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

This. Trees absorb millions of gallons of water a year. She is showing her ignorance.

Rather than reducing the height of trees she would be better to lift the crown (remove lower branches) so that more sunshine reaches her walls and helps dry them out.

Otherwise, ignore her letters.

You could almost be telling the story of my life for many years 🙁. I'd lived happily in my dream house at the end of a quiet cul de sac on the boundary between a large city and countryside for 20 years when my neighbour moved in. He bought a house where the 2 sets of previous owners had fallen on hard times and the house had been pretty neglected for many years and repossessed twice.

From literally the day he moved in he was a problem and for some reason decided that every problem in his previously neglected house somehow originated on/from my property. For example his garage roof (put on by total cowboys) leaked because needles fell from my pine trees. A crack in his garage wall, which started at the top and was caused by the roof having previously rotted and collapsed and all the timbers being open to the elements for many years, was also according to him caused by my trees. Surveyors employed by me refuted this but it didn't stop the letters, and threats.

He was petty, threatening and vengeful and because my house wall actually formed part of our boundary was able to make my family's life a misery. Eg he put up a basketball hoop a few feet from my living room walls and battered heavy balls into the wall morning, noon and night. Apart from all his threatening letters I also received ones from a variety of solicitors (no one firm was prepared to represent him for long). His final blow was to put up a huge locked electric gate and bar my access to the boundary wall of my property despite our deeds, stating clearly that I had an access right. This meant I couldn't clear my gutters for 2 years in an area near woodland with huge amounts of leaves. My gutters choked and 2 rooms became damp.

Because of this I had to call on the legal assistance part of my home insurance, and the lawyer I was appointed, who mostly dealt with neighbour disputes, said this guy was the most unreasonable person he'd ever dealt with. The neighbour left it until the morning of the court case to agree to allowing me my access back, by which time my nerves were shot.

The stress of living beside him for 15 years, finally took its toll. It was impossible to predict when or about what he'd kick off next and when our DDs left home we finally decided living like this had gone on long enough and we sold up after he actually attacked my husband in our drive. I thought I'd live in my lovely house forever. I really thought he'd finally get bored of this but all that time on he was showing no signs of it.

In the 35 years I lived there I got on really well with all the other 14 houses in my street. The neighbour managed to seriously fall out with a few of the others, though it was only us he waged his vendetta on.

You talked about wanting to get out of the "war" mentality and I know just what you mean. Over the years, I really did try with the neighbour, reduced the height of some trees, removed the ones near his garage altogether, but nothing was enough and as soon as I'd placated him in one way, in the hope of an easy life, he just started on something else. I also offered to pay for mediation between us but he just laughed at me.

I'm sorry this isn't a very uplifting story, but I think there are some people you just can't win with. Now he's out of my life I am so much less stressed. I wish I'd just moved away years ago, but I really thought he'd tire of if all and I loved my home.

I very much hope your neighbour is different and may see some sort of sense in time, but if not just get out and don't let her ruin your life like I did.

Thank you for taking the time, to comment, with something other than the mum's net snide "you are the problem" type post. obviously this woman is nothing like the psycho you encountered. I suppose I am just a bit sensitive as I had a seriously nasty person the neighbour opposite befriend me when my kids were small, and my mum was dying she reported me to SS with total vindictive lies, multiple times (we never met any criteria for intervention), the Police, environmental health, my son's school nurseries etc, telling other mum's I was a drunk, I have a chronic digestive health condition, that sometimes made me ill in public. It was 10-15 years of hell she even did 3 or 4 other families including her own brother, some left the area to avoid her. My son's were seriously affected mentally and in their 20's have only just recovered and are now independent.

I totally understand what you were put through and I suppose I just wanted to talk through options, people who have never been through it just don't get it bullies thrive on power games and me acceding to her every desire will just make things worse.

Thank you so much for sharing I would add an emoji but I might put an offensive one as I have no idea how they work.

I think all the shit she has put me through I am entitled to let off steam on a anonymous forum, of course I haven't said it directly to her and there are also other things she has done that I haven't shared. I know this is the type of forum where people love to be judgemental but I prefer to be kind to people who are obviously upset, calling me a dick makes you look pretty childish

How tall how big and how near that’s what we need to know about your tree

as for the fence I’d be wary she could just erect a fence to the max height adjacent to the boundary purely on her lan and there is absolutely no nothing you can do could do about it

Ignore posts from people who attempt to blame you and who have never had problem neighbours themselves. They have no idea how this eats away at your life and wellbeing. I am so sorry to hear about your previous problems, they sound horrendous. How someone could put you through this baffles me - what is wrong with some people?

