my neighbours trees

fryup

Hi,

My neighbour has huge tall trees, whoes branches overhang onto my property.

Anytime there's a storm a branch or two falls down onto my side.

Ive ask him will he cut them down..but he just doesn't want to know about it.

So what i want to know is.....

• Is there a limit on how high boundary trees/hedges can grow?
• Am i entitled to cut down the branches overhanging my side?
• Can i make him pay for the job?

Thx in advance pj.

PCPhoto

from my understanding - you can cut the overhanging ones...but thats it...

if its close to a boundary wall you could check if theres any damage caused by roots (I think there might be a minimum distance thingy due to possible damage by roots but dont know)

Tom Young

Yes, last poster is right. You can abate the nuisance, but that about it. If the roots are coming into/onto your property that too can be dealt with.

In these matters the best thing to do, is swallow your annoyance for 20 minutes. Make a list of the main points you want to discuss, call to the neighbour and discuss it with them. If you are not on good terms, write a note.

Tom

gillo_100

Heres something funny I've heard about cutting down other peoples bushes.

Apparently it is perfectly legal to cut down anything overhanging into your property, however technically it is still owned by the property where trees are planted and as such you are meant to return all cuttings to said owner.

Best advice if you've gone past discussing it with neighbour is to cut away anyting on your side, and depending you might even get away with cutting back a bit into there side.

Also not sure if you were considering poisoning but I am pretty sure you can be liable for criminal damages if you get caught, so wouldn't advise that.

Victor

Make sure the tree(s) doesn't have a protection order.

fryup

but can i make him pay for the job of getting the branches cut?? > tree surgeon

mooey

The shoe is on the other foot with me. I returned home from work tonight to find that my neighbour at the rear of my home has hacked down a lot of overhanging branches from my trees. If the guy had come and spoke to me I would have pruned them at the boundary, but he didn't, and what annoys me most is that he cut some well back into my garden! To do this, he would have had to climb into the tree or get into my garden and use a step ladder.
The worry is now that the trees could be unstable because of his stupidity so I need to get them assessed by a tree surgeon. I'm assuming I have legal recourse for :
a) cutting down my property that resides within my boundary
b) if he has caused the trees to become unstable and there is a risk of them falling onto my house, he will be liable for all costs.

We moved into the house 2 years ago and so inherited the trees(fir and ???). The garden maintenance has kinda been secondary to the redecorating I have to complete inside but its still no excuse for the way he recklessly hacked away.

Thanks in advance for any advise.

Mooey

danash

gillo_100 wrote: »

Heres something funny I've heard about cutting down other peoples bushes.

Apparently it is perfectly legal to cut down anything overhanging into your property, however technically it is still owned by the property where trees are planted and as such you are meant to return all cuttings to said owner.

Best advice if you've gone past discussing it with neighbour is to cut away anyting on your side, and depending you might even get away with cutting back a bit into there side.

Also not sure if you were considering poisoning but I am pretty sure you can be liable for criminal damages if you get caught, so wouldn't advise that.

I brought my neighbour's attention to a severe overhang from his trees into my garden. The house had been unoccupied for a couple of years. He came round to view the overhang and was very apologetic about the matter. I came home one evening to find that he had a very professional job done on the trees IN HIS GARDEN but had left the overhang on my garden. I had given him permission to come in to my garden to cut the trees but he never took it up. I was now left with the very unsightly branches sticking out of the neatly pruned trees. With the help of a neighbour I cut them down - they were extensive and very heavy and we loaded the trees up and drove around the block and deposited his property back in his driveway - even calling his door to give him an opportunity to move his car. He slammed the door shut so we proceeded to return his property ( branches ) to him.

I suggest you do the same and be a solid citizen and return the property to the rightful owner.

mooey

Danish

I have to say I would have done the same thing, fair play to you. The problem for me though is that the trees are MINE and had the neighbour shown me the overhang I would have sorted it out, but he didn't and took matters into his own hands. Now because of the unprofessional job he did, the trees could potentially fall onto my house. Had he just cut them at the boundary it would have been ok I think, but because he cut them back 1-2ft inside my boundary, the trees could be unstable in a storm.

I genuinely would have sorted this problem out. I hate neighbours who disrespect boundaries and neighbouring properties. I have other neighbours on my left who never cut the grass in our garden(no boundary wall) or grass verge to the front of our homes. Since we moved in 2 years ago they have cut it(very poorly) only twice, so my wife and I are out twice a week cutting it. I just don't get it, they are nice girls but are really beginning to take the mick now.... especially when they return from their evening walk to find me or my wife cutting the grass and say "hard at it again"..... yes, but I wouldn't bloody have to if you did your share !

