. 6 tree surgeons, equipment, removal and disposal of the tree etc. I dont think its a rip off. The OP should reach an agreement on a share of the cost, having agreed to share it, but taking into account the £1000 already spent and try to move on.

People seem to be under the impression that tree work is cheap. OP has already said that it took 6 people 5 days, that's thousands alone.

That's before you take into account fuel (vehicles and chainsaws), insurance, removal of waste, machinery large enough to damage a driveway etc etc.

It’s their tree and it sounds like you’ve already done quite a lot of work to get to this point. You shouldn’t have to ‘do’ anything to manage someone else’s trees. I understand why you’ve got so involved but I think you’ve greased the wheels plenty.

I feel like I am going mad reading some of this.

I would pee myself laughing if one of my neighbours asked me to chip in to the sum of 5k to have a tree removed from THEIR garden.

No it's on them. Do not pay.

This, OP.

If you can afford it it’s probably worth doing.

I wouldn't put an offer on a house where the neighbours had to be taken to court to carry out safety maintenance. I don't think many sensible people would.

@AgileGreenSeal unfortunately I was mistaken, she never offered 50% in the first place although I still agree it would be a nice thing for OP to do. 😅

I don't think you need to pay anything. It's their tree and was only so expensive to fell because it hadn't been well-maintained over the years. If they (amd their predecessors in that house) had paid for annual maintenance to keep it a reasonable size it would have been cheaper in the long run.

You have already paid your reasonable contribution - £1000 for cutting back the overhanging branches. All further expenses were down to their poor maintenance and not your problem,
because it should never have been allowed to get that bad.

It's fine for them to choose not to sell you the land though.

I believe the method of extraction is key. Ours involved partial road closures which was not as expensive as I thought. The extraction itself involved a large machine that either gripped the trunk with one arm and then pincered it off at the base, or gripped and then sawed through. The latter if they were bunched up together as some ash does. Extraction is pretty quick and was done in two days. It is the sawing into rounds for log splitting that takes the time and relocating the logs on site, plus tidying up around the stumps and plugging them etc. The tree company did say it was the largest job they had done in over ten years, but it is significantly cheaper to remove 30-40 in one block than disaggregated as you say.

If you did say you would contribute then you should
But just gently say you have already paid some money and you are going to get quotes for the drive and lawn, and it might well be that these costs are all your contribution will end up being

Take total costs (tree felling, fence repair, the work you already had done to the tree, and costs for repair to your garden and driveway). Half it. Deduct what you have already paid or will need to pay yourself.

Offer that to your neighbour for goodwill, but explain that it should have been agreed in advance.

Be polite, but don’t feel awkward about it.

(I also think that cost was huge. We had a dozen large trees, including a 10m poplar) removed for £3k

We used arborists to get our garden under control (assorted bushes & v small trees to deal with) and they’re about £1k per day for a team so £10k seems a lot to me and others said they may have got logs out of it.

The dent in your garden sounds odd too, ours are always super careful about controlling a tree coming down. They also should have been careful with your drive!

I think you should pay half, less the amount you've already paid (sort of unnecessarily given the tree was felled).

You discussed felling it together so surely the implication was that the cost would be shared as you would be benefitting.

Damage to the driveway should come from the tree surgeon's insurance.

If paying half the tree and half the fence costs, ask for half the costs to fix your drive and garden.

If it's all one cost to be shared they need to pay your costs too.

As others have said, you've been absolutely shafted with that price. I've dealt with four very large, mature trees on our properties over the last 5yrs – two of which being this year and never paid more than £2000 a pop to either heavily prune or fell them, including grinding out the stump – and I'm south-east.

I’m agog anyone thinks that’s reasonable . 6 men, 5 days, to fell a 100 ft poplar tree. Two men would have that down in a day. One climber, one holding the rope. I know as I’ve had it done. If this is true the op paid this kinda money and employed this many men for so long. They’ve utterly ripped her off. They must have all spent time logging and loading and looking busy. And if they took the wood away to sell, they must have thought it was Christmas.