Very best of luck for your neighbour tiring of this nonsense and leaving you in peace x 💐

the Crown has already in effect been lifted, though that is a good shout as over the years all the branches bar one have been removed well above head height, on that side so it is just the top that needs removing , or at least should be the compromise. There is very little shade on her side bar immediately next to the trunk i.e. a few inches and the roots she refers to are invisible, so likely just in her head. you are right trees of course dry out gardens not make them wet and her wall being damp some possibly 5 to 10 metres away are wet because of the ingress of rain water from missing guttering, which she has now fixed. The trees are not in the same elevation of that damp wall , so it always gets full sunshine . The kitchen is dark because it was made from the old privy and faces the wall that was built as part of the house some 120 years ago.

As I have said it is not near the main body of the house only the edge of the kitchen. There are also few branches on her side only at the top, so a height reduction would be the obvious, and would be the only option if it went to the Council under tall trees, though there is not a hope in hell she could prove that it even, as the the deep shade the act covers doesn't exist, it does not shade her garden either as the vast majority is on my side. I grow a number of plants in pots raspberries lilies etc right next to it. The whole irony is I don't particularly like evergreens, but it has become a wonderful habitat for wildlife, it was already mature when I moved in 35 years ago as a young person . They put in a few more immature trees of the same type down the garden that I removed. I have also added a few small deciduous fruit trees, not affecting the borders. Gardeners in the 1980's have a lot to answer for.

She might well erect a fence away from my existing which I suppose might mean I would need to build raised beds, but it would also make her garden so narrow that it would greatly reduce her seating area. I suppose its just a shame, that she is a Chas and Dave muse "aint no pleasin you" and will be cutting off her own nose to spite her face.

the kitchen is the house so your tree is very near the house

thats too close the roots can cause structural damage
you are liable for any damage caused by your tree roots
also trees that close will have to be declared on your insurance

why are you so evasive about answering the following questions
how far is the tree from any part of the house

how tall is the tree

You’ve been asked numerous time and not given a direct answer

Well I don't take kindly to interrogations and I have already answered many of the queries , It is clear that the roots, which at max are 2-3 metres for this type of tree regardless of size are nowhere near the area she is complaining about which I estimate to be around 10 metres away. There are also as I said elsewhere around 9 matures trees apart from the 2 mature trees in my garden, some pretty substantial though less tall than mine, in her own garden that could well be the culprits if indeed that is an issue. Also she has trees way taller than mine bordering her property.

In small terraces, everything to some extent is close. As I have said elsewhere there is no evidence of saturated ground at all, the house was empty for months all through the recent prolonged wet spell and there was no pooling as there was in the park 5 mins away . I can see the garden as she or the previous owners removed all the shrubs on her side. I do not have shrubs close to the border on my side.

I know it is a dodgy house as several offers fell through, I even met a surveyor as she knocked on my door for one of those buyers, who said she would advise them against completing, nothing to do with my trees. This is a classic case of Caveat Emptor and she is using me to vent her anger.

I commiserate OP my neighbour decided to take a saw to my little elderberry tree, it gave me beautiful creamy pink flowers every year and fed the wood pigeons which I used to love watching. I used to make elderberry pie They did it on a day I wasn't in. It died. Part of it struggles on, but I get next to no flowers or fruit now.

I'd ignore. I also have an Ash tree and my other neighbour requested if he could cut off some limbs. It would have required him scaling the tree on my side. I refused.

Stand your ground. She knew surely that the trees were there and surely had a ground survey done at the time of inspection for purchase.

As parts of the country become increasingly urbanized with the loss of much brownfields (it is brownfields and wasteland, not green acres of grass, that provide for a lot of wildlife diversity) and this ridiculous wish for uber 'tidy,' 'weed' free and bland gardens, we need people to preserve trees, preserve a bit of naturalness in their gardens. Keep doing what you're doing.

Just ignore her, if she puts a fence up her side you can’t do anything.

say no to cutting anything down, frankly I’d send a solicitors letter saying that you do not permit any of your trees to be chopped at and warning her not to do so.

if you go out leave an iPhone recording from an upstairs window in case she waits til your out to hack at your garden

the bottom line is that you don’t have to put up with this shit, say no

Well it’s nesting season so nobody can touch the tree. I would tell her that.
Your neighbour would have had surveys done when she bought the house so any damp and problems are on her. She could have walked away from the sale. The fence issue, she could just put her own one up I’m afraid.

