Neighbours cut down trees before completion

[Annemum6]

I've just had an ail from our solicitor saying the neighbour has cut down some trees on the property we are buying. It will be in a small 'wooded' area of the garden which we loved. We've exchanged and were due to complete next week.

I can only assume that they haven't been removed by a proper tree surgeon and that stumps are left. What would you do? Any idea on our options?

My concern would be that the neighbours are problematic and your sellers haven't declared this.

CFuckery of the first order!

Speak to your solicitor, Also get quotes for fully mature trees in the number that were cut . They might well cost £500 each so possibly 20 of them could be £10k plus £2k for labour. The sellers may need to pay that and arrange to have the trees you choose put in in the next 2 weeks before completion.

You need photos so you can see what's been done. But I would also be going over to ask to see in person.

I'd ask to go over and look. Take pictures. Say how disappointed you are, as they're the reason you loved the property. If it's bad, I'd pull out.

Well if the trees were a major factor in why you fell in love with the house I'd tell them to get stuffed and pull out

Exchanged or not I think this is a major Red Flag and even if you have exchanged I would be asking my solicitor about pulling out.

Your vendors have breached the contract and compensation needs paying. You can get fully mature trees planted to replace the ones that have been cut down but the cost is huge and I would want more money off for your time and distress in having to deal with it all.
I personally think you are moving in next door to the neighbour from Hell and whilst the current vendors might not have involved the police, the fact that these neighbours think they can go onto someone else’s garden and chop down mature trees that don’t belong to them during nesting season rings huge alarm bells.

Personally I would be doing my utmost to pull out of this purchase. It doesn’t bode well
Then it is up to them to pay for your losses, rent, etc till you get another place.

This is the equivalent of going to a shop and choosing a dress. Then taking it to the counter and paying for it but before the shop assistant puts it in the bag she rips the arm off it and then expects you to walk away with the dress with no compensation and won’t give you your money back.

I don't see how you can make a decision until you go and see what has been cut down. Can you go today?

Not quite the same situation, but we bought a house with a very small garden which was enclosed by neighbouring trees, not on our property, however giving us privacy and a wonderfully green view. A couple of months after we moved in the neighbour cut nearly all the trees down, completely, leaving our garden totally exposed and overlooked. It’s horrible. As the trees weren’t on our property there’s nothing we can do. It was heartbreaking. It has taught us a lesson in that next time we move we make sure the trees are within our boundary. I think, in your situation, I’d get legal advice about pulling out post-exchange, given that the property is no longer in the same state as what you agreed to buy.

OP, I feel for you - we had exactly the same situation with the neighbours when we bought our place which was vacant before completion. Our solicitor was useless, as was the vendor, said there was nothing we could do. I bought a load of fast growing laurels, planted them as soon as we moved in (left the tree stumps in place along the boundary and planted the laurels in front of them). Several years later we have a beautiful hedge and complete privacy from the neighbours, but have had to have several words with them (and put up CCTV) when they kept on leaning over to chop the new trees back to below the fence line. They just hate any trees or greenery which might spoil their concrete garden.

Your neighbours sound similar, so be warned, they may try this again, speak to them sooner rather than later and warn them that you won't tolerate it again.

Lots of hysteria on here about pulling out of the sale. Most people don't choose the property on the basis of the trees in the garden. Whilst the OP may choose to ask for a reduction, in reality she is also far down the path of buying this property and pulling out of the sale will cause her financial and practical issues. In the real world, you would go and have a look and make a decision about whether this is actually a deal breaker or not. Unless you have plenty of money and options, you are unlikely to back out because there are less trees at the back of your garden.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

I think you need very clear info from the vendor as to the circumstances. If they won't come clean I'd pull out - you don't want to inherit a psycho neighbour

Could be.

Or it could be that the vendor said "Oh bugger it, I'm rid of the house, go ahead and cut the blasted trees".

OP has no way of knowing.

