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?

Ash trees are beautiful and the leaves are very fine so will not block the light at all. Ash trees across the UK are generally suffering from something called Ash dieback disease, so if this survives it's a plus.

"Ash trees typically grow to a height of 50 to 80 feet" - 1ft away from a house wall.

"Ash tree roots can be extensive, often exceeding the canopy spread and reaching 2-3 times the tree's height."

Might not damage the house at all, or it might.

Maybe so - but probably not in the next couple of weeks or so i.e. before you've had a chance to talk to the neighbours.

Hopefully, I've heard they may be renting it out when fixed up. So hopefully they see it or I see them to talk to.

T will get to the size you’ve quoted in a matter of decades not weeks lol don’t risk it and just pop a note through the door.

It will take about 25 years to get to mature size. They only grow about 2 foot per year. Stop catastrophising.

Just stick a note through the door welcoming them to the neighbourhood. Say you would love them to pop round for a cup of tea or whatever. Be nice to them and they will be far more likely to agree to take it down than going straight after the end goal. Particularly as the tree is still so small and not causing a problem.

i expect if you talk to them and explain the situation, particularly with details about why this type of tree is a problem, and offer to do the removal work, they’ll be more then happy for you to take it out. Pop a note through the door.

We have what I think is a hawthorn (gardener neighbour did tell me, I can’t remember) that self seeded in a hedge on our boundary. It’s rather pretty, and we had a chat with the neighbours and they think it’s pretty too so we’re keeping it. If they’d wanted it gone I’d have taken it out though.

I agree. There are trees that are intentionally planted in order to enhance someone’s garden and then there are saplings that grow up because of a sycamore seedling or a holly or hazelnut or similar that wasn’t pulled up when it should have been.

Write a note and put it through the door. The owner will see it or a workmen can pass it on

There's chicks at this time of year still in the nest, learn some patience. My neighbours did this when we were moving in and really soured the start of the relationship. Having civil neighbours is one of the best things in life. Don't be such a dick.

You sound nice. There are nests at this time of year. Learn some patience. You asked for advice and people gave it.

It's not going to do that soon. Just talk to the owner.

If that was my house and you did that it would instantly make me consider you awful neighbours. Do not do it. Not your tree, not your property.

Definitely not, you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot. Wait and have a conversation with them.

There is literally no way that a nest is in this weed/tree. It's not big and bushy, it looks thin and spindly. I can easily see through it to tell if there are any small birds living it it.

And yes I am nice :)

I think a lot of people don’t really realise what a 7 foot tree means, they just see the word tree. Having removed several similar sized specimens from my own garden I know you’re talking about a stick with some spindly twigs for branches that couldn’t support a nest if they tried, and certainly couldn’t hide a nest.

A neighbour actually did this to us a few years back. Didn’t like the Oak tree in our garden causing shadow in theirs so came into our garden and cut the branches they didn’t like. They were all new build properties and although we owned the property we hadn’t moved in. As soon we saw what they had done we sued them and won. Don’t do it!

If it can’t support a nest it’s unlikely to break the foundations of your home.

Yet. Trees grow. The whole point is that it needs to be removed before it becomes a problem.

I agree. OP does not need to worry about it right now, to the extent of going over and chopping it down herself.

You don't want ash, sycamore, alder, willow or oak growing close to your property. They get huge. Try to catch your new neighbours and have a polite conversation about it maybe.

It probably is an Ash tree, our garden had about four, self sown, when we moved in. We took them down 🙂

Extreme naivety here?
Who else would cut down the tree?
Not to mention stuff like- what to do with the wood? Just leaving it in the garden?
Chances of being heard/seen?

I agree. It seems for a lot of people the law doesn't apply when it comes to trees either. If the same post were that said neighbour has a run down shed and you are worried it is going to blow over/ cause damage I don't think too many would be advocating calling a contractor in to take it away and dispose of it without consulting the neighbours.

A lot of people/ contractors seem to be able to act with impunity though. My uncle had a line of tress on his property (country property for context, if the trees had blown over even at their height the houses are so far away they would not have hit them). He comes out one morning last year to the sound of the chainsaw going, the tenant in the property next door has engaged a contractor to cut the whole line of trees down. These trees were squarely on his property on the other side of a boundary fence. He tells the contractor so and he is all not my problem mate and carries on. By the time he was done he had also sawed down a 100 plus year oak in my uncle's back garden. Some people are just **heads.

OP though I can guarantee if you start to take it upon yourself to start landscaping the new neighbour's garden they may well hold it against you for the entire time they live there. I think people have a reasonable expectation that the neighbours will not be taking it upon themselves to carry out work in their garden without speaking to them, however justified they may feel they are in doing so.

That is just awful @MissSeventies.
Not only for your uncle - though it must have been devastating for him - but for the wild life and the environment and just for the general good of the area.