I totally sympathise with neighbours you don’t like

for your own well-being tho I think you need to accept she can put a fence up. It will give you more privacy from her so maybe a positive in the end

well yes and I will get the perverse pleasure/schadenfreude that she is harming herself more than me, though gardening , ( I am very active in my local RHS) is very good to reduce the stress and keep my life limiting chronic illnesses at bay to some extent. I suppose what is most irksome is that there would be an obvious solution, a low solid fence with some screen above in natural materials that would let in light but still provide privacy, not that I am often out at the part of the garden she has her furniture, except to tend plants or put the guinea pigs out on their "lawn" in the outside cage.

I know years ago the front hedge needed a trim back it has been flush to the wall for years now and the council send me a threatening telling me me to clear it in x number of days. At the back of the letter they sent me an exert from the wildlife bill, saying I could not touch it as it had nesting birds in it. I had to chuckle at that jobsworth attempt.. These terraces built over 120 years ago had plans that each neighbour had a choice of what fence they wanted to ensure it was fair its a shame that modern entitled people think they can bulldoze neighbours wishes. I had neighbour friends for many years and its only in the last say 10 years that gentrification has seen the building of massive out of scale fences. Next door did ,a nasty banker (merchant ) in the true definition of the word he intimidated me doorstepping me late at night me with small kids and I heard him beating his partner at night and no it wasn't consensual, his house became BTL and now the tenants only have very oversized trees and bare earth , even at the height of summer it is extremely dark.

I am with you on this I care deeply about nature and plants, earlier this week I came across a juvenile blackbird being schooled by its parents I am not just a scruffy awkward bugger who can't be bothered to prune. As for your elderberry tree the neighbour, might have hastened its demise, but they are quite short lived trees I had one that died of natural causes, however a new one selfset at the end of the garden in a better location and I made elderflower cordial in lockdown. So you could replant a new one in a less accessible to chopping location and I reckon the very greedy woodies would return pretty quickly.
Arguing with neighbours aside people need to wake up and smell the coffee nature is depleting fast and urban gardens can often serve as biodiverse corridors. I have leaf cutting bees in my garden that are excellent pollinators, which are depleting rapidly good luck with growing crops.

there no integration
you’ve asked if your being unreasonable about your trees

i asked how close are they to the house ( which includes the kitchen)and how tall are they

you refuse to answer and give some vague explanation which totally avoids directly answering and tells us nothing

Again I know the law with trees basically there is none, a person can can plant trees on a border/garden and any overhanging branches can be removed subject to not destabilising said tree. There is the high hedges act that might apply here, but the criteria of loss of light would not apply as they have in effect been crown lifted, so there is little shade. As for your obsession with roots there is no law on that either. In this case as there were multiple plantings within, the three properties near by both large and small altogether about 30 trees, so unless you were able to definitively trace a tree root to the so called "damage", something that is currently in her imagination it would not pass muster on an insurance claim even then its a civil matter. Somewhere else I saw a case where tree roots were protruding and causing a trip hazard again, not relevant here..

So I just looked it up as we have large trees. Apparently a neighbour can cut back roots to a boundary if they can identify structural damage - as long as it doesn’t harm the tree. So they can be roots underground rather than a trip hazard. Sounds like she would have to get expert advice on this so not quick or easy.

Again if she leaves your fence alone and puts her own up you have no say at all unless there is something specific in the deeds

She does sound like a bit of a nightmare but I think you may need to rethink the fence thing. The tree I would stand firm on with what you have already said.

I don’t think a wire fence is enough for a lot of people and this was always potentially going to be an issue with a new neighbour. I’m screening out a neighbour with planting as don’t want to upset him asking to put a fence on wall.

Absolutely hear what you are saying about your plants etc and love gardening so get where you are coming from but I think it might be in your best interests to come up with something that would be acceptable to you, put it to her then stand your ground firmly on that otherwise you do risk her sticking in a solid fence as she may well value privacy over space at which point you have it looking odd with a wire fence and a solid fence on the other side.

If you inherited a small tree, why did you let it grow massive, you should have kept it well pruned so it didn't grow huge, big trees over looking small gardens arnt really conducive

I feel like you are your own worst enemy here. You love your trees but they overhang other people's property. Pay someone to cut them back to your property line and then your neighbours won't take to hacking at them. Trees don't cause damp cellars so ignore all the silly requests. She will likely add a fence on her side which will block the light anyway so you will just have to make peace with it.