It doesn't matter. The contract is with the vendor. They need to hand over the house (and garden) as expected. They can't now do that, so they owe the original poster. It's up to the vendor whether they want to try to pass the bill onto the neighbours.

I hope you've managed to speak to your solicitor by now?

This happened to a friend, who took the sellers to court and they had to pay for the trees they cut down!

They cut then down to take with them!

Bloodyhell. The things that's equally concerning to the trees being cut down is the neighbour who thinks he/she can do whatever they want on YOUR future property. Do you really want to live next door to someone like that? Is that why these people are selling their house, at least in part?

What the neighbour did is wrong, but first I'd knock on their door if possible and ask them to explain why they cut down the trees. They might say that the trees were diseased (which might not be obvious for those who can't spot it) and your sellers refused to anything about it, this putting the neighbours garden at risk too. Also, it will give you an opportunity to see what kind of person they are face to face. No one wants a nightmare neighbour.

@Annemum6

It sounds like they did it without asking, but in all honesty the timing seems suspicious to me.

Unfortunately I've only been given the vaguest of information which makes me think the seller is trying to cover herself for how bad it is.

They were mature trees so I'm not sure how you replace them like for like?

Not quite the same as we are renters but our house sat empty for years without issue, when we moved in there was a large bush/tree in the garden and its in our contract to return the garden as it was when we moved in.

Well our psycho neighbor cut down the tree and poisoned our land just weeks after we moved in, it was blatently our tree in our garden.

I reported him to the landlord but the did nothing but then a few years later I got a letter saying we had altered the garden and needed to have it landscaped to look better.

I simply told them to piss off and they should have sorted it when I reported it because its not me that altered anything.

That neighor was hell for like 6 years until they finally moved. They threatened us, egged us, tampered with our car, constantly posted notes of 'rules' on how we must live in OUR house through our door including an 8pm 'bedtime', slagged us off to all the locals and eventially we had to get a no contact order after they kicked in our door and threatened to kill us (because I had the audacity to park my car on my property).

My worry would be that your new neighbors might also be boundry crossing, controlling and psycho like the one we got stuck next too.

I think it would be worth finding out the neighbours are going to be a long term problem. If you have to live with toxic neighbours that will be a much bigger problem then living without the trees.

You probably should hold money back from the sale. Depending on how many trees there were. A bit of a worry over the new neighbour.

Being the nasty person I am, I would be replacing them by a monster hedge as long as the shadow didn’t fall on my property or other neighbours.

So vendor told her solicitor to tell your solicitor re the tree cutting down?

Easy to confirm timing
Ask for invoice

Also I’d contact the company who cut down the tree to find out when they were contacted to do the job

If there was. TPO on them there could be a big fine

I'd be there having a look.

I would insist that they are REPLACED by similar aged trees.. at the Sellers cost. There are specialist companies that can plant matured trees grown elsewhere.

Please consider this OP, those poor trees.

@QueenBee52

I would insist that they are REPLACED by similar aged trees.. at the Sellers cost. There are specialist companies that can plant matured trees grown elsewhere.

Please consider this OP, those poor trees.

similar aged trees

Doubt that’s possibly unless on the young side!

I can see that it's not so easy as 'pull out' when OP has sold her own home and living out of boxes but it's less the trees and more the attitude of the neighbours that would bother me.

I would very likely suck up the felling of the trees and try to get compensation to replant them but if the neighbours are psycho then that would be the kind of thing that might cause me to pull out of the purchase even now.

Nothing worse than crazy entitled boundary trampling neighbours. They really can make your life hell. I literally knew a man driven to a suicide attempt by years of solicitors letters from his neighbour. First the boundary, then noise nuisance and finally light pollution were alleged and nothing would ever satisfy them until the poor guy was pushed over the edge.

I honestly would think seriously about pulling out if this is the tip of the iceberg of crazy neighbour behaviour. You might be dodging a bullet.