Removal of trees on property boundaries in a Conservation Area

gecko19

Hello All, 

Hope you all had a great weekend.

I am having an issue with spruce trees which are growing in my neigbours property which borders the fence. The trees are about 80 feet tall and on the extreme end of my garden(my garden is 100 ft long). They are probably 50-60 years old. My issue right now is that the trees have broken through the concrete gravel boards of the fence installed 3 years ago. The builders(employed by my neighbour) who replaced the fence, placed the new fence posts a bit into my property such that the fence would contain the trees on the neighbour's side - in short my property was encroached upon. I think this is a boundary issue now, since a bit of my land is now within my neighbour's property and I am not sure what happens next when the trees continue to grow - I am not happy with the trees being "contained" within the neighbours property by encroaching into my property. The land beneath the trees(in my garden) is unusable since nothing grows there due to the tree roots. Additionally the land is not level and is a frequent haunt for foxes which dig deep holes. I did try using nets etc to keep the foxes away, but then I was left with the painful task of removing the net to deweed the place,  at which point the nets tore and the iron pins remained in the ground.


In the front of my house we have another tree which sits between both properties(the same neighbour). This tree sheds leaves in the winter and has quiet a lot of BT phone lines going through it. The tree does not grow much into the neighbours side,since someone tapped some bricks into the roots of the tree on that side, probably to keep the tree from growing roots into the driveway there.

Any ideas what can be done to fix this issue. I for one would like the trees fully on my side or not have any at all. I do know that any boundary changes made 3 years ago will become permanent in another 9 years.

The neighbour is very cooperative and is happy to submit a form to the council(provided I write it up for him) - I am now trying to figure out should be done next.

Thanks,
G.

Davesnave

This is a legal not a gardening matter. I think you know that within a conservation area trees usually have automatic protection, so who's land they're on makes little or no difference to requests to top, trim or remove them. That will be considered on the merits of the case advanced. Bringing the trees into your sole ownership by the realignment of a fence might not bring any tangible benefit, assuming it could be achieved without dispute.

The boundary is a separate issue no one may comment on without sight of documentation. Generally speaking, exact positioning of a boundary isn't usually possible at the scale of title plans without some recognisable fixed points to work from, like the corners of buildings.

My in-laws are in a conservation area with similar sized conifers 100m from their house. The trees were mature when I first went there and only one has since been removed due to disease, so little has changed in 43years!

twopenny

You might get more response on the In Your Home forum where there are more people with knowledge of legal matters and boundaries. Though you already have one good answer.
You could copy and paste to there or ask for this one to be moved.