legality of overhanging trees into neighbours garden

mondeo

Quick question, neighbours behind me cut back overhanging branches from my garden into theirs, they threw them into my garden, not alot but enough to bother me since I cleaned up the garden recently. Are they entitled to do this ? I never spoke to this neighbour before, just thought they might have come around and inform me first before doing it.

Calahonda52

They are within their rights with the above, bad manners to not communicate with them so upgrade footer to FCUK neighbours.

It they cut back beyond the boundary line then they are in the wrong.

Kintarō Hattori

While they are within rights to prune back whatever is encroaching into your their garden, I thought they had to deal with the 'rubbish' themselves. I was of the impression that you couldn't just throw it into the garden where the plant is growing.

mondeo

If they can legally do this then fine, It would however have been nice of them to inform me before throwing them in... Coming home from work to find all this thrown all over my grass.

PGE1970

They are correct in what they have done and have to offer/give the cuttings back to you as the cuttings are your property.

They are also pig ignorant.

RosieJoe

I do not think they are allowed to just throw them back into your garden. Read this elsewhere "All tree cuttings should be offered back to your neighbour. If your neighbour does not want the cuttings, they must be disposed of in a responsible manner. You may not leave the cuttings on your neighbour’s property without their permission." This is from https://www.treecouncil.ie/trees-and-the-law

mondeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119996619#Comment_119996619

I can see that, so what does one do now ? Go around and tell them to remove them ? Straight away there is going to be a tension problem with a neighbour going forward.

cajonlardo

Expecting your neighbour to trim your trees and then expecting them to pay for to remove your rubbish sounds precisely the self entitled attitudes that ruin neighbour relations. Why wouldnt you give consideration to your neighbours and have a bit of pride in yourself by doing your own trimming?

My garden has hedges bordering 8 different neigbours gardens and I make certain the bushs are cut back neatly to my side . Id be embarrassed if my laziness was annoying anyone else. Imagine how much it would cost me if I had dispose of cutting from all my neighbours

macraignil

The way I read this discused before was that while cutting back what is growing in to their garden is allowed they should offer to return the material to you if you want it. I think just throwing it into your garden is not very polite but there's not a whole lot you can do about it. Had a similar issue with neighbours when I lived for a while in my grandmothers old house and they left the cuttings from a shrub that was growing from my grandmothers front garden in the middle of the drive way. It nearly caused an accident when I was reversing into the parking space and stopped abrubtly when I saw what they had done and a car on the road nearly ran into the front of my car when I had to stop to avoid running over the material they left on the driveway.

I said nothing to them and a while later came back from work one day to find someone had been into my grandmothers back garden and completely defaced (probably with a chainsaw) some trees that they had been complaining about being too big and not leaving enough light into their garden. Only lived in my grandmothers place temporarily but if what you describe happened in a home you intend to live in long term with these neighbours I'd be inclined to use it as an excuse to call and have a friendly chat with them and see if there are any other aspects of the shared outdoor space they want to discuss. Old sticks and branches can be used to construct so called bug hotels or simple habitiat for wildlife if you have a spare corner to gather the material. Also read of some garden owners allowing gaps in their fences to allow hedgehogs in their area have more freedom to move about and hunt for slugs and snails if your looking for something else to talk about.

Happy gardening!

mondeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119996721#Comment_119996721

I agree to a point, these are the type of trees that grow abit wild. Had the neighbour came around to me and informed me what they were doing, then I would happily contribute to the job being done if it meant I didn't have my garden all messed up and both of us were in good form. They are a young couple but obviously not striving to have good neighbourly relations with me though.

mondeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119996741#Comment_119996741

i think it's abit of a grey area, despite what the law seems to say people seem to think otherwise and find it reasonable to them. I think in my case I'll swallow it and chop them up and get rid of them. Hopefully its a one odd incident. I am not planning to live here forever, we bought the place with the intension of investment and selling it on in 2 or 3 years time to fund a bigger house.

wench

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119996845#Comment_119996845

Well if you keep them trimmed in future, they'll have no need of a repeat event.

