what to do about huge willow tree?

[Betty5313]

we have recently moved house and our neighbours have a monster weeping willow tree. About a quarter of it hangs over our garden. I love looking at it but it is clear it isn't in great shape. numerous branches have come down, not always in storms, they are big enough to do serious damage to someone unlucky enough to be underneath. quite a few have been dead.

obviously we will talk to the neighbours but I suspect they are not going to do anything. how much are we going to be looking at for a tree surgeon? we are on the welsh.border.

I want dd to be safe in the garden!

You are entitled to cut off any branches that overhang into your garden as long as you give them back to your neighbour. It is worth having a few quotes if you cant do this yourself. we asked our neighbour politely to cut down 3 trees which we thought were dangerous. They did nothing so we got OUR house insurance company to write to them informing them that if the trees fell down onto our house then they would be liable. That worked!!!

it is the height of two houses, or more.. no way we could do the work ourselves!! will have a word with them first, they are really nice but clearly not keen gardeners!

Good luck with the neighbours then. Perhaps you could offer to go halves? I know tree surgeons round here in the SE are expensive that's why its best to get a couple of quotes. (Approx £500 to just chop a tree that size around here.) Make sure that the tree surgeons are insured too as many aren't.

Our neighbours have an enormous willow tree that we can see from our garden, but it doesn't overhang. In the 12 years we've lived here, they've had tree surgeons lop it two or three times, I forget.
When they've been and done it I swear it looks like a maniac's attacked and killed it, but it's amazing how much it comes back.
I could ask them what it costs but we're in a very different part of the country.

Speak to the neighbour and offer to pay a percentage of the costs. Tree surgeons aren't too expensive to hire.