Ah, that felt good...... :-)

slimjimmc

Hi Mooney, please explain, but I fail to see how would cutting the branches 1-2 feet shorter inside the boundary would destabalise a tree. The tree would be just as stable/unstable if it was trimmed back to the boundary line so perhaps it's just a teeny bit of exaggeration. However if trimming did indeed make the tree unsafe then I suggest it was too close to the boundary in the first place.

If you're planning on billing him for the tree surgeon don't forget the roots of your tree extend in to his garden too so he may counter claim for any damage they may cause.

I understand you're annoyed at your neighbour for not tipping you off but he's probably annoyed at you for allowing to your trees encroach on his property and not doing anything about it for 2 years. He might see you as the type of neighbour that you hate too.

I hate neighbours who disrespect boundaries and neighbouring properties

Consideration works both ways.

You may still resolve this amicably by having a light hearted chat. Be apologetic for allowing your tree get out of hand and suggest he lets you know in future so you can sort it and save him the hassle. Offer to dispose of the branches too if he hasn't returned them.

I have other neighbours on my left who never cut the grass in our garden(no boundary wall) or grass verge to the front of our homes. Since we moved in 2 years ago they have cut it(very poorly) only twice, so my wife and I are out twice a week cutting it. I just don't get it, they are nice girls but are really beginning to take the mick now.... especially when they return from their evening walk to find me or my wife cutting the grass and say "hard at it again"..... yes, but I wouldn't bloody have to if you did your share !

Is this garden owned by both properties or is it just 2 gardens with no wall to mark the boundary dividing them? Assuming the latter then are you and your wife cutting their grass too? There's no wall but I'm sure there is an imagionary boundary line between the two properties so why cross it?

NoodlePoodle

Hi Mooney, i always thought that the legal thing to do was that you can cut down the brances that hang over your wall and they you were obligated to return them to the person who owns them, otherwise its theft.
I had an issue with a neighbour who would not maintain his trees a few years ago. It cost me a lot of time and money( skip, hire of equipment etc) to get rid of his tree branches. Even after doing that - he made no effort to keep on top of it. So I once again had to cut back his trees and i put them over the wall to his side.
they are your trees - you should look after them - no question. otherwise the alternative is that if you wont maintain your trees, you should get rid of them.

Podgemcd

Hi All,
I was hoping for a bit of advice from you as I am feeling pretty bad over a situation that could have been avoided if a neighbour had trimmed their trees. We applied for planning permission back in 2008 and we approached the next door neighbours to run the plans by them as we wanted to keep them happy too. Afterall we need to live beside each other. The neighbour told us that he intended to trim back or remove the trees separating the properties so we said that would be great and we could assist if needed.

Permission was granted and the house got finished. We moved in in December of 2009. We noticed that the evergreen trees (a line of 9 or 10 of them) were quite tall and all of different heights were actually taking up about 3m of our front garden with the spread of their branches and the closest one to the house was just about a foot from our gutters! We called to the neighbour to see what their plan was for the trees but his wife said that he would be home later and they would call over to us. 2 weeks passed and no word! We left it another month after that and approached them again. Again the same story. We eventually got him at home and he said he was getting one of his employees to trim the trees later in the week. No action for a month so we approached them again, same story was given to us so i said to him that I’d do it for him seeing as it was for us he was doing it. He said to leave it to him that he was ok with doing it. Again no action. In all, over 7 months we called to them 5 times to ask them to trim the trees and nothing was done.

We finally called a local tree surgeon who called out and gave us a quote. We went to the neighbour the next day and said that we were going to go ahead and have the trees trimmed on our side only, back to the boundary line. We also said that if they wanted any height taken off them that they could talk to the Tree surgeon and agree a price with him.

When the Tree surgeon arrived on a Saturday morning, the neighbours arrived out and the lady was not too happy with him. She was worried that the trees looked too bare on our side! I told her not to worry about our side. There were no branches at all on their side due to other trees in their overgrown garden so they were relying on our trees to shade them. That was the source of her concern although she didn’t explicitly explain that at the time!

