Tall trees near property

daveyjp

There are a lot of myths about tree roots, such as the tree underground matches that above.

Large roots don't go much deeper than a couple of spade depths from the surface, soil below this is too compacted and doesn't conatin much water. The root spread is about same as the crown, but the most concentrated root area is about a metre from the trunk.

This photo demonstrates this perfectly.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_39142_-_Tree_blown_over_in_a_cemetery_in_Louisiana.jpg

A previous poster explained the main problem. Heave and slump due to water take up.

Salz

You will have no light.
There is always something dropping off them, leaves, seeds etc.
In high winds it sounds like a hurricane is blowing, and you feel the need to check whether they are leaning at a dangerous angle and about to demolish your house.

ghosti

Hi, I have an update on the tree situation. They are some sort of pine, possibly scots pine, approx 5-6m from the property and as tall as the house. The trees have TPO so no option to remove, there is no apparent evidence of any trouble from these trees with the eye. Anyone have any experience with this situation?
Think I will get a tree expert to survey it, but was wondering if anyone had any experience with this. Thanks for the responses so far.

I_have_spoken

The trees have TPO so no option to remove

IIRC the canny move is to notify your insurer, they will inform the Council that the insurer will seek recompense if the trees cause damage. The Council will generally then revoke the TPO rather than risk a claim.

moneyistooshorttomention

I_have_spoken wrote: »

IIRC the canny move is to notify your insurer, they will inform the Council that the insurer will seek recompense if the trees cause damage. The Council will generally then revoke the TPO rather than risk a claim.

I'm interested to see that - and wonder if you have "chapter and verse" or similar as to this being insurance company policy.

The reason I ask is because I notified my insurance company of a neighbours tree growing nearby that I knew would be a problem to my property in the future and expected them to "back me up" by sending a letter to the neighbour concerned pointing out that they would be after compensation from him/his insurance company should his tree damage my property.

I am not aware of them having sent him any such letter and the tree is still there - but looks as if it has now experienced less rain that it wanted and has accordingly died from drought - so won't be creating any problems in the future after all.

So - is this something that insurance companies only do if it's a Council involved - but don't do any equivalent letter if it is a private individual?

Windsorcastle

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

So - is this something that insurance companies only do if it's a Council involved - but don't do any equivalent letter if it is a private individual?

I had a subsidence problem that it turned out was caused by roots from 2 large trees on my neighbour's land, one in front of my property on a communal car park and one just behind my private garden, on their communal garden. My insurance company (Halifax) were really helpful - they sent a surveyor to confirm the problem and then wrote to the neighbour's managing agent warning them they would be held responsible for any damage and giving them a deadline to rectify the matter. This was after several months of me emailing them with no response. The offending trees were cut down within a few weeks of them receiving the letter from my insurance company. So the answer is your insurance company should be able to do this, whether it is a private individual causing your property problems or the council.

phead

Quite often the trees pre date the houses and have caused no problems at all for the lifetime of the property. People get far too chainsaw happy in their quest to make everywhere look like a sterile barratts shoebox estate.