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

Wow, I’d love a beech like that.

accept the tree, use it as a feature. A rockery, with alpines or woodland type plants, would be very nice. And if you’re wanting a path, a bark or slate chipping base with natural looking stepping stones, would look nice. Though that is more a natural looking garden, if you’re wanting a modern sort of clean lines/square edges, maybe not for you.

old beech’s do not cope well with hard pruning, you’re only meant to lightly prune if at all.

that tree was probably planted around when the houses were built, given you said they were 60s houses. A beech around 10 years old tend to be around 4 metres tall. So this is quite an old tree. And if on a housing estate will be a shorter beech tree, rather than in a forest where they tend to grow taller.

I’m a wee bit confused, that you moved in 3 years ago, viewed the house and garden presumably, saw this massive tree, bought the house, and now 3 years down the line you’ve decided the tree must go. The tree won’t have grown a whole lot in three years, so why have you now decided the tree needs to go?!

i would build fence that is not made of panels, so vertical slats. You can do it with gaps between them, or one of each side of the rail overlapping, or just up against each other (basically same as the gap method but you just put the slats right next to each other so the gaps are barely there. which means if the tree shifts and/or grows you can remove slats or cut the rail etc, rather than having to faff with cutting panels and that sort of thing. I would also say go pressure treated so you don’t have to paint it and it ends up a nice sort of wooden silvery sort of colour.

make the tree a feature, beech’s are beautiful trees (to be fair, as are most trees) especially a beautiful mature tree. Don’t fight against the tree. Accepting the tree and working round it, will be a much cheaper, less hassling and just an all round better way of doing things.

a tree that old will be an absolutely bitch and maybe 20 thousand other bitches to cut down, remove as much of the roots as you can, plus ridiculously expensive.

Some of these replies are batshit OP.

I would say I’m someone who tries to be environmentally minded (drive an electric car, have taken flights once in 8 years, but lots and lots second hand, reusable nappies etc etc- I don’t mind a bit of inconvenience for a more environmentally friendly option).

But this is a single tree pushing on your boundary, damaging your property. I can’t believe people are telling you to suck it up!

it’s not the branches/crown/leaves that are an issue- it’s pushing into your garden, and your supposed to shrug and move your fence?!

I don’t know how close your house is but the roots will be at least as wide as the branches. They could well be damaging the foundations.

You think it's batshit to not support feeling a tree that causing a crooked fence? Clearly not very environmentally minded.

Had some good posts about landscaping around the tree and getting a tree expert down.

But the tree hasn't suddenly got big has it?
Like it was there when you moved in?

How long have you been there ?

Op, I’d be very surprise if a mature beech tree suddenly developed a larger trunk. You can’t damage the trunk as it will likely kill the tree, and it will be criminal damage.

You shouldn't have bought the house if you weren't happy to have the tree there. Buying on the assumption you can get the tree destroyed to suit you wasn't sensible.

Can you put one of those lovely semi-circular seats around the tree? Give yourself somewhere shady and dappled to sit?

Something like this?

You don’t usually build a fence around it, the fence sits either side of the trunk. Do you think that’s what’s they meant? See attached pic. If so I would agree to this.

It is done as in PPs photos. The edge of the panel/length of feather edge (depending on the style of fencing) can be further trimmed every couple of years/as the tree grows. No cats can get through the very narrow (5-10mm) gap between the fencing and trunk. You have a garden filled with living things that grow, so it is unrealistic to expect anything to be job-and-done. Fences should be regularly re-treated, so that would be the perfect time to ease the fencing for new growth.

Could you post a photo of the tree?
I wonder if you could incorporate it into your garden as a 'borrowed feature'.

My mum's old neighbour had a massive conifer in her garden, planted right up to the fence line. It was huge and dark and blocked out a lot of the light into my mum's garden. It was so tall that I used to worry it would come down onto my mum's roof if there was a storm 😬 but we were told that there's nothing we could do about it and neighbour didn't want to cut it down so we just had to put up with it 😔 mum has moved now thankfully!

who owns the fence OP?

I would cut the fence either side of the trunk and use wire mesh to close the gap, which should be minimal anyway. Then I'd lift the old slab and make a nice bed underneath with shade living plants. It'll be heaven in the height of summer.

The trouble is the tree isn't actually growing on your land, it's in the air above your land, so the only right you have is to cut overhanging branches and intruding roots, but not so much that the tree would be harmed. If the base of the tree formed part of the boundary then you would be jointly liable with next door. As it stands next door are liable for any damage to your or your fence.

I would get a tree surgeon round, tell them what you want to achieve and see what they say.
Nothing can be done now until October anyway and we're safely out of nesting season, that's also the law.

I know it's not what you want to hear OP but you have very few rights at all on this.

Forget asking for tree to be taken down or trimmed just ask them how they plan to sort the damage it caused

Whilst I agree the tree should absolutely stay, I do wish people would stop saying it's against the law to cut hedges and trees during nesting season. It isn't. It's an offence to disturb nesting birds, but you can still cut your bushes/trees if you're sure there aren't any nests. The months people quote are also rubbish too... nesting season isn't set in stone.

Yeah but how do you prove it?

As PPs have pointed out, the OP must have been aware of the size of the tree and the lifted tiles prior to buying her house.

Where I live, we have the remains of what used to be an old beech boulevard on land one side of our private road, bordering a farm. New neighbour moves in and after the first winter storm the wife decides that the trees are too dangerous and wants the ones opposite their house, cut down. The trees are about 100 years old and it turned out that they have a TPO. The ill feeling stirred up remained for several years.
How much land exactly would be lost by fencing around the tree trunk? A 1 m X 2 m patch? Leave the tree alone!

Apologies, you are absolutely right. I wasn't being precise, which was lazy posting.

Thank you, I’ve corrected this multiple times on here too but people still persist in the belief that it’s illegal to do any tree or hedge work in nesting season!

Yes they can - the reason being you are allowed to cut any over hanging branches, which you could do now at your cost. You cannot do anything which will kill the tree.

Your neighbours do not have to fence their boundary, neither do you - this is the legal situation, so there does not have to be a fence at all. So in this instance if you want a fence my suggestion would be to fence either side of the tree, so it is fence tree trunk fence.

The basic part of this though is the tree was there when your purchased the property, you cannot now decide you do not want it there.

I would cut the over hanging branches and replan your garden design.

The paving around the tree is a terrible idea. It might look nice initially but the roots will push the paving up which is exactly what the OP is complaining about.

Have a tree specialist take a look at it and assess the likely root system.

We had to remove a beech from our garden not long after we moved in, as a tree specialist assessed it as being too close to the house, and suggested the roots could cause movement issues. On the basis that we would have had to declare that to our insurers , we took it down.

It was not especially large, but it had self seeded in an overgrown garden. We have several other trees to keep the wildlife happy.

Our neighbours have lleylandii hedging , and while they keep the height down, they are also pushing on our ( second, inside boundary ) fence. Much as I like the privacy, I am done resetting fence panels to accommodate the trunks.

Can we get a pic to get a better idea of how big it is?

You said it was a 1960s housing estate? If it's as big and dominating as you say, the tree has probably been there for 100 years, long before the houses.

If its a wooden one you don't have to move the fence the individual palings can be cut around the trunk.