Neighbour's trees - how to approach them about this?

[Ladyface]

I am planning to replace my dilapidated conservatory with a proper extension so had a local architect round to get an idea of what we could do. All was fine until we went into the garden and he saw the neighbours leylandi trees which are up against their garden wall, very close to the proposed extension.

The architect has said that the trees should not have been planted so close to the property and that to comply with buildings regulations we will need to dig deeper foundations than normal to prevent subsidence from these trees as we live in a clay soil area. This would cost an extra £8k which would pretty much put an end to the extension. The easiest solution would be for the neighbours to remove the trees, which I am happy to pay for.

I am just really after some advice on how to approach the neighbours. We have a good neighbourly relationship which I want to maintain as I know these sort of issues can suddenly escalate into huge disputes. They are a retired couple who are very private (the entire property is surrounded by trees/bushes) and the wife is housebound due to ill health and I have never seen her in the 4 years I have lived here. I need to man up and have this conversation don't I (or get DH to do it!)?

I don't think you can dictate what someone does in terms of planting on their own property but I vaguely remember that leylandii are only allowed to grow to a certain height because people were using them to affect their neighbours' properties adversely. If they are continually cropped to keep them within this height, then the roots shouldn't spread too much (I also remember vaguely hearing that leylandii roots tend to plunge straight down rather than spreading so, in terms of root damage, are much less harmful than many trees).

That doesn't really help, does it? Maybe do a bit of research on the trees first and then approach neighbour?

Our ex-neighbour had planted a Leylandi right next to the house (he was old and subsequently died), roll on 5 years and the house had to be underpinned for subsidence.

Try to get them to get the trees removed, though I guess they planted them there for privacy and so won't take kindly....

Thanks for your replies. I don't want to upset them, particularly as the wife is ill. I value peaceful neighbours over an extension!I am going to get some builders quotes for digging the extra deep foundatons to comply with the buildings regs. If it is coming out too expensive another conservatory may be the best answer.

You can ask, but if they like their trees then it is your bad. Spend the extra 8k or go with the conservatory.

We had this issue as we had 20 conifer trees which were 30ft high at the bottom of our very small garden! We asked our neighbours to cut them down a bit which was a bad move as they then removed them and we've now lost all our privacy as they have overlooking windows!

What I would say is that when we bought this house, our survey picked up on the height of the trees and said that conifers are extremely thirsty trees and suck all the moisture out of the ground - hence causing subsidence. The roots will be 1 and a half times the height of the trees apparently so spread quite far.

You could offer to plant new trees which would have smaller roots like some varieties of Prunus if they are concerned about their privacy?

8k!!!!!

Do you know why it would be so expensive in your case? We just did an extension that turned out to require deeper foundations because of a tree (in our garden) - they'd already dug normal ones and then the building inspector came and had a look and demanded much deeper ones - the extra cost was £450.

I agree with Maryz. Our neighbours had an overgrown leylandii hedge. I worried for 2 years about asking them if we could prune it down to nearer the fence height. I eventually plucked up courage and the neighbour just said 'help yourself'. The hedge had got out of the hand and they couldnt be bothered to deal with it.

You could always offer to put something there in place of the leylandii's you want to remove , which will keep their and your privacy. A fence, more manageable shrubs, or maybe arrange that your extension does not have windows facing them (maybe have veluxes in the roof to let in light), or have obscured (bathroom) type glass in any windows you do put there, or have high up windows that you can't see out of but still let in light. It can be quite useful to have an unbroken wall for furniture.

Maybe take a photo of your dilapidatd conservatory so that he can see you are doing it for a good reason (but only if his house is in better condition than your conservatory).

I hope that you find the man is lovely but trapped by circumstances, and may be glad to help you and your lovely family, and be glad of achat witht he neighbours.

Let us know how it goes.