Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

HELP. Dream house, Freaking out about big bush.

102 replies

Chickenandeggz · 06/01/2023 21:52

Long story short as I appreciate it could be very boring.

After ages, and I mean AGES, of looking for a home to buy we finally found a lovely house.
Offer made. Estate agents did their thing to drive up the price. More negotiation etc etc. Made our best and final. Offer accepted. BOOM.

Fast forward a few weeks later. Phone call from EA to inform us NEIGHBOR of the property has told them that there is an ongoing dispute between him and said property over neighbors massive bush. This is the first we had heard of it.

Upshot is.... after several years of back and forth the council have ordered neighbour to cut bush height by 4 meters (it's huge) as it blocks out all light from ground floor and the sky is not visible.
Neighbor has refused to comply as he feels it negates the privacy of his swimming pool from which he entertains for 6 months of the year- he has thus appealed which means the case has gone to the planning inspectorate 5 counties away. I have been told by caseworker this is unlikely to be sorted for a very long time.

So the house (our house) is a lovely 1980s job. Kept lovely but nothing's been updated so could be £££ (just had a quite as it needs new windows...£25k!) I really like it but its fairly run of the mill when compared with the neighbors massive multi-million pound pile.

Location is ideal for kids school etc and it really is sooo hard to get a property in this community.

At the time I attributed the dark rooms to the fact it is north facing and its a bleak time of year. I thought through these implications and decided I could live with this. I am unsure as to what to do about this. I'm stressed- we are living in a moldy rental with 3 small children, our last house fell through so we came out of the chain so as not to lose the people who bought our house.

Husband is a light worshipper. He is really not happy and quite rightly he's gutted that we could inherit this ongoing war.

Had wr have known this we definitely would not have offered top dollar. Reason being is if worse happened and the bush remained I'd want to extend out the other side in order to maximize light and happiness. We couldn't afford to do this given the price we are paying.

I feel sad.

WWYD?

OP posts:
Honper · 06/01/2023 21:54

Dead of night injection into the roots. Be grand.

Eyesopenwideawake · 06/01/2023 21:55

Don't walk, run. Moving is stressful enough without knowingly inheriting an years old issue. Find another house.

Highlyflavouredgravy · 06/01/2023 21:55

Run!!!

ProceedWithOptimism · 06/01/2023 21:56

I'd be just as wary of a neighbour who apparently has pool parties for half the year.

Cheeseandhoney · 06/01/2023 21:58

I’d be wary to move next to the type of cunt who will grow a tree and block a neighbours light and fight it like it’s ok.

honestly I’d run op.

donttellmehesalive · 06/01/2023 21:59

Sneaky of them not to tell you.

Neighbour sounds quite malicious to object to trimming the bush, and to stick the boot in by notifying you of the dispute via the EA. I expect they want to scupper the sale.

I'd talk to the neighbour. Is this something that could be resolved once the hated owners are gone? If so, ask for a reduction. They hid the dispute and the market has changed. If not, find another house.

Pittapatcat · 06/01/2023 22:02

Run. Sounds a nightmare. Your husband loves the light.

MarmiteCoriander · 06/01/2023 22:03

I'm sure they have to disclose any ongoing disputes? Not sure at what point that should happen, but surely BEFORE you've made an offer?

I'd run too. Neighbour disputes are awful and can make life absolute misery. You don't need to start off with a new house with these issues OP.

icefishing · 06/01/2023 22:04

Never mind the bush, pool parties for six months of the year?
That combined with intransigent neighbor I'd avoid like the plague.

NewYearNora · 06/01/2023 22:06

But you viewed the house and didn't really notice the bush? It's only a problem to you if you let it be.

Why don't you ask the ask the agent for another viewing on a sunny day? And remember the sun is low in the sky at this time of year. How long is the garden?

Onekidnoclue · 06/01/2023 22:07

I wouldn’t buy a house with a hostile neighbor.

Winter645Mermaid · 06/01/2023 22:07

We pulled out of sale nearly at completion when a similar issue came up and somehow the neighbours found out our solicitor and went to them to warn us. It cost us £3k lost in fees etc but we went on to find a better house a few weeks later and I’m SO relieved we did pull out. There was more back story than we’d been told.

Cheeseandhoney · 06/01/2023 22:11

Can you imagine what they are like op? They are so utterly selfish they will know the tree blocks light and refuse to deal with it. These are not good people. The worst kind of neighbours.