The husband stayed behind as she went home and he said to me that he didn’t want the trees there at all and he didn’t want me to spend money trimming them and then for him to spend more money in a few months removing them. I agreed and he said to ask the Tree surgeon to remove the entire row of evergreen trees.

He left that Saturday and so did the tree surgeon. The tree surgeon arrived back a few weeks later to remove the trees and did so in about a day. The neighbour (lady) arrived out and asked for the roots to be taken out too but the price given was only for tree cutting. He said he’d come back with the machine to remove the roots. I removed the wire fence splitting the properties to allow him to do this root removal and the day I did it, the neighbours arrived at my house as I was outside doing some work in the garage. The lady asked why I removed her fence and I said that it needed to be taken away temporarily to remove the roots and she went off like a rocket. She started making accusations that I had no rite to trim or remove the trees but I explained that I was trimming them only that her husband asked for them to be removed completely. I did not want them removed but agreed with him. She then said I had no rite to even trim them even though I reminded her of teh 5 visits and the 3m of wasted garden on our side. She shouted obscenities at me so I asked her to leave.

The roots were removed and we approached them 2 months later to see if they wanted us to refence and she said yes and “do whatever the hell you want on your side”.

Since then, i’ve heard from a family member that they’ve put a story around to their family about us costing them €700 to remove the trees. The only trouble is that they never paid a penny. I paid an initial €450 for trimming, another €450 for removal of the trees and a further €380 for stump removal. I’ve also spent another €250 putting back up a fence for them. Now I hear the stories from different people that they are putting about?

Were we unreasonable? Were we within our rites to trim the trees back to the boundary? Where do I stand on our name being tarnished by them? Any advice would be great as I’m feeling absolutely terrible about the whole thing.
Hi All,
I was hoping for a bit of advice from you as I am feeling pretty bad over a situation that could have been avoided if a neighbour had trimmed their trees. We applied for planning permission back in 2008 and we approached the next door neighbours to run the plans by them as we wanted to keep them happy too. Afterall we need to live beside each other. The neighbour told us that he intended to trim back or remove the trees separating the properties so we said that would be great and we could assist if needed.

Permission was granted and the house got finished. We moved in in December of 2009. We noticed that the evergreen trees (a line of 9 or 10 of them) were quite tall and all of different heights were actually taking up about 3m of our front garden with the spread of their branches and the closest one to the house was just about a foot from our gutters! We called to the neighbour to see what their plan was for the trees but his wife said that he would be home later and they would call over to us. 2 weeks passed and no word! We left it another month after that and approached them again. Again the same story. We eventually got him at home and he said he was getting one of his employees to trim the trees later in the week. No action for a month so we approached them again, same story was given to us so i said to him that I’d do it for him seeing as it was for us he was doing it. He said to leave it to him that he was ok with doing it. Again no action. In all, over 7 months we called to them 5 times to ask them to trim the trees and nothing was done.

We finally called a local tree surgeon who called out and gave us a quote. We went to the neighbour the next day and said that we were going to go ahead and have the trees trimmed on our side only, back to the boundary line. We also said that if they wanted any height taken off them that they could talk to the Tree surgeon and agree a price with him.

When the Tree surgeon arrived on a Saturday morning, the neighbours arrived out and the lady was not too happy with him. She was worried that the trees looked too bare on our side! I told her not to worry about our side. There were no branches at all on their side due to other trees in their overgrown garden so they were relying on our trees to shade them. That was the source of her concern although she didn’t explicitly explain that at the time!

The husband stayed behind as she went home and he said to me that he didn’t want the trees there at all and he didn’t want me to spend money trimming them and then for him to spend more money in a few months removing them. I agreed and he said to ask the Tree surgeon to remove the entire row of evergreen trees.

He left that Saturday and so did the tree surgeon. The tree surgeon arrived back a few weeks later to remove the trees and did so in about a day. The neighbour (lady) arrived out and asked for the roots to be taken out too but the price given was only for tree cutting. He said he’d come back with the machine to remove the roots. I removed the wire fence splitting the properties to allow him to do this root removal and the day I did it, the neighbours arrived at my house as I was outside doing some work in the garage. The lady asked why I removed her fence and I said that it needed to be taken away temporarily to remove the roots and she went off like a rocket. She started making accusations that I had no rite to trim or remove the trees but I explained that I was trimming them only that her husband asked for them to be removed completely. I did not want them removed but agreed with him. She then said I had no rite to even trim them even though I reminded her of teh 5 visits and the 3m of wasted garden on our side. She shouted obscenities at me so I asked her to leave.

