Neighbours tree blocking sunlight - possible options

kaymin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122123883#Comment_122123883

Thanks - yeah I was taken aback my his attitude. He compared my request to possibly trim the top to him asking his neighbour to knock down his house because it caused a shade. Left little point in engaging any further….

kaymin

I

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122123840#Comment_122123840

I'm not aware of any problems but I have builders / engineer in soon so I might ask their opinion. The neighbour said he would be letting nature take its course and wouldn't be pruning the tree - it's already over the height of the house and the tree trunk is about a metre from the boundary wall - presumably the taller it grows the greater the pressure on the boundary wall from the roots.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122123883#Comment_122123883

always two sides to a story

Nobody I have found online will give the full story, like this story they are fully reasonable and it’s the awful terrible other person. Rarely in life do you have these situations unless some previous etc

Now of course I could be wrong but just basing it on previous.

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122126206#Comment_122126206

You would be wasting your time trying to speak logically to someone that used such an illogical/silly comparison.

I would be cutting back the overhanging/encroaching branches, and handing them to the beloved owner of the tree they were once attached to.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122123165#Comment_122123165

If the tree is the height of the house, I don't see how it could impact solar panels that much? For it to shade the roof expect at sunrise or sunset, it'd need to be nearly at the house?

kaymin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122126497#Comment_122126497

The sun isn't so high except in summer so trees 15 metres away do shade my roof. Another tree is almost at my roof so a shade is cast even with the summer sun. If one solar panel is shaded, the entire array won't function - at least that's my understanding. Not all of these trees are in the same neighbouring garden. The builders planted these trees 20 years ago and its only in the last few years they've grown to an excessive height.

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122126282#Comment_122126282

Ah yeah in fairness thats always baked in ...but in the absence of any other info Im willing to take it a face value

Ive met the like of that lad occasionally in my travels...pure pig ignorant, wouldnt dream of doing anything neighbourly etc

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122126282#Comment_122126282

While normally I would agree with you, I had personal experience in one house with a neighbour who, the first time he met me, said that I should cut down all the trees on 'his' side of my garden as they shaded his house, he then went on to do a couple of things that were not exactly neighbourly. I did remove some trees, he was not entirely wrong about that, but not all of them, and mostly because they needed to be removed for other reasons, and his wife is a nice woman, not because of his rude demands.

SharkMX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122123883#Comment_122123883

Two of hours neighbors had a dispute about trees. They fell out with each other, but my Mum was friends with both and id hear them both complaining to my mother about the other if they were in the house. Dont know how my mother didnt just boot them out of the house when they brought it up.

They were those lelandi trees. Started off 1 ft though and within a few years were about 30 foot high. They shaded the whole garden. The poor woman would be in tears. Then the other loved her trees. So the husband started butting their side because thats all they were allowed to cut and they had this brown mess on their side of the garden but it still didnt help with the shade.

The two women were friends for about 20 years before the trees and they didnt hated each other at this point. And the woman tried all legal means to get rid of the trees. One day the husband of the tree owner met the woman form the other garden (he always tried to remain friendly but she never spoke to him either even though he would always say hello) and she was in tears and he called her son to come out to her. The next day he got a digger and pulled all the trees out. His wife went mad at him, but she got over it. Its 10 years on and the two women are now talking again.

Dav010

I had similar issues with a neighbour, but no bad blood or falling out. He had a row of laylandii along the boundary on his side which grew to a huge height. I had them trimmed on my side, he declined to have the heights reduced even though I was going to pay. Sure enough, the next big storm, one of the trees toppled over into his garden. Soon after he had to pay to have them topped, that was an unintended and costly consequence for him.

Op, whenever disputes start between neighbours, they can have unintended consequences, and are I suspect, irretrievable. Ignore the keyboard clowns telling you to poison the tree, they wouldn’t do it themselves, if you vandalise his property, you will have no one to blame but yourself for any consequences that ensue as a result of your actions. Cut back the branches on your side as you are allowed to do, when the guys did it for me, they told the neighbour that there was a risk of toppling due the weight on his side, let the people who cut yours do the same thing.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128779#Comment_122128779

I would have thought you are allowed apply poison on a part of tree that's in your property. Obviously poisoning the part of the tree in their property is firstly trespassing, but ultimately if it's on your property you can do as you please.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128876#Comment_122128876

It’s an interesting point, but if I set a fire on my side of a boundary and it damages your property, could I say that I only meant to burn my side?

