Neighbour butchered our tree

meercatsunited

our garden looked like your first picture and our surveyor told us there were too many and too close to the house which could cause foundation damage so we removed them all and now have a better garden twice the size.
sorry about the neighbours they could have said something but may have thought they were helping you because you did say you would be cutting the tree back.

pleasedelete

You probably won't be able to cut it to fence height as the top will be brown and possibly won't grow back. It is an awful tree- just take it out and plAnt something nicer. A large flowering shrub would be a cheap option. We replaced our conifers with shrubs that grew to 6ft in less than 2 years

davsidipp

xxmrksxx wrote: »

Start the story off, we moved into our property three months ago and being doing work to it none stop.

We have been working on the garden last month and cut it back a lot to see what we have and there is two 25/30 ft confers that are big and overhang to neighbours garden. The plan was to trim them down by about five feet and right back, however to keep them as they offer a little privacy and make garden look nice.

I have spoken to our neighbours a month back how I'm just waiting for an uncle (ex gardener with all the tools) to come round and trim it back and offered to do there side at time as well and they said please as blocks some light in there's.

We arrive home today and find they have butchered half the tree and left it looking a joke, with no choice but to now cut down... We had no notice or anything.

My first question is this legal, of so what options do I have? This has pretty much poisoned the relationship as they already had one drunken party incident which resulted in the husband arrested (not invoked at all just woke us up that morning with shouting and screams)

Pictures hopefully attached of garden in October (before we brought and cut back) and this evening when we got in.

Thanks in advance


It won't let me post pics at present due to being newbie.. Will post if people advice how to

looking at those pictures of your garden,and those trees you have,i agree with your neighbour hacking them down,i was in the same situation with my neighbours,massive leylandi all the way down the garden,on the fence line,overhanging our garden by at least five feet,no light in our garden made it very dark,but we was lucky,because the fence broke,neighbour took them all down.our fences are shared,and we refused to go half,unless they were taken down.maybe your neighbours thought you unapproachable.being there three months though,maybe they should have first told you of their intentions,and second,give you a little more time to sort them out.

Davesnave

poppellerant wrote: »

Which part of the thread do you feel excuses the OP for not promptly attending to their garden, such that it doesn't interfere with other neigbours properties?

You're entitled to interpret the word "prompt" in any way you like, but I would say the details outlined do show a prompt response by the OP.

Your comment: "With all those trees in the garden, I have to ask why you feel the need to make a nuisance of yourself to your surrounding neighbours?" would have been pompous and rude if you'd read the thread properly when you made it.

Now you seem to be claiming not to have made it in ignorance.

Draw your own conclusions.

jonesjw

The neighbours are entitled to cut what overhangs their fence.
The whole tree is a mess anyway, with or without their pruning.

Cut the rest of it down. Plant something smaller. Thank the neighbours for doing part of the job for you.

poppellerant

gravitytolls wrote: »

Three months they've been there, three months! Had it been three years you may have a valid point.

Point taken, but the problem could have been dealt with in a day with the correct tools.

Davesnave wrote: »

Your comment: "With all those trees in the garden, I have to ask why you feel the need to make a nuisance of yourself to your surrounding neighbours?" would have been pompous and rude if you'd read the thread properly when you made it.

Now you seem to be claiming not to have made it in ignorance.

Draw your own conclusions.

You seem to think I am denying what I said, or am back peddling. If that's how it seems then fine, but that was not my intention.

The top and bottom of it is, the tree is in quite a dire state and clearly has been for some time even before the OP moved in. So surely they would have taken this into account when viewing and purchasing the property?

Three months is three months too long in my own opinion. If the OP wanted to be neighbourly and make decent and desirable inroads with their neighbours, they should have attended to the tree as a matter of urgency.

Frankly, I see no urgency from the OP to attend to the tree. Is it any wonder their neighbour did what they did? And the OP has the nerve to complain!

Davesnave

poppellerant wrote: »

Three months is three months too long in my own opinion. If the OP wanted to be neighbourly and make decent and desirable inroads with their neighbours, they should have attended to the tree as a matter of urgency.

I hope I have someone with such high principles as you as my next neighbour. To have one who'd act as if treading on eggshells would be a novel experience!

From memory, moving into a 'new' house, there's a stack of things to attend to in spare time. Getting to grips with a garden, which has perhaps had 10 years unchecked growth, especially in one of the wettest periods in our recent history, might not be top of many people's agendas.

shegar

You wont have a very nice looking tree if you cut it to fence level because it will then have only the front part that will be green , cos they always die and go brown in the middle.......

It would be better to have it out completely, but it wont be dug out, you will need a mini digger in to get the roots out, if you dont get the roots out it will be a useless , because you wont be able to plant another tree or whatever......
It did look a very secluded and established wildlife friendly garden , all of the trees needed to be cut down to 10 to 12 feet tall, and cut back towards the fence, but to me it looks like a bomb site now..........

Id be gutted if my garden looked like the second pic, plant a nice laurel hedge , much easier to look after then Lleylandi....................

Mojisola

It's the difference in the time frame that may be behind the neighbours' actions. It's been one item on your "to-do" list for about three months - your neighbours have obviously been living with it for some years.

It's hard to understand why they haven't cut it back to the fence before now but maybe the previous owners kept telling them that it would be dealt with and they let it go. When you said the same thing and they saw you deal with lots of other plants in the garden but not that one, maybe their patience ran out?

They haven't done anything they aren't entitled to, although it shouldn't have been cut back during the nesting season. If you had cut it back to the fence, it would have looked as it does now.

You've got to live next door to each other - there's no point being enemies over a tree.

Edwardia

shammyjack wrote: »

My neighbour cannot understand why his Leylandia are dead.

Long core drill plus an old 220kg tub of Sodium Chlorate did the trick !


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Hopefully he will get the soil tested around what was his leylandii and find the hole you drilled too and then you won't be laughing when you get cautioned for Criminal Damage.