Bill from neighbours for tree damage

stmartinsdiver

Things got off on the wrong footing when your neighbour took remedial action without consulting you first. So, unless he had previously raised any concerns about any risk to his property from your trees then he should not expect you to simply pay the £700 he is asking for. This is entirely unreasonable without having got your prior agreement, unless there was any immediate danger in not taking immediate action. It would therefore not be unreasonable for you to obtain a couple of realistic estimates from tree surgeons and offer to pay your neighbour the higher of the two figures and suggests he claims the difference from his insurance company. You should also contact your insurer to advise them of what has happened and see if they would cover your costs. I experienced storm damage to my property some years ago and my insurer paid up without quibling so it is worth asking.

JayD

Lots of useful advice and indignant comments for you to consider here.

The most useful, I think, is to advise your neighbours that you are considering their actions under legal advisement and will notify them of your decision in due course. Then get free advice from the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Until you know for sure what your legal position and your obligations are it would be very unwise to say or do anything.

BTW - whatever their religion, their lack of consultation with you and their behaviour in this matter beggars belief! I know of no religion that would consider their actions acceptable.

LandyAndy

betsie wrote: »

Thanks for all the comments. We have sorted it all out giving him what it would have cost us to get them moved.
All amicable and back to friendly nodding terms which is fine by us.

I think that probably tells you all you need to know about what he was actually charged.

Patjan

Apart from the other postings, which are broadly in agreement with each other, there are two other considerations. (1) Do any of your trees have a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) on them? If so, they can't be meddled with without the sanction of your local Council. (2) if there are no TPOs, then in law your neighbour is entitled to cut or prune any trees or shrubs of yours which overhang his garden, BUT only within the borders of his property (e.g. up to a party fence). In addition, he must first offer you the branches/foliage he has chopped down. Sounds daft, I know, but that's the law! So you can add this to any other arguments/discussions you may have with the neighbour.

sarah_loobylou

If your tree surgeon is quoting less, the £700 are not your neighbour's friend's 'mate's rates'. Bills like this are negotiable. You weren't given the opportunity to agree a price. Absolutely ridiculous. No idea on whether you are legally obliged to anything, but morally you have every right to find a fair price you are happy with.

Get 2 other quotes and tell your neighbour that you will be disputing the bill with their friend.

IONA

We had a similar situation a few years ago. We have a piece of land (a sort of lock up) which dad bought about 30 years ago. When dad died 20 years ago, the neighbours decided to do mum a 'favour' by removing a fence and building a wall about 6ft high and return at the front to our land, re-marking our boundary with them. Mum didn't do anything at the time as she had so much to deal with after dad's death.






About 5 years ago my brother, who now uses the land, came home and said that our neighbours had built on top of this wall, to a height of around 20ft and had put metal strips diagonally across from the front to the side of the wall, over our 'corner'. This was a Sunday evening, about 11pm. I grabbed my camera and we went to take a look. The cement was still wet so mum told my brother to knock it down and leave their bricks in front of their lock up as they were their property. I took lots of pictures as evidence.
Very early the next morning we received a telephone call from one irate neighbour. He'd wanted to know why we'd knocked down the wall. Mum asked why he'd built it and hadn't even mentioned it or asked her. He said he didn't have her telephone number! She said it was funny as he was ringing her about it now! He said he'd also gone and knocked on the house door where we used to live and they didn't know where we'd gone to live - which again was stupid of him as they bought mum's house and she bought theirs so they'd've known where we were if he'd actually done that! My brother is also self employed and has the number on the side of his van and goes to the land every day to feed the guard dog so he could've got the number from there. (He said he'd got it from our other neighbour on the other side).
He said he was going to call the police because it was criminal damage.
He'd built the wall as he'd wanted to fix his new '£30,000' roller shutter door to it and it wasn't high enough and he'd put strengtheners in it for us?!
Mum told him to stop doing these 'favours' for us, i.e. building the wall in the first place and also making a fence panel at the rear of the property into a gate (which wasn't noticeable at first glance from our side), hence gaining access to our property with out us knowing. We have since screwed this 'gate' shut to prevent any further access.
Mum told him the footings for the wall wouldn't be strong enough for a roller shutter door and all it's movement.
Mum told him that my brother is a builder and if she'd wanted a wall building she'd've got him to do it.
The neighbour then presented my brother with an invoice for building the wall and the cost of the bricks! They'd recently moved house and had obviously put new address stickers over their old address, but when we got the invoice, they'd torn this new address label off!
We never paid the invoice.
Mum and my brother had to go to the police station about a month later to be questioned, had DNA samples taken, were locked in a cell. They only put an hour on the car, thinking they'd go to the front desk and speak to an officer. No, it ended up being all afternoon and a policeman got sent out to guard the car so they wouldn't end up with a parking ticket for going over their hour!
It ended up where the police let them go without charge and said they should've got a solicitor and not knocked it down - that would've cost loads.
This neighbour has since put up is very expensive '£30,000' roller shutter door on his own property and we have nothing to do with them.
They are just bullies who push people around to get what they want - well they didn't bank on my mother being a lot stronger than when the first put up the 6ft wall 20 years prior.
I will also add that these neighbours built a 32ft wide garage on a 30ft wide piece of land (they stole 2ft of our land) when dad was alive - too late now to do anything about it.
Sorry to ramble - just thought I'd post what happened to us.
My advice is, take lots of pictures, with the date on. Keep records, correspondence etc.
Glad you've got it sorted amicably.

