what would you say

cazxx1

hi all. we have conifers in our garden, my neighbor asked me the other day if he cuts the conifers on his side will i bag them up and take them to the tip, even though its in his garden. what do you all think i think he has a cheek...thanks

moneyistooshorttomention

The legal position is pretty well-known.

This is that a neighbour is entitled to trim any branches overhanging their land on the one hand, but must then offer them back again to the owner of the plants on the other hand.

Sounds like neighbour is following standard procedure there then, ie of offering you your property back after they have trimmed the bit overhanging their garden for you.

How would you prefer the neighbour to dispose of your property?

Bogof_Babe

My understanding is if they are your trees you're responsible for disposal of the overgrowth. Your solution is to cut them down completely if getting rid of the growth is too much trouble.

andymandy

Your neighbour is supposed to ask if he can cut the conifer and has to offer the bits back to you but surely he can just take them to the tip himself. My neighbours conifer covered half of my garden so we cut it off and she asked us to take it to the tip ourselves so we did.

kathrynha

He has to offer you the trimmings, but you do not have to accept them.
Garden Law forums are good for issues like this.

Bogof_Babe

andymandy wrote: »

Your neighbour is supposed to ask if he can cut the conifer and has to offer the bits back to you but surely he can just take them to the tip himself. My neighbours conifer covered half of my garden so we cut it off and she asked us to take it to the tip ourselves so we did.

If it's a laden fruit tree I can understand the requirement to offer it back, but surely conifers are just a nuisance when they overhang a neighbour's property.

In our area we have to pay 70p each for logo'd green bags if we want garden rubbish taken away by the council refuse collectors. I'm certainly not going to pay for the removal of someone else's rubbish, and not everyone has access to a tip, or a means of getting there.

Do the decent thing OP and get rid of it yourself. Then trim the trees well back so you might not need to do it so often.

moneyistooshorttomention

I know I couldn't afford to pay for green garden bags for a neighbour myself and have no way of taking even my own garden waste to the tip (never mind someone else's).

It may well be that the neighbour is in the same position, which would mean them choosing between two options if OP doesn't bag and remove their own rubbish.

1. Leave the trees untrimmed and I very much doubt they will do that.

2. Trim the trees anyway and just leave the trimmings in a pile in OP's garden.

It rather looks as if they will have to take option 2 and just leave them in that pile, whereas, at the moment, they are offering to have them bagged up neatly.

wellused

My neighbour had a willow tree in his front garden which used to grow into the telephone wires, when I pointed this out to him he gave me some !!!! and bull story about paying a man to cut it back but he hadn't done it to my neighbours instructions and the tree had got out of control again so being a good sort I offered to cut the branches for him free of charge to which he quibbled that I would have to dispose of the branches which were cut, I knew that I would have to agree to this or my neighbour wouldn't agree to the tree being trimmed. However my estimation of how much there would be to remove was way off and it took several car loads before I had cleared my garden of his tree. At that point I thought to myself that I must be some sort of mug to agree to this work. Sure as sure could be my neighbour left the tree to grow out of control again and eventually to my surprise he paid a couple of men to cut the tree back, this he has done on two or three occasions since I did the job for him, I believe that he paid them in the region of £80 on each occasion. Neighbours and trees I know what I'd like to do with them.

trollopscarletwoman

This green bag rip off seems to be getting out of control everywhere.

I'm seriously thinking of investing in a heavy duty shredder.

lostinrates

Your neighbour is in the right. Not unlike one of those people who only mows the bit verge in front of his house, leaving a tiny bit infront of a neighbours, when it would be just as easy, and neighbourly, to do the whole thing.

If the back of the conifers are out of sight or not ugly to you you can ask him just to drop them down there and they might provide some cover for beasties through winter. ( I don't know if they like conifers)

tulip12

My son has trees which he cuts back as much as he can but his neighbour cuts the overhanging ones from his garden and just dumps them in my sons garden a few times every year, (doesn't ask) I don't think there is anything my son can do about it so he just collects it up to keep the peace. .....Neighbours