Bought a small holding the owners are chopping down the trees.

[justasking111]

Not exchanged yet but the owners offspring are now chopping down the trees presumably for firewood to sell. Do friends have any rights before exchange or could all the trees be gone before they buy it?

Are they being unreasonable to be upset or is it fair practice before exchange?

I couldn't even live there.. all those mature trees gone!! Awfull memory of that not exactly a good start is it? Thank god for karma...!! it will get them. Vile creatures.

They may already have one. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tree-preservation-orders-and-trees-in-conservation-areas#tree-preservation-orders--general
The fines for unlawfully cutting down a tree are massive.

TPOs tend to be where there are neighbours here. Where it's isolated no-one has any idea what is there.

It could be that the local offspring has a deep attachment to it even though it's not their home anymore.

I'd ask the estate agent for another visit. Then see how it looks. If it's really bad I'd pull out of the sale, explaining that you wanted it with the trees.

They can't be doing it alone the trees are enormous. Tree surgeon prices around here are eye watering and where the heck do you store them.

Speak to a solicitor - they should not be doing this.

also its to do with the diameter of the tree as well, so if these are mature trees then its highly probable that a felling licence would be needed

Looks like your friends have found out why it hasn't sold.

I'd withdraw from sale and tell EA why.

I would call the local council about the felling of all the trees. Pretty sure that you can’t cut down woodland or an orchard without some sort of permission. TPO or No TPO

I would be running in the opposite direction from this unhinged individual

He is likely to pour diesel all over the land as a parting gift so there won’t be any land your friends can grow anything on

I would also be wary that this person won’t get it through his head he doesn’t live there anymore and either won’t move out or will be around daily sticking his nose into their business and getting irate if they don’t do as he wishes

Your friends need to pull out. If they are truly cutting down the trees for the sake of selling firewood, they should be persuaded to stop on the basis of the sale, which is obviously far more valuable. If they won't, your friends shouldn't buy it anyway for all the reasons already given. It's become a fairly simple situation, albeit a bit sad for both your fiends and the poor trees.

I daresay the local council housing the owner in a residential home would appreciate the funds from the sale of the property.

Drop offer price but ensure the message has been personally delivered to whichever of the adult children is doing this. Say the offer is based on no trees being chopped. That would pee me right off. I’m hoping we can buy something with fruit trees next year (very fruit oriented area)

Cut your losses and pull out-this will just be the tip of a very unpleasant iceberg-let them realise that actions have consequences.

Either the local offspring is trying to sabotage the sale, or just trying to gouge as much money as they can and doesnt give a shit about the consequences. I wonder if the one who is very attached actually wants to stay and is mad at siblings for forcing the sale. Whatever the reason, I would be out of this deal as soon as possible, this does not bode well.

The thing is what they wanted to buy no longer exists. All they can do is pull out or massively reduce their offer. We get a lot of legitimate clear felling near me. The land is being returned from conifer plantations to natural species. Even with care and doing it for the right reasons, the land is left a mess and costs a lot of time and effort to return to it to something attractive. Land is the same as anything else. Until exchange has happened, the seller can do what they like.

🙄

Depends on the tree. Wood is very expensive at the moment. The OP mentions Elm ? Valuable wood if so, there are v few mature Elms in the UK.
They sound the sort of tree species that could be cut for timber, rather than firewood, especially as they are healthy trees, and if so this makes them worth a tidy sum of money. Even firewood, eg decent logs, is not cheap any more.

Additionally what can happen is that the wood is sold while still standing and its the buyer's responsibility to fell it and remove it. It would be easy enough to find out if the trees are protected but if the timber has been sold standing then it will be a company doing it and you can bet they would have checked beforehand as an error could cost them dearly. once they have purchased the trees regardless of who owns the land, they are responsible for any TPO compliance so they could end up with a lot of timber which they cannot remove and no one will want to buy while standing.

Honestly I would pull out reading all your updates. If the present owners are that attached to the land they going to be an nightmare to get rid of after exchange. Pull out and find somewhere else. Life too short for this sort of stress. Those poor trees

If they're felling the lot for timber/firewood, then you don't hire a tree surgeon for that.

You sell it to someone who deals in timber/firewood, and they come and take it down themselves if you havent the skill/gear to do that.

So no need for storage or skill or extra folks, the timber merchant pays a lower price for standing wood vs already felled, logged, loaded etc.

Or, the seller is a total idiot instead of a cunty fucker, and tries to take it down himself, having heard on the grapevine that firewood is going for however much, not realising thats split, bagged etc (its currently around 100 a tonne here for seasoned dried logs) and not wet whole trees on the ground that still need processing.

The price per tonne for firewood though is irrelevant, the buyer needs to drop the price offered by the value of mature standing trees which is significantly higher because they take so long to get to be mature standing trees.

Haven't RTFT, sorry, but I watched a Sandi Toksvig programme recently where she re-wilded an area of forestry, and part of that was cutting down trees intentionally.
Admittedly it doesn't sound like it's being done in the interests of the land but if the buyers are really that keen could they maybe get whatever the appropriate expert is in to have a look and advise how much damage has been done, so they can make a decision if they wish to proceed or not?

I know of a similar case. The son removed a boiler, and every socket and light fitting, pulled lots of electrical cable out of sockets and lights, sold radiators. Madness. A friend's relative was the purchaser and discovered on moving on day.

They won a court case and were awarded damages, but the house was uninhabitable when they turned up with all their belongings, 2 children 2 cats and a dog. A 10 year old house needed rewired and all sorts doing, because they had asked for the trees to be left alone. It ruined the place for them with all the bad feeling and work needing doing immediately.

I don't know how much they got, but it would never have been enough for me!

My guess is the child cutting the trees doesn't want to sell, but can't afford to pay out his siblings. He doesn't care if sale falls through, as it means his siblings don't get the money. He feels he should have been left it lock stock and barrel, as the child that stayed at home, and is on self destruct mode. All guesswork admittedly, but this is how it reads to me (based on people with this mindset I've met).