New nightmare neighbour

[cssurvivor]

My new neighbour seemed nice introduced herself I bough her a small welcome plant. However I am now getting regular letters about my trees fence etc which are mildly threatening stating I need to remove my trees to make our properties. safe, She has has a poor surveyors report that comes back that the house has poor drainage and is damp which according to her its due to me ditto her garden again has moisture which is down to me. though there are many trees in the vicinity including some of hers I have agreed a compromise giving her permission to reduce the tree height professionally, but I think she will see it as a green light to get all of her demands met. I should say another neighbour badly cut a tree right into my garden with a chain saw and killed it so I really don't want a repeat.
Reading between the lines she bought a house that has been minimally maintained and is regretting it. and likes to blame me having lived in my house 35 years I know those issues are decades old and common in old houses will cellars

Ignore her and ignore her letters.

The trees were there when she bought the house and she continued with the buying process knowing there were damp issues. She presumably has eyes so would have seen the trees. That was her choice.

She cannot force you to do anything with your garden or property. When she took out her buildings insurance she would have had to declare whether there were trees over a certain height a certain distance from her house, so she would be covered should the tree fall and damage her property. She cannot force you to remove your trees or even reduce their height, I wouldn't have agreed to that.

I have 2 huge ash trees in my garden, they are at least 50/60 years old and were part of the hedge that was there when I bought my house 30 years ago. They're about twice the height of the house and near enough that both my and my neighbours' house would be seriously damaged if they came down
They're a haven for all sorts of birds and squirrels and if anyone asked me to remove them they'd get short shrift and I would refuse.

Why people buy houses with mature trees near them then expect neighbours to remove them is beyond belief.

Point out to her that trees drink a lot of water and without the tree she would have an even bigger problem with poor drainage.

Do you think your trees may be contributing to any issues? How close to the houses are they, and are they a suitable tree for the amount of land they are on?

I’d maybe say she is welcome to invite a tree surgeon around to assess and provide a written report -at her cost-but that the trees were there when she bought the house so you are not planning on taking any action unless they are deemed hazardous in the report.

That said, if they are damaging her property, she could get her house insurance /legal team involved. We did that with a previous neighbour when their property was affecting ours. A surveyor came out and, I’m assuming, they reported back to their home insurance as next thing we know the issue is sorted and didn’t cost us a penny, it was all on them. It wasn’t trees though.

Actually I was a housing professional and am aware of the rules high hedges tall trees etc. I inherited them when I moved in 35 years ago . She has according to her, got reports from Aborculturalists, none of whom have said they are diseased or dangerous but that if she cut off any branches /foliage on her side then it would become unbalanced, who knew!!!! They are home to loads of wildlife btw.. If they fell at most they might hit the very end of the extension, but they would likely just damage my fence, they are around 10 feet away from the main houses , so it could not possibly affect that part.

They said it would be easier, according to her, that they were removed shorthand for she wants them removed. She now also wants to remove my fence a wire fence that allows the light in and replace with a thick panel fence which would kill the light in my garden

The upshot of course is she has no right to do any of this, I just wanted to hear other views to maybe get out of this "war" mindset. Of course Edwardian cellars are often damp but add to that lack of ventilation and over a hundred year old sanitary pipes/ foundations.

When my kids were small around 15 years ago Thames Water dug up all my garden as an long departed neighbour said my trees had damaged the pipe work and there were sewage upsurging in his garden. After all that destruction, it turned out the pipe work was clear but hundreds of his wet wipes were causing the blockage. Another neighbour on that side chainsawed a huge chunk off another tree 90% in my garden whilst in my garden and killed it.

Some people honestly, part of it is than following a divorce she has had to downsize and doesn't like mixing with the plebs.

thanks for your relies. the next missive I receive I shall have to politely tell her to cease and desist and withdraw any permission for any work as I no longer trust her.

She has no right to remove your fence. If she wants a different fence then she should install it on her own property on her side but leave your fence in place.

well yes but they are such narrow gardens it would effective leave my garden in darkness and kill my plants and fruit trees which I have nurtured Next door put up 2 2 meter panel fences either side of his garden and I happened to visit recently , The one time in 35 years I locked myself out and apart from the massively tall trees there is just bare earth as nothing will grow in deep shade. I think living in terraces you need to be a bit tolerant, my neighbours have a reactive dog and sometimes pay music loudly/make loud phones calls in the garden and have trees as tall as mine if not taller, but I prefer to live in peace. thank you for responding though.

You may not like it but I'm afraid she's perfectly entitled to put up her own fence. Many people want privacy in their garden.

If you try to keep the peace you will risk becoming the easy target and blame haven for this bully. She sounds like the type that will find issue after issue that somehow is always your fault and caused by your property. You’re right not to trust her. I wouldn’t believe a word she says. Stay strong and shut it down now. Don’t agree to anything. People like this are the worst.

there is a fence there it used to have plants on her side providing privacy , until she or the previous owner strummed them away. I don't think it is reasonable to shut out all the light . In a large garden a 2 metre solid fence is reasonable in a small narrow garden not so much. I am entitled to have a compost heap on the border and I am not obliged to clean up after my dog, but it would be unreasonable to do either.

