Buying house with trees down the side

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We’ve had an offer accepted on a house we really like, had all the searches back but not yet had a full survey done - this will be done next week (chain fell through hence delay on survey).

Down the side of the house is a row of trees - it goes most the length of the road but because or the design this house is the only one where a building is near to the trees. The trees are the same height as the house, and about 3-4 meters away from the house, the other side of a fence on an area that is a children’s playground.

Our searches have come back and on the land registry they are on no-man’s land - that tiny strip is unregistered. I assume the park belongs to the council but it’s not listed on the council website (we are getting info on that).

I’m getting increasingly worried about these trees being a problem - if the roots affect house in future but they don’t belong to the council no one will take responsibility for them.

is this something you’d be concerned about? We can’t find any other property in the area we like in our budget, and we need to move ASAP for complicated reasons.

Diagram for reference. H is house.

What kind of trees are they? If it’s something like leylandii I would definitely be worried. They could all blow over and land on the house. This happened to my cousin recently and there’s an open dispute about who owns them so the insurance won’t pay.

Can you get an arborist to have a look at them as part of the survey process?

I’m not sure, I’ve only looked at them in the winter and didn’t think to take closer photos or look for fallen leaves. Definitely not Leyladii - I suspect hazel or something similar. We can see from the original plans but the builders that they were there then so they are 30 years at least and the height of two story house, so they aren’t likely to get bigger.

Yes I think that will be the next step.

I think you're right to be concerned about them.

I'd need to know who has responsibility for their maintenance and I'd need to be sure there was clear lines of communication should issues ever arise, then I think I'd be happy to go ahead.

I'd also speak to an insurance company to check I would be covered.

I want to know why you have pork opposite your house 😆.

As for the trees , some of it would depend on they type of tree ( fast / slow growing) , and its health,

Ok hazels I wouldn’t be that worried about but definitely get an arborist to advise and check insurance as previous poster suggested.

Walk away.

Big trees cause damage when they fall, when they grow and when they stop growing.

Roots spread further than the tree is tall. So the roots on those trees will be under your house.

If they were to die, disease or storm damage or they had to be felled for some reason, the roots will eventually die away. The soil around the roots will collapse and take your foundations with it.

Never buy a house next to a big tree.

Haha, pig farm? 😂😂😂 no just my fat fingers not writing well on a little screen. That’s the Park.

I’ve looked back through the photos I took and there’s definitely hazel leaves there.

I thought the roots generally spread out as far as the canopy? I don't think the trees sound like a massive issue but I agree that it would be a good idea to find out who would be responsible for them. If there is no fence between them and the park maybe the council have adopted them? If not then maybe they are the responsibility of the people who originally built your house. Is it part of an estate?

Alternatively, you could attempt to claim possession of the land and then you could have a bigger garden and deal with it at some point in the future.

Having owned a house near a big tree, I would never do it again.

The roots were never an issue, but trees cause all sorts of other nuisances. Leaves making a mess of the garden, bird mess on the car, tree sap all over everything in sap season, seeds etc falling off the tree, grass not growing properly under the tree, constant worry it might blow over in a storm onto my sons bedroom, blocking our light and tv signal etc.

Trees are gorgeous but if they’re 20 ft away ideally. Think I would get a survey done by someone who specialises in this kind of issue.

The deeds of the house show the estate plan when it was built late 90’s - it shows clearly the trees plotted there but I’ve no idea if they planted them or if they were pre-existing as the play park was there before the houses.

Land registry searches clearly show a strip of unregistered land which is exactly where the trees are. As said we could extend the fence out and claim the land possibly - my concern is it wouldn’t be subtle and villagers might get upset, and it would potentially block access to the all way of trees as they go further down behind the rest of the gardens.

because the trees go in a line all along the edge of the estate it’ll be very noticeable if the few nearest the house get removed, but I just can’t see that it’s safe for them to be that close.

This is so stressful. It’s the only house that we like and works for us. It’s a lovely house in exactly the kind of area we wanted.

Just because it’s unregistered, doesn’t mean someone doesn’t own it. The council may own it but may not have registered it so it could be worth asking if they own it or if they have taken over responsibility for maintaining the trees? They may have done this to make the park safe.

The vendor may know?
separately watch out for roots in drains. We pulled out of a purchase due to severe tree root damage in drains.

If it's hazel, I imagine it's a hedge that hasn't been maintained and has grown out of its alloyed space. I'm sure it would be fine at 1. 5m instead of 4.

Thankfully the drains are all the other side by the looks of it

Quite likely!

It may be owned by the Crown. Take a photo or screen shot from RM, iphone’s can recognise plant species.
The endless gutter cleaning, green stuff on walls and leaf blowing would put me off.

Check if they have a TPO (check your council website) you have go apply each time you want to trim them too.

I’m going to go back at the weekend and try and get photos of bark/branches/buds etc. The photos from rightmove aren’t high resolution enough to make anything out.