Cutting Down Tree Dispute?

Frank99

Last year my neighbours warned another neighbour not to cut down their beautiful silver birch tree at the bottom of their garden as it is on their side of the border giving them no right to touch it, now new neighbours have moved in and they have hired a tree surgion who says he is coming tommorrow to take it completely down (this is the conversation i overheard via the garden fence), my immediate neighbour has gone away to the US and won't be back until Sunday, She will be furious when she finds out so i'm wondering what i can do.
It is not really over my part so i don't know if i have any right to stop them and i don't have contact details for my neighbour in the US,my other half says we should just go out tommorrow and pretend we didn't see it happening or know anything to save getting involved.

Boohoo

They can not go into your neighbours garden and cut that tree down without permission.

If the tree is in the garden of the neighbours who are in the US the tree surgeon can only cut what over hangs the garden or the people who hired the tree surgeon.

I would be surprised if the tree surgeon would go into another garden and cut a tree down without seeking permission from the tree's owner.

FreeBear

Might be worth checking to see if there is a Tree Preservation Order on the tree - Most garden trees are not protected unless in a conservation area.

Frank99

Boohoo said:

They can not go into your neighbours garden and cut that tree down without permission.

If the tree is in the garden of the neighbours who are in the US the tree surgeon can only cut what over hangs the garden or the people who hired the tree surgeon.

I would be surprised if the tree surgeon would go into another garden and cut a tree down without seeking permission from the tree's owner.

Yes it is very much on the edge, i would say the tree stump is about a foot inside my absent neighbours garden, the previous neighbours also hired a tree surgeon but she ordered him to stop and he did but this was about a year ago and different neighbours, i'm not sure these new neighbours are aware of what is to come.

WeAreGhosts

Be armed with a camera to record anything that you think may be illegal (including trespass). I'd be tempted to go and ask the tree surgeon whether he has permission from the owner of the tree before he starts doing anything drastic. Sometimes the tree surgeon is the innocent party (but they should double check ownership of trees, especially if it looks like it's in someone else's garden, and not just rely on their client saying "so-and-so neighbour says it's ok").

ElephantBoy57

Frank99 said:

Yes it is very much on the edge, i would say the tree stump is about a foot inside my absent neighbours garden, the previous neighbours also hired a tree surgeon but she ordered him to stop and he did but this was about a year ago and different neighbours, i'm not sure these new neighbours are aware of what is to come.

Might it be a good thing, if the tree is removed? Close to the border and both wanting it gone. Close to the house too?

I like trees, so I am not advocating that.

TELLIT01

If the tree isn't actually growing in the garden of the person who wants it felled, or in that of a third party who also wants it gone, they have no right to cut it down.  They can have overhanging branches removed as long as their removal won't make the tree unstable, but that's the limit of it.

Norman_Castle

Tell the new neighbour and tree surgeon about the previous intention to remove the tree and its owners response. If the new neighbour is decent they will at least halt the work until ownership is clear. The tree surgeon is unlikely to want to be involved in a dispute.

You can't stop them but you can inform them what they are doing is wrong preventing them pleading ignorance after the event.