Perhaps if you had the common courtesy to ensure your tree wasn’t overhanging into your neighbours garden, you wouldn’t be in this predicament.

the world is mad.

every year I have to trim my neighbours bushes that grow over the wall into my garden. I just suck it up and dispose of them myself. But make no mistake, your neighbour was cursing you when they were doing the job of cutting back YOUR tree.

just get rid of your own mess

looksee

Quite possibly the neighbours wanted to cut back the overhanging branches, did a bit of research on facebook/twitter and were told that they could cut them back so long as they returned the cuttings. Wrong information, but they did it anyway. The OP could have gone round and asked them were the trees a problem and/or they could have called on the OP and said what they wanted to do. Neither of them did, but neither were being malicious or contrary, just the way things work out. It seems a pity to just jump to the conclusion that there were bad intentions on either side.

redseat1

I'd probably go around with a bottle of wine, apologise for not cutting the branches and tell them if it happens again, let me know.

You don't have to, and as others have said it probably was a bit of an overstep for them to dump them back on your side instead of offering them to you. But on the other hand, plenty of long running disputes with neighbours start off with this stuff and get worse, so best to swallow some pride instead of standing on legal points and entitlements. It's a neighbour, not the defendant in a case...yet.

bored_newbie

I’d agree with the others that neighbours can fall out over the smallest things, and that can escalate into something bigger.

If you are able to nip it in the bud, do. Accept that your trees were causing some annoyance to your neighbour and acknowledge it when you next talk to him. Whether you think his actions were justified or not, it’s probably best just to suck it up and offer to do things better from now on.

I suppose it is your tree, they’ve had to deal with it….Maybe they could’ve been better with their communication. We’ve had to deal with neighbours trees but fortunately we can dispose of them without too much trouble. That’s not always the case… Is it fair to expect them to deal with the cost of the disposal as well as managing the overhang into their land? communication on both sides is important….

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119996895#Comment_119996895

thankfully people seem more relaxed where i live (bar one!); the notion of failing to police your trees so they don't overhang walls not being 'common courtesy' is a little odd. my neighbour just said to me 'if it overhangs and is in the way, feel free to cut it'.

i've a big birch in my back garden which overhangs the garden of the other neighbour and it doesn't bother them.

TheChizler

What's wrong with calling over and saying thanks for cutting the branches but next time give me a call and you'll collect the trimmings rather than messing up the garden? Or even better you'll trim them when they think it's getting too big? No need to go legal when a friendly chat might do.

irelandrover

Any chance that they did this as they were pissed off with you?

You mention that you cleaned the garden recently. Maybe from their point of view you cleaned up your garden but left the part that affected them.

ModelWhy

Sorry to revive an old thread, but didn't want to double post a repeated question.

I'm in a similar situation where the neighbours have a good few trees overhanging my garden. I know I can cut the overhangs but it's what to do with the trimmings that bothers me.

I understand that folks above have said to offer them back, but I mentioned to the neighbour that I'd be giving him back his branches and he said "well I don't want them, you dispose of them".

This is by problem. They are his high trees, and there are a lot and it's more than a brown bin load (which I need for my own waste).

It doesn't seem fair to me that I've to pay €30 or so at the dump (plus traveling time) because of his laziness. Surely if you own a tree you've responsibility as the tree owner to maintain all aspects of it.

I'm half tempted to throw the clippings over the wall anyways. It's just nuts that there's no laws around this and tree heights! I'm half tempted to plant the fastest and highest growing trees in my garden just in spite!

Thanks

(Rant over! 😂)

macraignil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120992910#Comment_120992910

As I suggested earlier in this thread this type of material can be stacked up and used to build good wildlife habitat that will eventually break down into compost and improve your garden soil, but if that does not suit you then I don't think 30euros is a lot to spend on maintaining good relations with your neighbour. There are laws in relation to this and if your property is damaged by your neighbours trees falling over then I believe they are liable for any damages caused by their trees.

Happy gardening!

ModelWhy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120993098#Comment_120993098

You are right about the liabilities of the trees but your neighbours home insurance does not cover falling trees ("act of God" they say) and my neighbours don't have tens/hundreds of thousands to rebuild my house if it got smashed.

I get the "good neighbors" vibe but on principal it's not fair to have to pay for their laziness and inconsideration. There's nothing to stop me (or anyone) planting dozens of tall trees in my back garden and blocking out the sun for everyone else. It's just mad that there's no legislation around this in Ireland. Other EU countries have this sorted decades ago!