I am fed up with neighbours hassling me about our tree

[Silosy]

We live in a terrace and there are a row of mature - as in 100+ year old trees - along all of our back gardens. They’re a mixture of sycamore and plane, all healthy all well kept.

The people living directly behind us and adjacent have moaned incessantly about our tree for the last 15 years.

‘It’s pushing our paving up.’
’It shades our patio between 4 and 5 in the summer.’
’Pigeons roost in it and shit on our garden.’
’Leaves fall in our garden.’
’It makes the ground level uneven.’

All of these are frankly nonsense arguments and I’ve pointed out on numerous occasions that the tree has been there longer than all of our houses, we ensure it’s maintained and if it was felled, the heave would cause more issues for them then its presence but no. I’ve had another whingeing message today telling me we ‘have to do something’ about the tree because the paving stones at the end of their garden which they laid over the roots of the tree are being pushed up.

What do you want me to do, exactly? Go back in time and advise you not to lay paving stones where tree roots are?

Before anyone posts it, the tree is not TPO’d and no, we can’t just get a TPO on it.

And no, I’m not going to fell it. I’m just ranting really.

@Seymourscat A lot of people don’t seem to like too much outside in their outside.

I work on the Tube in leafy West London (Trees everywhere!) and TfL get complaints all the time about how trees standing on their land at nearby affect people's gardens that back on the tube line. The same people complain about work taking place at night and the noisy behaviour of some customers, and the amount of public address announcements are played during the day.

I have no sympathy. They bought these houses, surely knowing that there has to be concessions when living there. My stations, tube line, indeed all the nature that lines it pre-dates most of the complainant's existence by a good 80 years. Indeed, some trees pre-date the line being built. When you buy a house, you have to think long and hard about these things.

I would no longer respond to these messages OP.

Sycamore's are beautiful but a nightmare. They self seed everywhere and drop masses of leaves. They cause a lot of work and weeding.

Maybe try being a little more understanding and a little less smug.

Yes absolutely. Sycamores are non native and invasive trees, They are regarded as weeds by many. I used to live n a house right next to a large council owned sycamore, and I was glad when I moved away from it. I can see where your neighbours are coming from OP.

That said it’s your tree OP and up to you what you do with it. Your neighbours should have thought about it when they bought the house.

We border a woodland and I love all the overhanging trees barr the sycamore. All the other trees just need a sweep up in the autumn but the sycamore are a complete pain and drop all sorts of bits throughout the year.

Wise words! Re the paving outside the shed, my assumption was not that this was supposed to be a patio, just that they wanted something by the shed that was level and didn't get muddy in wet weather. As I said yesterday, putting down paving stones over tree roots was not going to work. Gravel, chippings or decking, surely.

Not read the full thread but I would go with:

”Dear X and Y. I have considered the issue of the tree carefully. I will continue to
maintain the tree to a reasonable standard but will not be cutting it down. My research into this indicates that this will cause more problems than it solves for your garden, furthermore it is a valuable resource for wildlife and privacy for a number of properties. If you feel that a law has been broken you are of course within your rights to explore this with a solicitor. My own legal advice has been that there is no legal obligation on me to fell the tree and that if anyone else attempts to fell it or damage it this could constitute a civil wrong and also a criminal offence.

I very much hope we can continue to be civil neighbours but I do not intend to engage in further correspondence about the tree.”

I think you just need to shut them down and put the ball back in their court and make them go and see a solicitor who I imagine will tell them that this is nonsense.

But hang on, the people bought this house knowing that the tree was there. And no one is suggesting that all self-seeded saplings should be allowed to flourish (the neighbours can pull them up if they are in their own garden), just that an established tree shouldn’t be felled because one set of neighbours are being difficult.

Thousands of trees in the UK are non native and the ones that are can be as much of a nuisance if you see it that way, my garden can be full of pine cones, needles, sticks, shed blossoms, leaves, apples all sorts but it’s mostly dealt with in 15 minutes with a brush, leaf grabbers or at worst a bit of hot water. And I have a beautiful established garden with lots of wildlife.

I'd say. Politely I ask that you please stop sending messages about the tree - we know you are clear that you are not happy with it.

We will not be felling the tree, it has been there for 100+ years and hopefully it will be there in another 100 years.

It doesn’t matter if the tree was there before the people moved in, if it starts to become a nuisance to neighbours, the owner has to do something about it.

