AIBU to resent being asked to pay for neighbours cutting back our tree?

[Eatyourgreensplease]

We have lived in our house for 20+ years in most of that time the house next door to us has been rented out with various families having lived in the house in that time. Recently the landlord evicted a family and is making extensive improvements to the house because of the damage caused.
We have a tree on our boundary (think ornamental blossom type) which we keep shaped and tidy on our side. We have done the same on the neighbours side in the past but recently the tenants in the property have not been in agreement to us doing this. As a result the tree has grown into the neighbours garden quite significantly and no attempt has been made to keep it trimmed. Today the landlord has asked us to pay to have the tree cut back to the boundary line and for the debris to be removed. Apparently the letting agent has advised them that if we don’t agree to do this, then the branches should just be thrown over into our garden!

We agreed will cut back the tree and deal with the debris, but am I unreasonable to think the landlord and previous tenants are CFs who should have not allowed it to get to this state? And while I recognise that it is by law their right to cut back the tree that has grown onto their property, it’s also unreasonable to expect us to pay to deal with that? Surely that’s just something we all take care of in our own gardens?

@Choccyp1g
I’m with you, partially. Not about digging it up and moving it, but definitely about not planting trees on boundaries and allowing them to shade out your neighbours. I’m in a similar position myself as a result of ex NDN who confessed he had no idea about gardening. Put a tree, and a shrub in a tiny space, pruned them wrongly and then moved. New neighbour doesn’t have a clue either, I’ve explained and offered to help as I want my sunny spot back, but so far to no avail.

My neighbour has a gigantic Holly bush right on the border of our gardens. When we moved in it had taken up a good chunk of the back of the garden with over growth. I actually watched a gardener come round and neatly trim all her side at her request, she didn’t bother to sort out what was in our garden of course! So I had to hack it back myself and then offer her the gigantic load of spiky shit I’d bagged up, she said no thanks! So I had to take it to the tip as well! Total joke. It’s not my bloody bush!

But if it was a healthy maintained tree that got blown down all the damage on your side would be your responsibility. If it damaged your property it would be covered by your insurance anyway.

I have 2 massive ( 75ft+) trees near my house, I declare them to my insurance and so does my neighbour on his because they are near. Premium is about 20p more a year.

first post nails it. LL needs to be careful what advice he takes, Its dumping to "just sling the cuttings over the fence."

its ok if the neighbour is okay with it, otherwise not.

My insurance will only cover liability for damage caused by my trees if I have taken due care. I had a couple of really wonky oaks with a TPOs on and was having trouble getting permission to get them removed until I explained that I didn't care really whether they said yes or no, I just needed to be able to demonstrate to my insurers that I had taken due care if there was an incident and that I had tried to have them removed but had been denied permission.
And no I was not stripping out my garden and making wildlife homeless, far from it.

Completely selfish to expect neighbours to cut and maintain your trees. It bares bad feelings. It's not the neighbours choice to have a tree that then becomes a job for them to maintain. Be the better neighbours, maintain your own plants.

OP, I’d be paying for Jack shit in your situation.

If someone else’s tree overhangs your property you can’t make them trim it back, nor can you send them a bill if you do it/pay someone to do it. You can’t take all the legal advice you want but you’d get nowhere….even a quick google will throw up links to sites like citizens advice which cover stuff like this.

Years ago we had an 8ft tall conifer hedge which dh maintained our side and the overall height, would cut it twice a year. The lady who lived the other side would ask us to do her side and I would send dh round because she lived on her own and was older and I try to be a good neighbour.

Then her awful son moved it, turned her back garden into something resembling steptoe’s junk yard and was quite vile in general. One day when I was out he came hammering at the front door, teenage Dd answered and he ranted at her telling her to tell me and dh that we had 24 hours to cut his side of the hedge or he was doing it and sending us a bill. This was the first time he’d mentioned it. I obviously didn’t take kindly to him ranting at Dd nor being such a rude arsehole. So ignored him. Partly because I was pissed off but also because it was December, it was snowing that weekend and his immediate side of the hedge is an uneven rubbish heap where he dumps rubble and junk from his work as a builder. There would literally be no way of safely putting a stepladder there.

