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Original poster

Neighbour's fruit hanging over my property

38 replies

MagpiePi · 22/09/2022 09:56

My neighbours have an apple tree which partially hangs over my property. They have said I can pick as many as I want, (there are loads!) and i have had a few so far but was waiting till they were ripe before I picked them.

The other day when I got home I noticed that all the fruit on my side had gone. Their side is still fully loaded. My son said he saw a woman picking them, not one of the neighbours that he recognised. She even said hello. I have a feeling it was probably a mother of one of the NDDs.

I know that the fruit is legally theirs, but I'm pretty sure they can't come onto my property without permission to pick them. Am I right?

We have a really good neighbourly relationship - feeding cats, watering plants when away etc, so I'm not going to even mention it, but I'm a bit torn between being, yeah, whatever, it's only some apples, and, CFs deliberately stripping the fruit on my side.

Just to add, they are the best eating apples I have had.

OP posts:
PeekabooAtTheZoo · 22/09/2022 09:59

How old is your son and why didn’t he challenge a random person on your property? It’s not on for someone to come into your garden. They should have knocked and asked. I’d ask NDNs next time you see them in case this person is nothing to do with them and is trespassing to nick peoples fruit.

ImAvingOops · 22/09/2022 10:02

Chop back their tree so it doesn't hang over your side at all. I think they were very rude to do that. The only way to counter blatant rudeness is with equally blunt reactions - you could start by telling them not to come onto your property without permission.

ImAvingOops · 22/09/2022 10:05

And tbh if you don't have the will to challenge it, they will carry on. When you say you have a good neighbourly relationship, is it genuinely reciprocal or are you the one doing more favours than you receive?

steppemum · 22/09/2022 10:12

is the tree easy to access? eg walk in from the road?

It may not have been anything to do with NDN. CF are known to walk in to gardens and help themselves.

shipwreckedonhighseas · 22/09/2022 10:14

One of their parents may not have known about the arrangement or thought you weren't going to pick them because you hadn't done so far. No drama.

ImAvingOops · 22/09/2022 10:16

Even if their parent didn't know it's still rude to just let yourself into someone else's garden, so I'd want to let them know this had happened and I didn't want it happening again.

Zilla1 · 22/09/2022 10:16

Perhaps thank the neighbour for their offer but as some stranger has broken into your garden without your permission to steal the fruit, you might need to hack the tree back?

Original poster
MagpiePi · 22/09/2022 11:31

I'm not going to go round and start a fight over this, and I'm not going to chop the branches off !

My garden is open to the road with a driveway whereas there is only a pedestrian gate to the NDN's but you can easily reach the apples on their side from my side as it is only a small tree. It could have been a random CF but the person being quite confident about being there made me think they had 'permission' off the NDN. Maybe it was actually an extremely confident CF?!

It's just weird that if you said to your mum to help themselves to apples, they would only pick the ones on your neighbour's side. I might mention it when I next see them, but I'm not going to create a drama.

OP posts:
KosherDill · 22/09/2022 11:40

Since the apples taste great, could you ask for a few from their side, thus explaining that some unknown person picked all of those on your side?

MrsMitford3 · 22/09/2022 11:42

KosherDill · 22/09/2022 11:40

Since the apples taste great, could you ask for a few from their side, thus explaining that some unknown person picked all of those on your side?

I think @KosherDill has nailed it

Rollercoaster1920 · 22/09/2022 11:46

Given the additional info, why not speak to the neighbour and ask if the person was connected to them or not? If they say no then you have a laugh about the cheeky fruit stealer and you can both keep an eye out in future for the intruder.
If they say yes you can say you were waiting for the for to ripen, and you'd love any excess apples they have.
No drama.

FreudayNight · 22/09/2022 11:49

MagpiePi · 22/09/2022 11:31

I'm not going to go round and start a fight over this, and I'm not going to chop the branches off !

My garden is open to the road with a driveway whereas there is only a pedestrian gate to the NDN's but you can easily reach the apples on their side from my side as it is only a small tree. It could have been a random CF but the person being quite confident about being there made me think they had 'permission' off the NDN. Maybe it was actually an extremely confident CF?!