Yes but that means a legal nuisance, not just that they don’t like it. The interference has to be substantial or unreasonable. A well maintained tree shading the garden partly and/ or lifting a few slabs by a shed (which should never have been laid there in the first place) wouldn’t come close. For example if the tree were causing the whole house to fall down completely that might be a different matter. But that’s not the case here.

I think there is an awful lot of snobbery on this post.
Firstly saying that people knew the trees where there when they bought their house. You do realise that people can’t always find the house they want within their budget. People with big gardens and big trees wondering why people with small gardens, shaded by trees, are complaining. People saying the trees were there first. Yes most of the UK used to be forested but the population has grown. Houses have to be fitted in. If you are a good neighbour trim your trees back to your boundary. If you are worried about the lack of trees, plant some more in the middle of your garden. We need more trees but not in places where they block out other people’s light.

People need to get over the idea that they are entitled to make their gardens sterile patios that are never affected by nature.

Trees are a good thing, and if a tree means someone has to clear some leaves and experience the realities of birds, then so what? It doesn’t really matter. The neighbours can increase their own enjoyment of their garden by shifting their selfish perspective.

You again. 😆 trees were there first. And only a dolt the sort of person with fake grass and fake plants would lay slabs over tree roots.

I agree with your neighbour too.

My own next door neighbours have a giant mature pittosporum right on the boundary, which creates many of the same issues for me.

Neither of us having paving, so this isn’t an issue at all.

The pigeons that go to the tree I don’t mind. I quite like them. Their shit is good fertiliser.

It’s an evergreen tree and when it drops leaves or they blow off in high winds, those leaves are very waxy and don’t degrade into the soil so I’m always picking them up. No big deal, but a minor nuisance.

The boundary is south facing, so because the tree is on the boundary, all the shade falls across my garden and none of the shade falls on theirs. I’m a sun worshipper so this is a big, big problem for me, and I’ve asked them nicely.

Every two years, they pay for a tree surgeon to trim 1/3 to 1/2 its height, so sunlight is restored to the back rooms of my house and my garden. Good relations are also restored. They keep their tree but they manage it. Everyone is happy.

I think you should manage your tree, fwiw.

👏

People just hate any greenery now days it’s so depressing.

I should point out that it’s not a sycamore and it’s not self-seeded. It was part of a row of trees which led up to a manor house which was demolished prior to houses being built in the early part of last century. They’re a mix of sycamore, chestnut and plane. Ours is a plane.

For all of the people who can’t read or comprehend, the tree is maintained. The neighbours decided to put a shed and some slab paving directly under it on their side and appear to now believe it’s my problem to resolve.

I have decided I’m not going to engage with them in any further discussions about the tree. I’ll continue to get it pruned when it needs it (which I have all along) but I’ll make it clear I have no intention of removing it. It’s just tiresome to keep being told I have to ‘do something’ to resolve an issue of their own making. I have already pointed out to them that the heave caused by removing it would most certainly disrupt their garden considerably more but I don’t think they understand.

Tbh I really just wanted to rant but there have been some helpful suggestions here and I’m going to try speaking to the council again about a TPO.

Edited to add that I also find it a bit depressing how much people seem to dislike nature and want to get rid of anything natural that may cause any inconvenience or mess.

The sun is also nature and natural, and people are not happy to be robbed of it. God knows we don’t get a great deal of it anyway in this country.

The sun blocking thing actually came from a different neighbour and the story behind that is that he claims the tree blocks sun to a specific point on his decking at about 4.30pm on a summer day until the sun moves round.

It doesn’t block the entire sun from anyone’s house or garden.

The above was actually about 12 years ago and I’ve not heard a peep from him since so I’m guessing he managed to move his deckchair. The tree has been pruned several times since then anyway.

I posted a similar thread recently.

If you get a bird cam like me, you can start tracking the wildlife that the tree attracts. This might help get it protected.

I am abroad but that's what I have been advised here.

Can’t be robbed of sunlight that was never there in the first place. The trees are older than the houses they overlook; that land has been in shade for longer than the neighbours have existed.

Exactly! I feel about this the same way I do about people who move to the country and complain about cowpats on the road or cocks crowing, or move next door to an old church and complain about the bellringing.

It depends how much sunlight fails to hit the neighbouring garden. If the garden is constantly in deep shade (which @op hasn’t suggested), it’s simply selfish and as obstructive as the tree not to lop a load off its height. Drastically reducing the height is just being a good neighbour and thinking about the reasonable needs of others….

Which doesn’t always come easily to people.