I think you sound difficult tbh. So many issues all stemming from your garden and trees with multiple neighbours complaining- there’s a common denominator here.

You really can’t dictate what fence your neighbour puts up on their side of the garden. Annoying as it may be, I’d definitely want a panel fence instead of a wire one just to give me privacy . Choose your battles .

Since she is into letters I would send a very firmly worded Cease and Desist citing potential harassment and hinting at "further action" if you hear from her again. That should concentrate her mind,

Alternately post the letter back through her door ripped into small pieces.

With these pushy types you have to begin as you mean to go on. Do not be afriad of coming across as "that" neighbour.

Mostly I dont even open the door to mine. Ring door bell.

You sound difficult. If your garden is so small that it’s impacted by light due to a fence, how big are the trees?

multiple neighbours haven't complained. I had a tree over 2 decades ago I inherited when I bought the house. that wasn't tall and was in my garden it had a small limb about a foot into their garden that a neighbour removed sadly they came into my garden chainsawed the whole branch to the trunk and the tree died . They didn't complain about the tree being too big they were just incompetent at tree surgery Like the usual mumsnet suspects you read posts and then put them all together to make certain comments.

The trees barely over look the garden or the house as they have been cut back over the years and I am not being difficult, I am protecting my property. In a terrace we each have a responsibility for our fence on my left and on her right hand fence is mine, so its my decision on style. The left hand is hers so I cannot dictate the style, nor would I seek to.(unlike her I might add)

As I have said before as panel fence would cut out all the light, nothing to do with trees and it is my fence hers is on the left hand side.

How big is the tree
does it over hang there garden
how close is it to the house

personally if I were here I would just put a 2.3 metre fence up on here side parallel with yours

I fear you are right about her, is she had said she was worried about the tree and could be come to some compromise over a cup of tea I might have had a had a decent conversation, as she stated it was necessary to remove the tree for the safety of my property that was the nuclear option. When I said she was entitled to remove any branches without destabilising the tree. she then moved onto the fence and implied that my garden, not just 2 trees had damaged her whole house even though they are nowhere near the building she is talking about. There are around 9 mature trees around her property, 2 of them are mine some are her own trees, so it would be impossible to work out which roots that are invisible by the way, were allegedly causing any drainage issues, though every ones knows that trees actually take up water not produce it if it is damp it is far more likely to be faulty sewage pipes.

Anyhoo as you say, it is getting ridiculous and needs to stop now.

the max is 2 metres and adding a fence leaning against mine is prohibited. The tree is not close to the main house and the cellar which is in the main house is likely maybe 5-10 metres away, which is why the argument that those 2 trees are affecting it is quite frankly ridiculous. The woman is a nutter.

You are absolutely right I had this before with another neighbour, who even put a trellis on top of his 2 metre fence that reached up to my first floor bath room window around 5 metres high I think, though he did came round and apologise before I said anything removed it. Sadly bullies are often thick and this latest one is rather Trump like.

You can absolutely refuse any change to your own fence, but you can't stop your neighbour from putting up their own fence on their own land to the side of your fence.

Whether you like what she does or not, you need to understand what you can and can't expect or request, irrespective of whether you believe it's reasonable or not. Neighbour disputes are miserable and there is no point arguing over things you have no right to dictate - such as whether she puts up her own fence on her own land.

She can't cut down your trees or insist that you do, but she can put up a fence on her property - it doesn't matter if it blocks your light, she is legally allowed to do that. She can cut off branches that overhang (outwith nesting season or after a full check has been carried out to establish no nests) and has to offer ypu them back or dispose of them herself - she can't dump them on your property.

Frustrating though it may be, that's the legal position, and is too short to seethe about things that she has a right to do. Now, whether you choose to take in parcels for her or send her a Christmas card if she does either of those is another matter...!

I know neighbourhood disputes are miserable but, there will never come a point where she will be happy after her fall from grace following her divorce, living in a terrace, albeit in a nice area. For me there has to be a line in the sand, That she is blaming me for all the issues of her house, that couldn't possibly be down to me, as they were the same issues the neighbours had when I moved in decades ago. Add to that the fact that it was not cared for as a rental those same issues have become far worse. The damp in her dining room for example was due to a lack of guttering and the water pouring down the wall in wet weather.. At least she has fixed that, which should I think resolve that.. the majority of her house is in fact joined to the house on the other side. If we were both reasonable concessions could be made but that is not the situation here.

slowly backs away from the thread.

it’s defo her. You crack on.

If you do this it won’t make her happy or start being pleasant to you. People like this see you being helpful as a sign of weakness. Do what you want to do and don’t engage with her- you’ll never make her happy or end up being her friend

Edited to add: but phrases like “fall from grace following her divorce” do make you sound like a dick as well.