The roots were removed and we approached them 2 months later to see if they wanted us to refence and she said yes and “do whatever the hell you want on your side”.

Since then, i’ve heard from a family member that they’ve put a story around to their family about us costing them €700 to remove the trees. The only trouble is that they never paid a penny. I paid an initial €450 for trimming, another €450 for removal of the trees and a further €380 for stump removal. I’ve also spent another €250 putting back up a fence for them. Now I hear the stories from different people that they are putting about?

Were we unreasonable? Were we within our rites to trim the trees back to the boundary? Where do I stand on our name being tarnished by them? Any advice would be great as I’m feeling absolutely terrible about the whole thing.
Hi All,
I was hoping for a bit of advice from you as I am feeling pretty bad over a situation that could have been avoided if a neighbour had trimmed their trees. We applied for planning permission back in 2008 and we approached the next door neighbours to run the plans by them as we wanted to keep them happy too. Afterall we need to live beside each other. The neighbour told us that he intended to trim back or remove the trees separating the properties so we said that would be great and we could assist if needed.

Permission was granted and the house got finished. We moved in in December of 2009. We noticed that the evergreen trees (a line of 9 or 10 of them) were quite tall and all of different heights were actually taking up about 3m of our front garden with the spread of their branches and the closest one to the house was just about a foot from our gutters! We called to the neighbour to see what their plan was for the trees but his wife said that he would be home later and they would call over to us. 2 weeks passed and no word! We left it another month after that and approached them again. Again the same story. We eventually got him at home and he said he was getting one of his employees to trim the trees later in the week. No action for a month so we approached them again, same story was given to us so i said to him that I’d do it for him seeing as it was for us he was doing it. He said to leave it to him that he was ok with doing it. Again no action. In all, over 7 months we called to them 5 times to ask them to trim the trees and nothing was done.

We finally called a local tree surgeon who called out and gave us a quote. We went to the neighbour the next day and said that we were going to go ahead and have the trees trimmed on our side only, back to the boundary line. We also said that if they wanted any height taken off them that they could talk to the Tree surgeon and agree a price with him.

When the Tree surgeon arrived on a Saturday morning, the neighbours arrived out and the lady was not too happy with him. She was worried that the trees looked too bare on our side! I told her not to worry about our side. There were no branches at all on their side due to other trees in their overgrown garden so they were relying on our trees to shade them. That was the source of her concern although she didn’t explicitly explain that at the time!

The husband stayed behind as she went home and he said to me that he didn’t want the trees there at all and he didn’t want me to spend money trimming them and then for him to spend more money in a few months removing them. I agreed and he said to ask the Tree surgeon to remove the entire row of evergreen trees.

He left that Saturday and so did the tree surgeon. The tree surgeon arrived back a few weeks later to remove the trees and did so in about a day. The neighbour (lady) arrived out and asked for the roots to be taken out too but the price given was only for tree cutting. He said he’d come back with the machine to remove the roots. I removed the wire fence splitting the properties to allow him to do this root removal and the day I did it, the neighbours arrived at my house as I was outside doing some work in the garage. The lady asked why I removed her fence and I said that it needed to be taken away temporarily to remove the roots and she went off like a rocket. She started making accusations that I had no rite to trim or remove the trees but I explained that I was trimming them only that her husband asked for them to be removed completely. I did not want them removed but agreed with him. She then said I had no rite to even trim them even though I reminded her of teh 5 visits and the 3m of wasted garden on our side. She shouted obscenities at me so I asked her to leave.

The roots were removed and we approached them 2 months later to see if they wanted us to refence and she said yes and “do whatever the hell you want on your side”.

Since then, i’ve heard from a family member that they’ve put a story around to their family about us costing them €700 to remove the trees. The only trouble is that they never paid a penny. I paid an initial €450 for trimming, another €450 for removal of the trees and a further €380 for stump removal. I’ve also spent another €250 putting back up a fence for them. Now I hear the stories from different people that they are putting about?

Were we unreasonable? Were we within our rites to trim the trees back to the boundary? Where do I stand on our name being tarnished by them? Any advice would be great as I’m feeling absolutely terrible about the whole thing.
Hi All,
I was hoping for a bit of advice from you as I am feeling pretty bad over a situation that could have been avoided if a neighbour had trimmed their trees. We applied for planning permission back in 2008 and we approached the next door neighbours to run the plans by them as we wanted to keep them happy too. Afterall we need to live beside each other. The neighbour told us that he intended to trim back or remove the trees separating the properties so we said that would be great and we could assist if needed.

