Sugestions please - neighbours house empty for 10months (he's abroad) need to contact them...

[My2Weegirls]

and all we know is that they are in south africa!

we need to speak about a tree that is bordering our properties (know that we can trim what is hanging into our garden etc) as the roots are starting to affect the fencing. The council can't help us. It doesn't appear that anyone is looking after the house for him e.g. back garden looks like a wildlife park.

can anyone think of anything we could do...

What are they doing to your fence?

How about wiritn gto him at that address and see what happens? He may have some sort of mail redirect?

Is he having mail delivered?

the roots are pushing up the fencing - it's a eucalytus tree which i believe has shallow roots.

we've tried writing - and left it a month but no response. myself and other neighbours have even had mail sent to us for him!!

I would guess he's having his mail redirected if there's nobody looking after the house otherwise there would be a tremendous ammount of mail building up! lol
I'd write and see what happens.

Oh x posts. In that case I may do a little detective work and see if I can find a family member of theirs. Do you know much about them/their families?

maybe i should write with a luminous pink envelope and wait a few days, then peek through the letter box to see if it's there and that he's not just ignoring mail!

Eucalyptus trees don't have shallow roots - they have very deep tap roots. Must be something else pushing up your tree. I would have thought that you could sever roots that are encroaching onto your property?

Or pushing up your fence, even. Have you tried finding him on Facebook?

all we know is hsi name and that he's south african, came over here to work (another neighbour has contacted the company he worked for but since he left/resigned even if they did have information they couldn't give it out).

will try 192.com and see is any other names come up....

Oooh facebook is a good idea, yes try that!

nothing on facebook....any other ideas

i don't knwo what else it could be if it's not the tree roots!

It couldnt be anything on your side of the fence could it?

can't see anything on our side and def looks like it's coming from the tree.

ps thanks everyone for all your help/suggestions so far

Can you dig down a bit on your side to see if you can see anything?

Here's what I would do if you can't get anywhere with facebook or 192.com:-

1. As you suggest, send a bright pink envelope and post to his home. Check to see if it arrives.

1. If it doesn't arrive, you know his mail is being redirected, so send a letter telling him about the problem and that if you haven't heard from him within 6 weeks, you will get a tree surgeon in to take down the offending tree and charge him for it and write that you know his mail is being re-directed.

1. This is so that you will hopefully get some sort of response from him, I'm not suggesting that you will get the tree cut down and charge him, cos the letter still may not get to him.

notjustmom - lol i suspect that he might notice, it's the only tree in the wild garden (and it seems to be about the height of the house now). under scottish law any bits i chop off that are on my property i've got to give back to him.

flier - i'll try that and if that doesn't work i suppose i could always say it blew down in the winds and we had to get someone out to make it safe...

you can pay for a land registry search which should tell you who owns it and their address (though it may be an old one), fee is nominal I think, a few quid.