It's just weird that if you said to your mum to help themselves to apples, they would only pick the ones on your neighbour's side. I might mention it when I next see them, but I'm not going to create a drama.

Maybe the mum started gathering from her side, saw there were nice ones she couldn’t reach and came round?

Honestly this isn’t worth being snippy about. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and all that.

wonkylegs · 22/09/2022 11:54

It could be some random CF, people can be unbelievably confident especially with regards to 'foraging'.
We have a small orchard at the end of our garden, it's got hedges and fences all around it but at the end it backs on to fields with a public footpath
It is clearly private, you have to climb over both a hedge and a metal field fence to get in our orchard which is mown and maintained so clearly not 'wild' although you can't see the house from the orchard and VV. Yet DH has actually had to challenge somebody who was in the middle of climbing over the fence who was quite put out when DH asked them what the hell they were doing? They calmly replied "just picking some fruit" and were really annoyed with DH when he told them to leave as it was private property and then had to encourage them to actually leave.
We've had people nick plants from our boundary before (they came with a trowel so clearly planned to do it) because they thought they looked nice. I was fortunately crouched down weeding behind a bush and popped my head up as they were in the process of digging. "Ah but you have such a nice garden" was the lady's defence.
To be honest I happily give away fruit and even cuttings to friends and neighbours who ask but not to randoms who trespass to do it and certainly not to plant thieves.

sueelleker · 22/09/2022 12:05

"Well it won't be nice for long if people keep nicking the plants" And I hope your DH encouraged them to leave by throwing them over the fence.

BaconMassive · 22/09/2022 12:19

I guess maybe they thought you didn't want them and that they would fall off and rot in your garden or whatever, attract wasps or something so they thought they were doing you a favour.

i.e. cleaning or preventing a mess that something on their land was causing.

Floweryflora · 22/09/2022 12:20

How old is your kid? Why didn’t he ask her who she was. Just say hi and let it continue?

Floweryflora · 22/09/2022 12:23

Why don’t you just ask them..say do you know who the woman picking the fruit was?

MelbourneStateofMind · 22/09/2022 12:24

I would definitely want to get to the bottom of who it was in my property. I think you could easily ask in a casual way.

ImAvingOops · 22/09/2022 12:25

So you're having a whinge but have no intention of doing anything about it! Fair enough but what was the purpose in posting?

Original poster
MagpiePi · 22/09/2022 13:00

ImAvingOops · 22/09/2022 12:25

So you're having a whinge but have no intention of doing anything about it! Fair enough but what was the purpose in posting?

Just wondered if anyone knew for certain what the law was because there is a lot of stuff about cutting back overhanging branches but I couldn't find anything specific about fruit.
Sorry for being mildly perturbed/amused rather than having a raging anger about it all!

OP posts:
Original poster
MagpiePi · 22/09/2022 13:01

Floweryflora · 22/09/2022 12:20

How old is your kid? Why didn’t he ask her who she was. Just say hi and let it continue?

He's in his early 20s and just staying for a bit because of work. It's not in his nature to be confrontational and probably assumed it was legit.

OP posts:
Original poster
MagpiePi · 22/09/2022 13:03

As a couple of PP have said, I'll just casually ask.

OP posts:
Original poster
MagpiePi · 22/09/2022 13:05

I suppose I could always 'just move'. Bit disappointed that no one suggested it Grin

OP posts:
ImAvingOops · 22/09/2022 13:07

As I understand it, you can cut anything that overhangs your side but have to offer them back the cuttings, They don't have to take them though. But I'd imaging they would want the apples. Not sure where you'd stand if the apples dropped into your garden though, so maybe next year you could 'encourage' that! It would be interesting to ask a solicitor and find out - there's a legal section on here that might be helpful.
They don't have any legal right to just come into your garden though and help themselves and I don't think they have a right to come in and collect the apples every year. Iirc people only have the right to rnter neighbours land for essential maintenance, which I don't think anyone could argue that collecting apples falls into that category.

ImAvingOops · 22/09/2022 13:08

The apples are growing in your airspace, so maybe you could claim them.

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