Conifers next to house for sale

[Barbaralovesroger]

Afternoon! Theres a house we like the look of. Sadly next door has established conifer hedge that run right up to the corner of the building. Two questions - could the conifers be the likely cause of a horizontal crack? (Some concerns about subsidence?) Secondly Is there a legal height limit for conifers right next to houses? Presently they are probably 6 or 7 foot and are clearly well established/trimmed. I'd hate to buy the house and for the neighbours to grow their conifers huge and block all our light.

Do you reeeeallly like the house? How long do you intend to stay there? I'd be wary simply because sure, the owners may be happily trimming it now, but they could move/die/get ill and stop. You have no control really over what they do to it.
Subsidence aside, there is also something called heave, especially common on clay soils, which happens when large hedges/trees are taken away: it pushes the soil up because the trees aren't "drinking" the moisture any more. So if there are lots of them right next to your house it could be an issue either way. And don't think the survey will cover you: our next-door had a leiilandi that was six foot from our boundary (not too big, fortunately) but the surveyors ignored it. When our tree surgeon friend came to visit he took one look and said "pay for it to get removed, quick!"..... The real trouble is you just don't know what will happen in the future..

I have neighbours with leylandii and pine trees. I would never, ever buy a house next door to one with big trees.

Thank you for the info. I think I'm going off the house.

The house has been on the market for about a year as a result I think