I say that as we have close friends who have a similar problem. There is a hedge between rhe properties and the neighbours won’t reduce it , it totally reduces my friends light to the extent they need the lights on all the time . The wife is also quite nuerotic and complains and stresses if they do anything that might just impact and the husband acts like he doesn’t know and his wife doesn’t harass them, that it’s all lies she does that .

it’s now escalated to such a level they have all fallen out, and my friends are forced to offer mediation before going to the council . It’s awful what their neighbours are doing to them .

honestly do not buy next to this sort of person. They will make your life hell and act like you’re the issue.

RosesAndHellebores · 06/01/2023 22:11

You didn't think it was a problem.until it became a problem.

Go to your solicitor and say the dispute has been declared and therefore you are reducing your offer by x.

ItWasDobbinAtTheMareAndSpare · 06/01/2023 22:12

The neighbour sounds worse than the bush, that’s a neighbour that would put the boot in to prevent a house sale. Think about it - he’s having a stressful battle with them - you’d think he’d want them to leave? Maybe you wouldn’t be asking him to trim the bush, as far as he knows? But instead he sabotages the current owner’s (who’s he already in a conflict with!) sale. That’s next level…

ItWasDobbinAtTheMareAndSpare · 06/01/2023 22:12

I bet they’re selling to get away from him.

Original poster
Chickenandeggz · 06/01/2023 22:13

@NewYearNora I noticed the bush. It's 10 meters high after all! I attributed the dark garden to it being north facing though and a crap time of year. Bought a sunlight tracking app and everything!

Having access to all the paperwork from the dispute it is very disconcerting to read what a negative impact the bush is having on their lives. In addition the caseworker said if the appeal is rejected (many are apparently) the man will have to keep the bush to 5 meters high, he cheerily told me that I can call them up whenever I see them breeching this rule...to me personally that sounds like a crap thing to have to do every 4 months.

OP posts:
Cheeseandhoney · 06/01/2023 22:19

ItWasDobbinAtTheMareAndSpare · 06/01/2023 22:12

The neighbour sounds worse than the bush, that’s a neighbour that would put the boot in to prevent a house sale. Think about it - he’s having a stressful battle with them - you’d think he’d want them to leave? Maybe you wouldn’t be asking him to trim the bush, as far as he knows? But instead he sabotages the current owner’s (who’s he already in a conflict with!) sale. That’s next level…

Agree, it’s not about the bush, any decent person who knows the negative impact a tree or hedge is having on a neighbour gets it trimmed to six foot from the height of the neighbours land.

it takes a special kind of arsehole to refuse. Trust me, move on. You will just inherit the issue, and the bush isn’t the issue, it’s the entitled neighbours,

Identifyingasadolphin · 06/01/2023 22:27

Is the neighbour with the bush the sort who might go on to plant a line of Leylandi in future?

Is there a rough diagram we could look at, showing east, west, other buildings proximity and the bush…..might help us to give you perspective?

Noise from neighbouring gardens with pools can be prolonged, stressful and severely intrusive, especially from visitors to the pool who tend not to think to respect other neighbours, also if people are allowed to use the pool when the owners are absent, that can be another issue.

Herejustforthisone · 06/01/2023 22:46

This is not your house.

pleaseletmesleeptonight · 06/01/2023 22:52

Don't do it.. you'll never settle and relax, it will feel awful from day one.

FirstnameSuesecondnamePerb · 06/01/2023 22:56

Don't buy someone else's problem.
Don't buy a dark house. We did and I hate it!

MakingTheVeganYorkshirePud · 06/01/2023 23:16

10 metres is five 6' people standing on each other's heads. That's a very tall bush, significantly bigger than most 2 storey houses.

anonymousMuse · 06/01/2023 23:17

Don't do it! The bush is a symptom of the problem. What about the pool parties for 50% of the rest of your lives? Consider other things that might crop up and how the neighbour will react. E.g we had an issue with our drain, couldn't work out which part of drain and therefore whether us or neighbours problem. Agreement made with neighbour over a ten minute conversation to get a specialist in, split the cost of the diagnostics and anything clearly on their side they'd pay, our side we'd pay, in between we'd split. That's a good neighbour. This man isn't. Don't buy bad!

parietal · 06/01/2023 23:25

the pool parties and impossible neighbour would definitely be a worse issue than the bush itself.

how far is your house from their pool?