Advice on neighbours problem Leylandii?

[wildstrawberryplace]

Bought a house on a new development which had a huge Leylandii growing next to it. Looks to me like it is the remnants of an old hedge as there are four trunks very close together at the bottom. It towers more than 3 storeys high.

Obviously when we bought the house we knew it was there, but in the three years that we have been here, the tree has become very unhealthy looking and shed loads of its inner branches, it is all brown and twiggy in the inside and only the very outer bit is green.

The branches of the trees overhang our land and the branches are literally 2m from the front of our house. Not so bad when they were fresh and luxuriant looking, but now it looks all drab and horrible.

All the landscaping that we had done at the front is dead and brown and dry, the ground is covered in tree litter, tiny dead twigs etc.

The trees are owned by the people who sold the land to the developers, they got into a dispute with the developers about something and as a sort of tit for tat refused to remove the trees when the original landscaping was done. They have kept ownership of a small strip of land right along the length of the development, presumably because they live over the road and wanted some say in future issues. They cannot see the Leylandii from their house, they live round the corner.

Gosh, have whiffled on, sorry.

Essentially have every sympathy with them if the developers were being twunts (they have been twunts with the new residents too) but their dispute went on before we moved here, we had no idea about it, and now the trees are blighting my own house/land and enjoyment of my property.

What are my chances of getting them to remove them?

Thanks.

[MerlinsBeard]

Can someone link to a decent pic of leylandii?

Worried we have one in our garden and want to chop it/dig it out while its still "only" 8/9 foot !!

(we rent from an agent but upkeep of gardens etc is in our contract)

[wildstrawberryplace]

morningpaper and others who answered this old thread...more news and a proposal:

Have now found out that the land is owned by a residents assoc. of the road next to mine. The trees/hedge do not screen any of their houses or anything, it seems they just own the strip of land that borders all along the length of the new development, further down there are trees that do provide screening but these leylandii do not.

My initial offer is offer to pay half the costs of tree surgeon to section cut, remove and convey away the wood, also to offer to have a smaller deciduous native tree planted in the space if it is felt that it would be wanted, at my expense.

I think this is fair - any thoughts anyone?

[mintyfresh]

This sounds very fair to me. If not providing any screening I can't see why they would have any objections especially as they could be footing the entire bill themselves.

Our neighbours have 30ft conifer trees which have been causing us a headache as we only have a small garden and all we can see is the trees! However they do provide essential screening as our houses are quite close and we would look straight into each others windows. They have just agreed to halve the height (their expense) and we will pay to cut our side back.

[sludegulper]

Paid my local council £360 for them to investigate and tell me I had a case under the Anti Social Act...High Hedges. It took 18 months of correct procedures to get a judgement in my favour .I was informed that because of possible health issues to the trees when pruning only a slight reduction could be enforced. In effect, the conifers needed to be cut back 18" and not be allowed to grow passed there original height (averaging 5.5 metres).The last one in the row was 1 metre from my lounge french doors below and bedroom window above and planted over a foul drain. My neighbour then hacked them back 2 mtrs which was bliss, I could now enjoy more light and also winter sunshine. That was 3 years ago and the trees have now grown passed my original complaint height. I have not gone back to the council because I am convinced that they go through the procedure just to satisfy the law. They have no intention of implementing the threatened prosecution and want to leave all records in the deep tanks. I think my quickest legal hope of resolution is for the trees to die naturally(up to 40 years) or my neighbour to be replaced by someone who recognises the ugliness and nuisance of these untended eye sores that can be condoned as a weapon.It is worth noting that there is already in place a shared well maintained 2 metre high timber boundary fence that should be high enough for privacy.