I spent the weekend waiting for him to come round and he never came round again. He did however burn the hedge down a few months later and cause tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage to my property.

And then a few weeks after the fire had the gall to tell me he misses the hedge as we now don’t have as much privacy (I replaced it with a fence). 🙈🤷‍♀️

To be honest it is really annoying when a neighbour plants a tree that then grows ti overhang your property.
I agree though that they should cut their own side. The only problem with this is they might not trim, prune etc it properly and if they just hack everything that overhangs, could damage or kill your tree.

Tricky one. One of our neighbours has a beautiful tree that overhangs our garden. When it needs a trim, he asks us for a convenient date and pays someone to trim it and dispose of the debris.

Nails it.

They should have allowed them to trim it back as they asked multiple times and were declined. Simple.

Then they should have accepted the offer from the OP to trim it… simple..

I think you need to reread properly.. they have tried and offered to go and cut it and weren’t allowed!! They can’t just break in next door and do it!

I mean, legally you don't have to pay for it, so if you don't want to, then don't.

Edited to add that I realise OP has offered to do it, but I went off on a bit of a tangent there!

But when I'm Queen I'm going to pass a law that makes tree-owners responsible for proper maintenance if it encroaches on a neighbour's garden. I don't know why people plant massive bloody trees and hedges on a boundary and then wonder why the neighbours get fed up with branches and leaves dropping in their garden, and pigeon shit all over everything.

I have to pay hundreds of pounds every couple of years to have my neighbours' enormous laurel hedges and assorted trees cut back and pay for all of the cuttings to be removed - I'm not allowed to cut anything off the height and they don't give a shiny shit, so year by year we get less sun, nothing grows in the top half of our garden, our summerhouse roof has been ruined, and roots are growing under their fences and up through our lawn. The laurel in particular is an absolute pain in the arse - it was planted just after we moved here 20 years ago, and it's not been touched since, apart from by us, so you can imagine how big it is now.

Crikey. Some absolute thick as pig shit responses 🤦‍♀️
The first response is correct. You are under no legal obligation to pay for it @Eatyourgreensplease .

Has someone actually suggested digging up the tree and replanting it?
How do these people function in real life?

I was referring to this part of their post. 'it’s also unreasonable to expect us to pay to deal with that? Surely that’s just something we all take care of in our own gardens?' just in case you needed to reread that part

Just do it yourself… explain the tenants had been refusing.. get him to put it in his new tenancy agreements that they need to allow you to come and trim it back every X months. Honestly there is literally no issue if you are going to sort it out it’s not like he’s got someone in to do it without talking to you first.

Laws on trees are really devoid of common sense. Can only wish it would change!

Renters are always very good at ignoring issues as it's not their house to worry about. The owner feels otherwise. Deal with your tree OP.

We have a very pretty tree, I call it a bottle brush, it's maroon leaves and wispy bits. It overhangs a little bit of our neighbours and I have said to him in the past, if you need us to prune it at any time, let us know.

We were away a few weeks and he pruned it. Scalped it more like. And he chucked all the branches over onto our flower beds. They were big thick branches, we now have to get it all to the local tip. I found that incredibly rude.

Can’t you go round and cut the tree back on that side the same as you do on your side?

But it’s now more expensive as it’s a bigger job due to the tenants refusing access previously. Maybe before the OP could have managed it but now it needs a tree surgeon? Why should she have to pay for that when if they’d allowed her access previously she could have done it for no cost?

Because it's their tree, not the neighbours who probably got better things to do with their time than deal with annoying neighbours and their overhanging trees.

Also no where has it stated they need a tree surgeon. The op says they will deal with it and debris, the clearly just don't think they should have to. I don't think anyone has read the op final paragraph.