Neighbours nuisance trees???

_Sam_

Norman_Castle said:

Are other neighbours bothered by these trees?

I wonder that too. We had a huge sycamore in the old house, well it was on the neighbours' land but really close to our boundary. It was enormous and if something happened and it fell it would have flattened both ours and the neighbours' houses!

But that was my only concern really. Yes there was a lot of leaves to clear up, but there was also a good shade during the scorching summer days. Our garden was narrow and long and East facing, and as the sun travelled throughout the day there was always a sunny area in the garden and a shady area and we loved it, we could use the garden all summer long no matter how hot it was.

So in the end we loved the tree and would have been sad to see it go.

GDB2222

flamespittingcobra said:

I am certainly not someone who is keen to cut down trees for no reason, I'm going to offer to replant the area with something far more suitable and attractive, at my expense, if we can get somewhere with these trees. I can't for one second believe that anyone around us is thinking it's a wonderful tree, it's a lapsed pollard, so has been cut way back in the past, but it hasn't been maintained, and it's shot up.

I'm just trying to work out if these issues we're having qualify as "statutory nuisance"? The definition of "unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use and enjoymant of a home" seems hard to come by, I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this?

It seems a bit far fetched to allege a statutory nuisance. The trees are still entirely on council land, not even overhanging your boundary.

Leaves and seeds - well, that's what trees do, and you need to make your home compatible. You can add a 'hedgehog' to the gutter, to stop the leaves getting in, for example. Many trees are on/near boundaries, and of course the leaves get blown around. 

You can hire a solicitor to act for you, and a full scale legal action will probably cost six figures. I can't see insurers going down that route, when they can simply withdraw cover at renewal, at no cost.  Or, they can take the view that the next door trees don't affect any insured risks. Damage to your roof is unlikely to be covered.

Norman_Castle

_Sam_ said:

Norman_Castle said:

Are other neighbours bothered by these trees?

I wonder that too. We had a huge sycamore in the old house, well it was on the neighbours' land but really close to our boundary. It was enormous and if something happened and it fell it would have flattened both ours and the neighbours' houses!

But that was my only concern really. Yes there was a lot of leaves to clear up, but there was also a good shade during the scorching summer days.

We've got six in the back garden plus one in the front garden and another growing rapidly in the neighbours garden but close to our boundary. There's nothing but shade in the garden during the summer. Half of the grass is dead directly under the trees. There's more light in my flat now than during the summer. I like trees but they need to be appropriate to their location.

subjecttocontract

We had a similar situation with a single willow tree on council land. In our case the roots were causing damage to the patio. We contacted the council, who accepted liability, sent us a claim form and asked us to provide 3 quotes for the work required. The bill was around £3k, no action was taken on the tree. About 3 years later the same problem reoccured, I contacted the council, they accepted liability and we followed the same process as before. This time the bill was £3.5k. I asked wether they were happy for me to submit a £3k - £4k bill to them every few years when spending the same money to remove the tree made better financial sense. They removed the tree.

A neighbour has a similar problem but the tree is in a private garden and he is getting nowhere. The fact that the tree is on council land may well turn out to be to your advantage......councils have deeper pockets than owner occupiers.

Good luck.

flamespittingcobra

The other neighbours hate the trees, it's a block of flats next door, and i know that 3 of the 4 residents have complained about it to their management company, though i doubt the company have taken it any further. They were charged £475, per flat, for gutter cleaning last year.

I'd love to make everything seed proof, but this just isn't practically realistic. They get absolutely everywhere under the eaves, they block the gutters, in the engine bays of the cars, stuck in between tiles, then one germinates and cracks the tile. If it really was a simple case of getting hedgehogs in the gutters i'd have done it a long time ago.

The tree is a lapsed pollard, it was obviously cut back to about 2m high years ago, this was obviously done for a reason, but it's just not been maintained. The only reason i ask about stautory nuisance, isn't because i have any intention of going legal with the whole thing, but because it's the only reason the council would do anything about it.

subjecttocontract

You might struggle to get the council on board as there is no structural damage currently attributed to the trees. Most councils are short of money, have a very small dept' that deal with trees and there are probably many other higher priority jobs being tackled. I've found that contacting my local councillor(s) can be beneficial as they can apply pressure on the relevant people.

flamespittingcobra

UPDATE:

I contacted the local councils property services department just before christmas, they were very understanding of the issues these trees were causing myself and my neighbours. There has been a month long internal process for them to go through, starting with are the trees their responsibility or the childrens centre? does it have a preservation order? Is it in a conservation zone? What does the council tree report on it say? when was the tree report written? Are my concerns justified etc?

Their conclusions were that the trees are a nuisance, and they are causing damage to the surrounding houses. They have agreed to pollard the trees down and reduce the height by 60% from the current height, and maintain them at this height via annual maintenance. I had offered to replant the site with more appropriate trees, at my own expense, if they were to be removed entirely, but the council policy is to only remove dead/dying trees, so this was a non starter.....all in all it seems a very common sense outcome.

diystarter7

flamespittingcobra said:

UPDATE:

I contacted the local councils property services department just before christmas, they were very understanding of the issues these trees were causing myself and my neighbours. There has been a month long internal process for them to go through, starting with are the trees their responsibility or the childrens centre? does it have a preservation order? Is it in a conservation zone? What does the council tree report on it say? when was the tree report written? Are my concerns justified etc?

Their conclusions were that the trees are a nuisance, and they are causing damage to the surrounding houses. They have agreed to pollard the trees down and reduce the height by 60% from the current height, and maintain them at this height via annual maintenance. I had offered to replant the site with more appropriate trees, at my own expense, if they were to be removed entirely, but the council policy is to only remove dead/dying trees, so this was a non starter.....all in all it seems a very common sense outcome.

Hi OP
I'm glad its worked out like this.
So many people tick of the council but
I found them very fair if you spoke to the right people
I love trees but recognised your plight as I read down the posts.
The solution is a good one and you get to keep the trees.
As you knew they were already there and the implications of
this and accepted the fact, credit to you
Credit to you for making the offer as you did.
Well done, I'm pleased for you.

About 10 feet from the outside front boundary of our house there is a tree on the pavement that was blocking most of the light from the street lamp. When talking about this to a nigbour about 2 years ago, next door had nothing good to say about the coucil
as we were in an areas where there only private properties. I emailed the council. They said they'd look into it and within two weeks trimmed the tree back.

Well doen

Good luck

sevenhills

Norman_Castle 

We've got six in the back garden plus one in the front garden and another growing rapidly in the neighbours garden but close to our boundary. There's nothing but shade in the garden during the summer. Half of the grass is dead directly under the trees. There's more light in my flat now than during the summer. I like trees but they need to be appropriate to their location.

People seem unable to plan for the future and cut trees down when they are saplings.
I prefer to plant trees than cut them down. I have just bought two dwarf apple trees for my front garden 

Apodemus

flamespittingcobra said:

UPDATE:

They have agreed to pollard the trees down and reduce the height by 60% from the current height, and maintain them at this height via annual maintenance. 

Thanks for the update.   Pollarding rarely works like that and certainly won't with Sycamores.   Also it would be a rare Council that would take on (or achieve) a new annual maintenance burden of this sort, which essentially changes a low-maintenance area into a high-maintenance one.  I'm sure they'll achieve the 60% reduction in height, but I'd be really surprised if they maintain the trees annually at that height.

In your shoes, I'd have a quiet chat with the guys that come to pollard the trees and see if they can't accidentally take things a bit further!