Neighbour's Tree

Forever31

My neighbour has a water birch tree at the end of their garden close to the border with my own garden.   My neighbour and myself live in joined 3 floored semi townhouses that are about 20 years old.

The birch tree in their garden is now very tall without a substantial trunk, and it rocks in the wind.  When it's really windy, it even bounces, and looks like it's close to coming down towards the people living on the other side of my neighbours, or onto my neighbours house and partly my own,

I'm not very good at guessing in feet, but my neighbour and myself live in 3 floored town houses, and it looks like it's about 1.5-1.75 times the height of our houses.

The tree's distance from our houses is probably not quite the distance of a 3 floored house.

I am concerned about it falling down particularly, plus the roots affecting the foundations of our houses.

I am aware that I can talk to my neighbours about it, but I suspect they wont have the funds to deal with it.  They do try to keep noise down for me as a family as I live on my own and the walls are thin.   So I'm not keen on talking to them about it.

Should I be worried about this tree?  Will insurance cover any damages if the tree does come down, or if there is any damage to the foundations of our properties?  Is there a risk of a water birch tree causing foundation issues if our houses are approx 20 years old, and I haven't noticed any clay in the garden (although I'm not one to do much gardening apart from mowing my lawn).

Irishpearce26

Birch trees have narrow trunks and do sway but generally are safe. However their roots can be disruptive, had one on my boundary which wreck my patio. Raise it with your neighbours with the buyin from the other neighbours.

Be prepared to pay for a survey to see if the roots are infiltrating your property that way you can then ask them to sort out. FYI, unless birch tree stumps are grinded they will grow back.

AdrianC

We've got a silver birch that, in high winds, is positively hilarious in the amount of movement. It's what they do.

I presume you gave your buildings insurers accurate information about nearby trees when you took the policy out? So in the massively unlikely event it does fall and cause damage, then you're covered.

I presume the tree was there when you moved in...

Forever31

AdrianC said:

We've got a silver birch that, in high winds, is positively hilarious in the amount of movement. It's what they do.

I presume you gave your buildings insurers accurate information about nearby trees when you took the policy out? So in the massively unlikely event it does fall and cause damage, then you're covered.

I presume the tree was there when you moved in...

I don't recall being asked about any trees when I took out my insurance.  I am going to need to check my insurance to see what it says.

The tree was in the garden when I moved in approx 3 years ago.  I didn't honestly give it a second thought at the time,  It wasn't until there were strong winds later in the year that it dawned on me that the tree could fall down.  This tree is still growing rapidly. 

If I move again, I am definitely going to be taking more of a look at any trees around the property.

However, from what people are saying, it looks like the main concern should be with the damage that the water birch tree roots may cause, and that my neighbours are responsible for paying to get anything fixed in this scenario?

teachfast

Never been asked about trees when taking out house insurance. 

Loza2016

We had a large oak tree near our old house. 

Insurance usually asked do you have a tree within 6 metres of the property and is it over 10 metres tall. Also had to confirm it was maintained. 

I had different company’s insure the property over the 11 years we were there and all asked about trees. 

comeandgo

We changed house insurer two years ago and this insurer is the first we’ve had that asked about trees within 5m of our property and as we live at the edge of a wood we have lots of trees.

teachfast

The point is that they don't all ask, probably not the majority. Therefore checking the OP declared trees is futile.

GDB2222

Forever31 said:

I am aware that I can talk to my neighbours about it, but I suspect they wont have the funds to deal with it.  They do try to keep noise down for me as a family as I live on my own and the walls are thin.   So I'm not keen on talking to them about it.
.

Of course, if you think there is a real risk of damage to your home, there's nothing to stop you paying for whatever tree work is required. Perhaps, splitting it several ways with the other neighbours. 

robatwork

Odd that several people weren't asked about trees as every quote I've had in the last 10 years has asked. I wonder if it's just not been remembered?

For example all of the aggregation sites like confused.com always ask about tree proximity for buildings insurance. Here's moneysupermarket.com for example:

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