Huge conifers on boundary

[SeaTurtle13]

We are interested in a property but it has huge conifers on the boundary (next door's trees). They look 30+ foot tall and run the entire length of the boundary. Would this be a deal breaker for you?
I worry it means the NDN doesn't maintain their garden and could lead to a dispute - next door is a bungalow with an absolutely massive garden.The hedge has only been out of control for the last 3/4 years looking at Google maps. The trees would also be within perhaps 2 or 3 metres of the rear wall of the property.
Any views welcome!
Thanks

Could be elderly people who just can't cope with or don't care about garden maintenance. Evergreen shrubs or trees over 2m tall may comprise a legal nuisance under Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, but it's hardly ideal to go into a house purchase with a view to asking the council to take legal action
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/hedges/nuisance-overgrown

We have this at the back, we get our side cut every few years at our expense even though they are not our trees. I wouldn't expect the neighbour to cut our side as well as their own.

I love them though, they are full of birds! And a lovely privacy screen for us too.

Something to keep in mind is that with some conifers there's a limit as to how far you can cut them back. Evergreens like yew are fine because they'll regrow from brown wood. But a lot of conifers won't. So if you're envisaging the neighbours cutting them right back it probably won't happen.

Having had our own 20m tree fall across our access lane and two other gardens in Storm Eowyn it’s a stressful business if it all goes wrong.
I’d consider where the trees would fall and whether they would destroy buildings or just make a mess of the new to you garden.
The neighbours in our case would have had to claim on their own insurance but fortunately the damage was only superficial from their point of view and didn’t require a claim.
I’d be vigilant when taking out your buildings and contents insurance going forward.

The trees would put me off I’m afraid.

@SeaTurtle13 I’d run a mile. Conifers don’t promote wildlife! They might get the odd squirrel but you won’t get birds nests. The trees are like a huge giant wall. They should be removed, but they won’t be. People who own them won’t pay for their upkeep and they blight a neighborhood. Walk away and find somewhere with deciduous trees and light.

Don't bother.
My dB lived in a house with conifers from next door. 25 years later during a very dry summer the house started getting lots of very large cracks. OK is insurance paid for it to be repaired but after that claim was settled they wouldn't insure anymore.
DB had to get a specialist company for the insurance and it cost 4 times as much.
Its gone up every year now it's nearly £6k per year.
Neighbours didn't care and won't reduce the trees.

We’ve had wood pigeons nests every year at my mums house?
They have been taken down now and it looks alot better but next door still has there’s, it is an absolute monster and mainly hangs over mums garden which causes nothing but mess

Yes we've had wood pigeons and collared doves nesting, and the goldcrests and blackbirds love picking about in them for insects.

They are great cover for birds actually.

I have to admit our neighbours are all delighted the big tree is gone. There is so much more light. Certainly there is less privacy and the huge variety wildlife contained was bereft when it happened. It’s probably about £700/ tree to have them taken down and that’s a light estimate.

@missrachael pigeons! They nest anywhere! They are not great for most birds and deciduous trees are much better.

There’s a massive leylandii hedge between our neighbours at the back. We are at right angles to it so it doesn’t cause us too many problems and the sparrows naff about in it which I quite like.

but neighbour A would love to get rid of it as would neighbour B who has half the hedge but neighbour C likes the privacy and won’t countenance complete removal. It looms over A’s garden. They can’t agree who pays to maintain it so there’s a constant battle over that. Every few years a tree surgeon turns up and takes a bit off but it leaves an ugly brown scar as leylandii don’t grow back.

frankly a bit of a nightmare for them all.

@HelloCharming This is why they lead to disputes among neighbours! Never buy a house near them. You won’t be happy. These trees are thugs and kill all the grass under them.

Sparrows go anywhere quite happily. A beech hedge provides great cover for garden birds. It’s attractive and keeps its leaves on all winter. This is a far better option than sterile leylandii that is not a native tree. We should encourage native trees.

Thanks everyone, really helpful to have your perspectives (and bitter experiences!)

We have those at the end of our garden (they’re in the behind-neighbour’s garden though). I don’t see why it would be a problem? Stops people looking into our garden. The only issue is they block the view to a lot of good neighbourhood fireworks!

For me it would depend which way "your" garden faces and then which side the trees are on - ie are they going to block the sunlight and cast shade, or do they block wind which might be more useful?

Deal breaker for me. We wouldn’t buy a house with leylandii on the boundary unless they were ours to remove. The village here had a lot of 80s and early 90s housing. People put them up on all sides of their boundaries like castle walls. Now they are all in varying states of being hacked at. Sticks and bare branches on one side. Hideous things, expensive to remove and maintain.

I had a similar issue with my neighbours trees. In the end we got a tree surgeon in (at my own cost) to cut them down completely (as others have said - pruning conifers sometimes more complicated than cutting them back completely), but that was entirely reliant on the neighbour being cooperative (in this case, they were just elderly and the garden had run away with them and the trees were causing them as much hassle as us). In the run up to them being cut down I had contacted the local council and environmental health (for trees and some other cleanliness issues as my neighbour was also quite the hoarder). I'm not sure what the actual letter of the law is, but the council rep I spoke to was very up front in saying that realistically the council were very unlikely to do anything about it or enforce anything so trying to address it amicably was the best course of action. If I was in the same situation again, it would definitely put me off - especially if the trees are unlikely to be causing your neighbours a problem giving them limited motivation to do anything about it

Yes, it would completely put me off. Our previous house backed onto a property that had a huge garden. At the end of their garden, they had a row of massive conifer trees, that they'd allowed to grow out of control. It didn't make any difference to their property, but it did in ours - blocked a lot light, and the roots grew under our garden and destroyed the concreted area with our shed on. We eventually moved, and the people also moved, the new owners have apparently cut the trees back. When we were property searching, we were very conscious of not picking a property with lots of trees! These type of trees, especially grown close to the house, can have roots that travel and destroy foundations. Personally, I'd keep well away from this property.

Trees like this make the soil around them dry and virtually nothing grows under them. They are garden thugs and the Tall Trees Act is rarely used. Councils cannot be bothered. We negotiated with neighbours to keep them to 9ft. So talker than 2m a fence can be. They cast shadows on lawns and you get moss too. Never mind the roots! Walk away because people who haven’t dealt with them, won’t. The cost would be huge to get them removed too.