Edit: my damn copy and paste won’t work here recently but if you google “can I poison my neighbours tree”, the “trees and the law” section on the treecouncil.ie site states that the person using the poisonous substance may be liable/be prosecuted under the Criminal Damage Act 1991.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122126664#Comment_122126664

if the trees are the same height as the house, and are 15m away, they shouldn't shade it except very late in the day or in deep winter (when the tree would have no leaves anyway, and solar wouldn't be performing well anyway); for the tree to even partially shade a roof of 2m high the sun would have to drop below 7 degrees.

but you mention one being right at the house - is the neighbour's garden backing on to yours, or alongside?

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128876#Comment_122128876

That would be illegal as it would damage the whole tree.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122126334#Comment_122126334

you are entitled to cut but you must remove the cuttings

magicbastarder

isn't the law that you're allowed cut but must offer the cuttings to the neighbour first?

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128886#Comment_122128886

OP lets have some pictures please

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128898#Comment_122128898

Wouldn't the neighbour by the same logic be legally bound to pay for the removal of any of their trespassing plants from property that's not theirs? A tree invading a neighbours property does not enjoy rights.

How a person gets rid of trespassing growth is entirely their own business, as long as it doesn't involve any banned substances.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128918#Comment_122128918

How a person gets rid of trespassing growth is entirely their own business, as long as it doesn't involve any banned substances.

not correct.

https://www.treecouncil.ie/trees-and-the-law

All cuttings must be given back to the owner of the tree or at least offered back. If the owner of the tree does not want the cuttings, they must be disposed of in a responsible way and should not be left on the tree owner’s property without permission.

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128914#Comment_122128914

The key word is offer. You can't just throw them over their side.

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128918#Comment_122128918

Cutting the branches or roots is legal & root cutting may reduce the tree's stability. But any chemical applied to part of the tree will translocate into all of the tree.

If their roots are undermining your building, walls etc you could try getting a surveyor to confirm this & then get a solicitor to threaten court action.

geographica

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128914#Comment_122128914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128914#Comment_122128914

I think that’s an English law and not a law here

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128963#Comment_122128963

It's very old law. The principle being that you can't take your neighbour's fruit. I haven't heard of it being changed in Ireland.

yagan

Thats hilarious. Imagine suing a neighbour for they not offering you cuttings from your tree that trespasses their property.

I can imagine in days when firewood was a household essential that taking liberties with nieghbours overhangings would be discouraged, but that law is completely nonsensical in this era.

No one then would be considering right of lights etc.. Landscaping in the public realm didn't exist as animals kept overgrowth in check.

Discodog

It's probably a question for the legal forum here

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128988#Comment_122128988

Unless you can find a law that specifies that a property owner can't apply a legal poison on growth invading their property then I'll continue to apply weed killer to those plants creeping into my garden from next door, and I certainly won't be going to my neighbours door offering them their dead weeds before they're binned.

The law needs to catch up with modern suburbia.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122129017#Comment_122129017

I edited my earlier post to provide a reference to the law you are looking for. Ah, I see @magicbastarder was able to link the site.

“There is no legal right to poison encroaching roots. If the roots are damaged, and the tree injured or killed then the person using toxic substances may be liable and prosecuted under the Criminal Damage Act 1991.”

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122129017#Comment_122129017

Poisoning someone else's plants comes under criminal damage.

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122129017#Comment_122129017

The issue is a tree, not a few weeds.

I am aware of a situation where hedge cuttings are bagged and handed to a neighbour. The neighbour does not want them but was informed by AGS they had to take them. This has been going on about 20yrs.

Discodog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122129047#Comment_122129047

I think, no surprise, that AGS are wrong. Lots of info here:

https://www.treecouncil.ie/trees-and-the-law