Obstructing Trees!

miccy203

Hi all! I was just wondering if someone could please help me, I live on the side of a hill and have a next door neighbour on the right of me. he has just planted 9 oak and ash trees at our boundary wall. There is 10ft between the trees and the house. They are blocking our views of the town and as we are down in a hole there will be no more light coming into our house or the garden. I know that the roots of the trees can grow a long way but could they reach the foundations of the house I have asked him to keep the trees below a certain level but he has refused. Is there anything that could be done about the trees or will I just have to get used to them and use more electricity?????

Quazzie

A general rule of thumb in regards to trees and there roots is to take the potential height of the tree and that is the radius of the reach of the roots. In your case it is highly likely that the routes of an Oak tree will reach considerably more than the 10ft between them and your house, potentially damaging your house's substructure.

AS for the sight problem. I read a very good explanaton on boards here a few days back that stated, we have no right to a view, so therefore the trees cannot be requested to be removed on that account, however we do have a right to light. If you can prove that the trees are restricting your quality of light them you might have a valid argument.

Light restriction, coupled with potential substrucuture deterioration caused by roots might be enough if you were to make an objection. My first port of call though would be to my neighbour to explain my case, and see can ye come to a comproise regarding the trees.


I hope this helps!

Carlow52

10 feet wont win the right to light argument.

The tree is not close enough and more importantly it is not a fixed structure.

Bear in mind that these are deciduous trees and thus will have no leaves in winter which is the darker season.

The oak will take 100 years to cause you serious bother.

If they grow over the boundary line u have the right to trim them back to the line and ur neighbor has the rights to the cuttings so u dont need to remove them.

Next time you are out for a walk have a look at the oaks and ashes in your locality, are they all healthy, maybe they wont survive.

sydthebeat

using the 45 degree rule....
if the trees are 10' from the house, the centre of the window is 5' high...
therefore trees need to be 15' in height before they will start to have an impact on light (assuming a southerly facing window)..

as you are 'down in a hole' how have your views been affected?

i wouldn't worry about the ash trees...

MacTheKnife1

sydthebeat wrote: »

i wouldn't worry about the ash trees...

But ash trees can grow to 30-40' in height! And quicker than oak too.

sydthebeat

MacTheKnife1 wrote: »

But ash trees can grow to 30-40' in height! And quicker than oak too.

but ash tree leaf structures are a lot more diffuse than that oak tress... boughs are narrower and more fanned....

MacTheKnife1

sydthebeat wrote: »

but ash tree leaf structures are a lot more diffuse than that oak tress... boughs are narrower and more fanned....

True - but either tree 10' from house is going to be a problem unless cut regularly.

sydthebeat

MacTheKnife1 wrote: »

True - but either tree 10' from house is going to be a problem unless cut regularly.

agreed.... but id love to know the orientation.....

miccy203

I live on a hill, he is down below me to my right. There is a boundary wall dividing us and it along the wall he has planted the trees.

Carlow52

miccy203 wrote: »

I live on a hill, he is down below me to my right. There is a boundary wall dividing us and it along the wall he has planted the trees.

Coupled with
the opening post

miccy203 wrote:

Hi all! I was just wondering if someone could please help me, I live on the side of a hill and have a next door neighbour on the right of me. he has just planted 9 oak and ash trees at our boundary wall. There is 10ft between the trees and the house. They are blocking our views of the town and as we are down in a hole there will be no more light coming into our house or the garden. I know that the roots of the trees can grow a long way but could they reach the foundations of the house I have asked him to keep the trees below a certain level but he has refused. Is there anything that could be done about the trees or will I just have to get used to them and use more electricity?????

Makes me wonder who actually planted the trees

miccy203

My next door neighbour planted them along his side of the boundary wall.

MacTheKnife1

miccy203 wrote: »

I live on a hill, he is down below me to my right. There is a boundary wall dividing us and it along the wall he has planted the trees.

So your house overlooks his? Maybe all he is looking for is a little privacy?

Why not meet him and discuss? Alder is a great tree to plant - does not grow too high. Why not offer to buy him a few of these trees for planting in the critical locations where the trees are closest to your house?

sydthebeat

Arboricultural Journal (Gasson PE & Cutler DF 1998)
"Can we live with trees in our towns and cities?",

Arboricultural Journal 22(1) pp1-9)

summary: "There is increasing concern that data on tree root spread in 'Tree Roots and Buildings' (Cutler and Richardson, 1989) are open to misinterpretation by insurers, home owners and arboriculturists. Insurers have tended to use maximum root spread figures, which we believe to be statistically and biologically unsound. This paper briefly examines the evidence and interprets this to show that with sensible use of the available data, there should be little conflict between trees and buildings in urban areas"
Their conclusion suggests that very different figures are appropriate as safe planting distance - in general the distance which includes 75% of damage attributed to a particular species. For smaller species the 50% boundary is more appropriate whilst for particularly large growing species the 90% figure is sufficiently cautious. This leaves the table looking more like this:


Willow 18m
Poplar 20m
Oak 18m
Elm 19m
Horse Chestnut 15m
Ash 10m
Maple 9-12m (depending on species)
Cyprus 2.5m
Lime 11m
Beech 9m
Plane 10m
Robinia 8.5m
Birch 4m
Cherry 3m
Rowan 5m
which you will see allows considerably more scope for urban tree
planting than the figures you give. Again, it must be stressed that this
type of damage and the need for these distances ONLY applies to
shrinkable clay soils.

miccy203

I thought that myself but we have been living beside him for over 20yrs and it never seemed to bother him! I will ask him would he mind changing them to alder and offer to buy them for him and see what he says.:D I am not to bothered about the rest of the trees only the ones that block light out and damaging the house foundations as the house is 200yrs old!

beolight

you can of course take proactive measures on your side of the boundary wall to limit the spread/impact of the roots of these trees now

http://www.rootbarrier.com.au/