Old dairy - Boundary line trees and fence

[Lov3Hart]

Hi all,

Recently purchased an old dairy in the countryside and the boundary is not clearly established around the property.

We contacted the council about putting up a fence to encase a line of trees; the council is claiming the trees are ours which we knew, but is saying the midpoint of the tree is where the boundary is so in essence we can't put a fence up to encase the trees on our land... noting We get complaints from the council when branches fall (ie during the storm). It feels that the council want to have their cake and eat it - ie the trees are ours so they don't need to maintain them but we're not allowed to encase them on our land!

They have no evidence for the midpoint of the tree being the boundary line - it's just a council precedent apparently.

In addition the neighbouring farm has fence which captures the trees along this boundary.

We have barbed wire up at the moment around the perimeter excluding the trees and the tree line back onto a path but there is large distance.

We need to put up a secure fence ASAP as we have dogs, animals and children so need to secure the boundary and also from a security perspective.

Can anyone provide any advice as to what we can do here?

Thanks

Yes absolutely.

see a solicitor.

Ok thank you - yes perhaps this is an issue for a solicitor!

Put fence in front of trees but still maintain trees, just because it’s your boundary line doesn’t mean your fence have to go on it

Thank you - however we would prefer to encase our trees, or maybe even remove some of the smaller overgrown parts to put a hedge up. It will be easier for us to maintain them if they are in our side also.

It's all very overgrown at the moment with a lot of brambles etc. If we put the fence up to exclude the trees we have less incentive to maintain them as its very costly.

We can enjoy them if they are on our side and we feel we get some of our land back and can maintain them in a better way.