Neighbours trees

ambjay

Hi everyone. Neighbour has huge trees overhanging into my garden- one of which I'm sure is a Leylandii tree.
Apart from blocking all the light as well big branches are now falling into the garden.
They trimmed their side so now the trees are bending over to my side. I've asked them to cut them but they said no as they want privacy from flats behind us.
I have spoken to the council who said they can't do anything as both are private land.
Anybody have any ideas who I could speak to? 

Reginald74

Chop em off if they are over your land.

Tiglet2

Can’t you trim the overhanging branches yourself? Then give them back to neighbour. 

Grumpelstiltskin

You have the right to cut back to your boundary any and all branches that are overhanging your garden.

You should return any cut branches to your neighbour as they are their property.

No one will advise you any different.

AdrianC

Grumpelstiltskin said:

No one will advise you any different.

They very likely will... but they'd be wrong.

The one problem with leylandii (OK, the other problem - apart from their sheer existence in the first place) is that if you trim them back past the greenery into the "innards", they do not regrow that greenery.
If you scalp them, they stay scalped.
If you want to control them, you have to do so early and constantly.

What height are these things now?

Bendy_House

Photo, ambjay?

It is perfectly understandable that the owner might want screening from other properties, but that usually has to be balanced between what is actually required - I mean, how tall are these flats?!

What height do you reckon they 'need' to be to afford the screening they want?

Grumpelstiltskin

AdrianC said:

Grumpelstiltskin said:

No one will advise you any different.

They very likely will... but they'd be wrong.

The one problem with leylandii (OK, the other problem - apart from their sheer existence in the first place) is that if you trim them back past the greenery into the "innards", they do not regrow that greenery.
If you scalp them, they stay scalped.
If you want to control them, you have to do so early and constantly.

What height are these things now?

My thoughts would be that seeing as the trees are not mine I would not be interested in whether they were pruned correctly and if I had to pay someone to do the work I would get the cheapest Bodge It And Scarper I could find to do the work.
If the neighbour wasn't happy then they should have done something about it themselves.

AdrianC

Grumpelstiltskin said:

AdrianC said:

Grumpelstiltskin said:

No one will advise you any different.

They very likely will... but they'd be wrong.

The one problem with leylandii (OK, the other problem - apart from their sheer existence in the first place) is that if you trim them back past the greenery into the "innards", they do not regrow that greenery.
If you scalp them, they stay scalped.
If you want to control them, you have to do so early and constantly.

What height are these things now?

My thoughts would be that seeing as the trees are not mine I would not be interested in whether they were pruned correctly and if I had to pay someone to do the work I would get the cheapest Bodge It And Scarper I could find to do the work.
If the neighbour wasn't happy then they should have done something about it themselves.

Except for the minor detail that the side you're trimming is the side you're looking at.

Faodail

I had a neighbour... (haven’t we all at some point 😅) who refused to look after their own trees. 

They were bought and at the time we were HA. We used to trim them back to the boundary and put them in a pile, neatly over the fence. Everyyyyyyyyy single time they would report us to HA saying that WE were fly tipping on their property?! Every time we replied with “ Report it to the police then!” 

As we had already spoken to the police and had it on file, the advice given to us, was, that it is their property, you have to offer it back, if you are not on speaking terms, still offer it back  as they could say that we have stolen their tree branches... and that’s exactly what they would do. 

And let’s not forget, they are after all the neighbours property, should you take their general rubbish in your bin also?? No, let them dispose of it!! 

eddddy

As others say, you can trim the branches that protrude over your boundary - a bit like this:




But if it's a Leylandii, you'll probably be left with your side of the tree looking a bit like this (this is the same tree as above, from a different angle)   :

doodling

Hi,

Grumpelstiltskin said:

You have the right to cut back to your boundary any and all branches that are overhanging your garden.

You should return any cut branches to your neighbour as they are their property.

No one will advise you any different.

I will advise different.

You are entitled to cut up to the boundary.
You must offer the cuttings back to your neighbour.
If the neighbour doesn't want the cuttings then you must of dispose of them yourself.

Just dumping the cuttings on your neighbours land without permission would be covered by the laws relating to littering and fly tipping.