To cut down nextdoor's tree

[FrogsGoRibbit]

Our previous neighbour died a few years ago. The house has just been sold and is very slowly being redecorated. We haven't seen the owners yet but every couple of weeks for a day there's a different company going in and refitting carpets, etc. Most of the time the house is empty.

The garden has been left to grow, it's not been touched since it was sold. There is a tree that's started to grow a few inches away from our fence on their side, about 1ft away from our wall. It's about 7ft tall now. As we don't know when/if the owners are going to come in and get the garden fixed up, WIBU to go and cut it down before it causes any damage to our property?

Don't know, just been told by a gardener friend it's a tree. It just looks like a really tall weed at this point and it's going to damage their property too. I don't think the new owners know it's there as it's grown up with all the weeds. The place has been empty for years so it's probably just grown in with the weeds over the last couple of years.

Don't worry mumsnetters, I won't touch the big weed and the non-existent birds nesting in its weed-like branches. Will be grabbing the next person that visits the property to try and get a contact for the owner.

Have you thought about doing some internet searching? see if you can find it posted on somewhere like rightmove, track down the estate agent and ask them to pass a message to to purchaser...the other thing you can do is look on the Land Registry for ownership, if it was sold a few years ago, the owner should have changed the details by now. Did your gardener friend say what kind of tree it was? If they just said "its a tree" then I don't think much of their gardening knowledge and if its still only a sapling you have got plenty of time to make contact.

What type of tree? If it’s 7’ tall, and the garden unattended for a few years, it’s probably a feral/self sown tree. Speak to the owners.

I would. Just don't get caught.

It`s a tree ffs leave it alone.

Go for it - if you want to piss off the neighbors before they even move in and maybe get sued as well
would you like them to chop something down in your garden while your out ??

I very much doubt a 7 year old tree will damage your property, especially if it looks like a weed. A tree large enough to damage a property would not look like a weed. Trees grow near fences all over the world.

Anyway, talk to the new neighbours.

Do a google image search to find out what it is.

They might've said the type of tree, my menopausal brain has probably forgotten. They said it was an issue though.

Good suggestions, thank you.

Definitely self sown.

Absolutely. And it's a really rotten attitude to trees when we're trying to cope with a climate/environmental crisis. We need far more trees, and to look after the ones we already have.

Well I would just go and dig it up if it was only a foot away from my property and deal with any fallout later.
It's all very well loving trees but anything other than a small ornamental does not belong in a garden.
Plant another one further away from the property if you are concerned about the planet.

But they are a bloody nuisance and inconvenient if they start damaging the places people live in. There is plenty of room for plenty of trees.
Woodland trees do not belong in people's gardens and bloody Sycamores don't even belong in this country. My PILs nearly lost their house because of one in the neighbours garden that invaded their foundations.

It's a calculated risk, yes they might post close-ups of your face all over social media, but chances are they won't even notice.
Just dig it up, and save 150 pounds in a separate account in case you have to pay for a replacement.

They might move in after you’ve removed the tree and think that area looks a bit empty and plant bamboo.

It could be a self-seeded tree. I have a huge sycamore at the end of my garden but not on my property and I regularly pull up baby versions of it. They grow very fast.

But don't do it, OP. That way a lot of grief might lie with your new neighbours who might have photos even if you haven't seen them around.

Post a photo and we'll tell you what it is

I hope they fall in love with the tree and keep it 🤣🤣

At 7 foot tall it is many years off being at the point of causing any damage to anything. You have plenty of time to address it politely with the new owners rather than committing a an act of criminal damage and risking a neighbour dispute before they have even moved in.

After some googling, it looks like an Ash tree.

Criminal damage.

Right, so you don't want any tree 1 foot away from your home, but I really don't think you need to be marching round with your chain saw at this stage.

It's 7 foot tall - just a baby. A sensible conversation with the new owners should be the first port of call.

I imagine they're focussing on the inside of the property at the moment.

Surely a normal person would be looking forward to the tree getting bigger so that they could enjoy looking at it? Apart from the environmental considerations, there's a reason that lovely, expensive areas have lots of trees and are referred to as 'leafy'. It's nothing to do with the size of the front gardens either.

@FrogsGoRibbit why do you think a small tree is going to cause damage?

No, you absolutely can't do this if you want to stay on the right side of the law.

If its an ash tree leave it alone.

If ash dieback fails to kill it the tree will become an important link in the Uks biodiversity