Neighbours tree trunk crossing boundary

[sheeplikessleep]

Our neighbour has a beech tree which is about twice the height of our house, it’s massive.

It doesn’t have a TPO on it. But the trunk is pushing against our fence and causing it to bow. Paving slabs are also being lifted (we moved in 3 years ago and looking to renovate our garden now and re landscape).

We’ve spoken to them and they don’t want to take it down. They’ve got someone in to remove the ivy but that’s it. The trunk leans into our garden about half way up.

I know we can trim anything that overhangs in our garden, but what if we did that and it would essentially cut the trunk in half?

I don’t want to cause friction, but I’d prefer a smaller tree that gives privacy and isn’t so overbearing. I’m not looking for advice on how to handle with them, I’m more looking for information on legal standpoint.

Thanks

Oh for Christ's sake. The tree was already there (and pretty big) before you moved in, and might even have been there before your neighbour moved in as well.

This planet needs all the trees it can get. That tree is supporting a huge ecosystem all on its own, helping to give shade and cool the air on hot days, reducing noise pollution, cleaning the air, and providing us all with oxygen. Leave well alone.

Besides, you can't do tree work during the bird nesting season, it's not allowed.

The Woodland trust plant trees.

New life is constantly being created. Those bleating about needing trees are desperate to hold on one old one which can easily be replaced by planting a new one.

Surprised at these responses.

I was the equivalent of the person with the tree a few years ago and my neighbour asked to remove it completely as it shaded their garden.

I loved the tree and didn't want to cut it down so I posted on here for advice.

I was called selfish and uncaring and was unanimously told it was my moral duty to remove the tree, so I did .

Get your neighbour to post on here and they'll be told to chop it 😵‍💫

Leave well alone. We have two lime trees in our garden and our neighbours decided to ask the council to force us to cut branches down to give them more light (the trees are entirely on our land and have been there for over 100 years but cast a shadow).

The council thought they were great and slapped a TPO on them. Now they can't even be trimmed without council say so.

If they are suggesting to build the fence around it, I would be running with the assumption that their intention is for the fence to be built around it on their side...

Is there a reason why you can't cut the fence panels to each side of the tree? This would be my solution, along with a gravel/stoney path.

If it has TPO you can't touch it at all. You have to contact the tree people at the council they may come out and inspect and tell you how much you can prune it. If it's dangerous they will let you take it down, but you may have to replace it with a fairly big sapling. You can get a hefty fine for damaging a tree with a TPO, and also have to replace it if it dies as a result. We recently did get one taken down as bits were falling off the top and it was clearly dying, we got a tree surgeon to deal with the appropriate people at the council, mainly filling in a form and sending pictures, could have done it ourselves, but I think it helped that an expert dealt with it for us.

I doubt the tree was huge when it was planted or seeded itself. Due to the size of it the current owners probably had zero to do with it being there.

We have cats who use the back garden but one of them can’t scale fences so I don’t want her getting into other gardens and not being able to get back out easily. Plus the neighbour has a dog. So I can’t see how that would work but enable space for continued tree growth?

I don’t want to be responsible for the tree ongoing tbh.

I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned by your solicitor when you bought the house, our TPO trees are along a boundary and the documents are included in our deeds as on the border between x and y properties. I assume they were in an old hedge row.

No TPO on it

Honestly, people on here are batshit sometimes.

Your neighbours are perfectly entitled to have a tree but they also have a duty to ensure it doesn’t damage anyone else’s property.

Give you insurance people a call tomorrow and ask for their advice.

We have a big mature in our garden, long way from the houses and > 1.0m from the boundary.

Neighbours want it down as they won't like having to rack up the leaves. We got the council around (worried the neighbours would poison the ground or start hacking the branches that come over the fence) - they were happy to put a TPO on it. We decided not to, but agreed to get tree surgeon to trim it a couple of times a year.

We have a massive oak with a TPO in our garden. We have it trimmed every 3 years as per Council allowed guidelines and our neighbours are very understanding of the bows that hang over the fence into their garden. They had the fence redone this year and unknown to us the trunk actually fell within their boundary due to its growth. They actually told the fence guy to go around in our favour, to the detriment of their boundary to help protect the tree in future growth. We are aware that is in not our garden, we are lucky to have fantastic neighbours.

If you are worried yours won't behave quite so well then you'll need to deal with the tree rather than the fence.

yep agree. For some paving slabs, too.

There is a large Oak in our hedge boundary, we did some history tracking and the hedge is 100 years old, the tree probably a self seeded 50 years old. A bungalow was built in the back garden of a larger house that was on the other side of that boundary, in the 1980's. Although the council won't issue a TPO, they have put numerous protections on it, as the bungalow owner now wants to redevelop the land into two plots. He wanted the tree down. The planning permission states that he cannot remove, reduce, damage, or otherwise interfere with the tree.

I would assume your neighbours tree is as old, if not older, and possibly predates the houses?? Historical precedence applies to trees and hedges.

This. Beech trees are absolutely beautiful too. 😞

Good.

if you didn’t want to live somewhere with a large tree up against the boundary then you shouldn’t have bought somewhere with a large tree up against the boundary. The tree was there long before you and should be there long after. That’s how nature works. Despite your protestations, you clearly don’t care about nature as much as the position of a few paving slabs?! All that you seem to care about is pushing people around to get your own way. As others have said why not work around it? (Especially if you want to avoid having neighbors that hate you).

As others have suggested, fence either side of the tree, you can fence right up close up to it, but of course the tree will still grow, so an adjustemnt would be expected at some point. Then do a nice brick curve around the trunk and cut the paving slabs so that they go against the bricks. See pics for examples of what I mean (obviously the brick/slab solution would just be your side of the fence rather than all around the tree).

So you re-do the fence highlighting this beautiful asset to your garden. The slabs must be old - I cannot imagine that a beech would have made such changes to the slabs in the time that you have been there that they are now lifting? And if so - re -do them.

And I too am struggling to see why you bought this property knowing that the tree was there - they are very slow growing so it cannot have been much smaller!

Good grief OP.

That is brilliant! So pleased for you. 🙂

Get the TPO put on it then it is protected forever.

Get them to have the tree surveyed so you know it won’t fall over unexpectedly. Glow their advice about management to maximise light, garden usage and tree health.

Fence and patio around it, and rejoice that such a special thing is part of your plot.

I can see why it’s upsetting you because you see it as an obstacle to your plans. When you reframe it as an asset and plan to include it, you’ll enjoy it more.

Think of a ladder, treehouse or swing built on/from it for your children.

Trees with a TPO on them can still have work carried out on them and be felled under specific circumstances when causing damage to buildings.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/trees/near-buildings

I doubt that this would apply in the case of damage to some paving and a fence though.