armoured-smiler

Quote from a solicitors advise page.

A tree has fallen from my neighbour’s garden in to mine. Who pays for the damage and removal of the tree?
If a tree from your neighbour’s garden falls in yours (or vice versa), causing damage to fences, again, it is unlikely you can claim on your neighbour’s insurance. Your neighbours policy covers their property not yours. You may, however, be able to claim for damages against you if you can prove a case of negligence.
Otherwise, it may typically be your responsibility to remove or chop up the tree for firewood and repair any damage – though one would hope that your neighbour would offer to help with costs.
How insurers deal with fallen trees varies from policy to policy. If you have trees that could potentially cause damage you should get clarification from your insurer on what’s covered.

happyinflorida

You do not have to pay anything.


Your neighbour has called a friend of his to do this job.


You didn't call that tree surgeon, your neighbour did. He can pay the bill.


Your neighbour should have asked you to sort the problem out, he didn't - that's his first fail.


Your neighbour has employed someone - a friend - to do some work for him, you haven't employed anyone therefore you are not legally responsible to pay for this work.


As your neighbour also doesn't talk to you much - due to their religious convictions (I've never heard of a religion which stops people from talking to others?!) I wouldn't worry too much about losing a possible friendship of your neighbours as they aren't going to be your friends (well they've actually proved this already by the way they've acted) now or in the future.


Your neighbour didn't agree with you first to call in a contractor - your neighbour should have done this as it would have given you the chance to employ someone cheaper, which you now say you could have done.


Don't pay anything.


If your neighbour takes you to court - which I doubt they will as they haven't got a leg to stand on legally, argue that you were given no opportunity to do the job first, that you had someone you could have employed that would have done a better job ie not leaving 3 foot high tree stumps and for a cheaper price. That your neighbour never asked you first if you were willing to pay for this, you were not consulted and you did not draw up the contract, your neighbour did therefore your neighbour is liable, not you.


Also your neighbour's friend should have done it for less money if he was a real friend, so looks like he's also trying to rip you off!

pulliptears

Glad it all got sorted OP.

martinbuckley wrote: »

Yet at post #25 you refer to your MIL and your Husband.

Thought you might have had the decency to offer OP and apology Martin. Seemingly not then.

delboysidcup

betsie wrote: »

Hi
Not sure if this is the right section but I just wanted some other opinions. We have some 20ft high conifers in our garden on border line with our neighbours. During the recent storm one fell into their front garden and another 2 plus a small one (4 inch diameter) were leaning over. The first we knew of this was the sound of chainsaws at 9am when they had already got a tree company in too remove the one that fell and cut down the other 2 1/2. All 4 stumps left at about 3ft high.
He told us it was a friends company. Roll on 3 wks and he gives me a bill for £700. This seems very expensive especially as our tree man we use would have charged a fraction of this priceu.
I do accept we have to pay but given the fact he gave us no option to sort it ourselves and it is a friends company can we dispute the amount.
We have not been in the house long and the neighbour does not really speak to us due to their religious beliefs.
All opinions gratefully received x

If your neighbour said "It's your tree and I hold you responsible so sort it please." Then you would have sorted it I am sure. Meanwhile, he seems to have taken a very high handed attitude and got in a "Friend" to do it and presented you with a bill. No matter what the cost, his action is wrong so tell him to get lost. It might have been that you wanted to do it yourself, or get a "Friend" of your own in. At what point does cost come into it?
What if his bill had been £7000.00. The amount of the bill is of no consequence it's the principle that someone else can get something done without your explicit permission and charge you that is wrong here.