Permission was granted and the house got finished. We moved in in December of 2009. We noticed that the evergreen trees (a line of 9 or 10 of them) were quite tall and all of different heights were actually taking up about 3m of our front garden with the spread of their branches and the closest one to the house was just about a foot from our gutters! We called to the neighbour to see what their plan was for the trees but his wife said that he would be home later and they would call over to us. 2 weeks passed and no word! We left it another month after that and approached them again. Again the same story. We eventually got him at home and he said he was getting one of his employees to trim the trees later in the week. No action for a month so we approached them again, same story was given to us so i said to him that I’d do it for him seeing as it was for us he was doing it. He said to leave it to him that he was ok with doing it. Again no action. In all, over 7 months we called to them 5 times to ask them to trim the trees and nothing was done.

We finally called a local tree surgeon who called out and gave us a quote. We went to the neighbour the next day and said that we were going to go ahead and have the trees trimmed on our side only, back to the boundary line. We also said that if they wanted any height taken off them that they could talk to the Tree surgeon and agree a price with him.

When the Tree surgeon arrived on a Saturday morning, the neighbours arrived out and the lady was not too happy with him. She was worried that the trees looked too bare on our side! I told her not to worry about our side. There were no branches at all on their side due to other trees in their overgrown garden so they were relying on our trees to shade them. That was the source of her concern although she didn’t explicitly explain that at the time!

The husband stayed behind as she went home and he said to me that he didn’t want the trees there at all and he didn’t want me to spend money trimming them and then for him to spend more money in a few months removing them. I agreed and he said to ask the Tree surgeon to remove the entire row of evergreen trees.

He left that Saturday and so did the tree surgeon. The tree surgeon arrived back a few weeks later to remove the trees and did so in about a day. The neighbour (lady) arrived out and asked for the roots to be taken out too but the price given was only for tree cutting. He said he’d come back with the machine to remove the roots. I removed the wire fence splitting the properties to allow him to do this root removal and the day I did it, the neighbours arrived at my house as I was outside doing some work in the garage. The lady asked why I removed her fence and I said that it needed to be taken away temporarily to remove the roots and she went off like a rocket. She started making accusations that I had no rite to trim or remove the trees but I explained that I was trimming them only that her husband asked for them to be removed completely. I did not want them removed but agreed with him. She then said I had no rite to even trim them even though I reminded her of teh 5 visits and the 3m of wasted garden on our side. She shouted obscenities at me so I asked her to leave.

The roots were removed and we approached them 2 months later to see if they wanted us to refence and she said yes and “do whatever the hell you want on your side”.

Since then, i’ve heard from a family member that they’ve put a story around to their family about us costing them €700 to remove the trees. The only trouble is that they never paid a penny. I paid an initial €450 for trimming, another €450 for removal of the trees and a further €380 for stump removal. I’ve also spent another €250 putting back up a fence for them. Now I hear the stories from different people that they are putting about?

Were we unreasonable? Were we within our rites to trim the trees back to the boundary? Where do I stand on our name being tarnished by them? Any advice would be great as I’m feeling absolutely terrible about the whole thing.

Podgemcd

It got pasted in twice. Hope someone has a bit of advice

coylemj

As the poster you can go back in and edit it to remove the duplication - press the 'edit' button in the lower-right corner of the post.

If you create the text in an editor like MS Word or similar, before you paste it into boards you should first copy it to Notepad or some similar text editor, then copy & paste into boards so that you do not carry the font size with you, that post looks horribly intimidating and not just because of the length of it.

You're not supposed to resurrect old threads, you should post this as a new thread.

Podgemcd

I was under the imprssion that there was no need to create a new thread as there was one in the same area. Saves space! I can create one if people prefer that though......... only thing is, cant find the link to do this!

coylemj

I can see your point (about attempting to continue an existing thread) but the problem that arises is that people have to scroll past stuff that's over a year old to get to your submission and there's a real possibility that none of the issues raised in the earlier thread touch directly on your situation. Even if you think the situations are very similar, it's always better to start a new thread, you can always include a link to the older thread if you want people to refer to it.

When looking at a list of the posts, there is a button 'New Thread' just below the forum title.

Podgemcd

I can see your point now. thanks for the advice. Will open a new one