My neighbour doesn't want me to remove diseased trees on my land

35har1old

avantra said:

Hello, good people of MSE,

I have a neighbourly bothersome, the first I ever had, so I need some advice.

Between my drive and my newish neighbour's next-door drive, there is a concrete bed about two meters wide where the previous owner of my house planted decades ago four Lawson Cypress trees.

The trees are on my side of the bed, and the boundary between the drives is about 30cm away from the tree trunks (see the picture below showing the clear space between the plots boundary and the end of the tree trunks).
I now have two reasons I want to take these down, but my neighbour is being very aggressive about it and say that he will not let me do this. Saying the trees are on the boundary and on his side as well.
We explained to the neighbour why we needed the trees to go and offered to plant something else instead.

The neighbour didn't want to hear a word from us; he shouted at us, didn't let put a word in and called us a dysfunctional family, he looked unhinged and threatened he would not let the tree surgeon do the did so a fairly unpleasant chap.

We tried to reason with him, but he had none of it.
As he continued with his tantrum we showed a lot of patience with this abuse but eventually had to close the door and say the trees are on our side of the drive, and as it's our property, we were allowed to remove the trees.

The reason for removing the trees is down to slow dieback due to some fungus (so the tree surgeon told us), and because we are extending the house and building control want these out of the way due to problems with roots sucking the clay soil dry.

We have full planning permission for the extension, although the planners didn't say anything about the trees.
There is no preservation order for the trees, and we are not in a conservation area, and nothing in our deeds mentions any trees.

We have lived in our street for twenty years and in good relationship with everyone, but since the neighbour moved in two years ago, he has managed to have quarrels with a good chunk of the population in the street.

My question is, what can the neighbour do? Call the trees police?
What if he tries to stop the tree surgeon? Can we call the real police?

Why involve a tree surgeon these trees are made up of branches which are easily cut with the tools below

 Taking a rough guess at the height being around 3.5M I would tackle them myself

ThisIsWeird

35har1old said:

avantra said:

Hello, good people of MSE,

I have a neighbourly bothersome, the first I ever had, so I need some advice.

Between my drive and my newish neighbour's next-door drive, there is a concrete bed about two meters wide where the previous owner of my house planted decades ago four Lawson Cypress trees.

The trees are on my side of the bed, and the boundary between the drives is about 30cm away from the tree trunks (see the picture below showing the clear space between the plots boundary and the end of the tree trunks).
I now have two reasons I want to take these down, but my neighbour is being very aggressive about it and say that he will not let me do this. Saying the trees are on the boundary and on his side as well.
We explained to the neighbour why we needed the trees to go and offered to plant something else instead.

The neighbour didn't want to hear a word from us; he shouted at us, didn't let put a word in and called us a dysfunctional family, he looked unhinged and threatened he would not let the tree surgeon do the did so a fairly unpleasant chap.

We tried to reason with him, but he had none of it.
As he continued with his tantrum we showed a lot of patience with this abuse but eventually had to close the door and say the trees are on our side of the drive, and as it's our property, we were allowed to remove the trees.

The reason for removing the trees is down to slow dieback due to some fungus (so the tree surgeon told us), and because we are extending the house and building control want these out of the way due to problems with roots sucking the clay soil dry.

We have full planning permission for the extension, although the planners didn't say anything about the trees.
There is no preservation order for the trees, and we are not in a conservation area, and nothing in our deeds mentions any trees.

We have lived in our street for twenty years and in good relationship with everyone, but since the neighbour moved in two years ago, he has managed to have quarrels with a good chunk of the population in the street.

My question is, what can the neighbour do? Call the trees police?
What if he tries to stop the tree surgeon? Can we call the real police?

Why involve a tree surgeon these trees are made up of branches which are easily cut with the tools below

 Taking a rough guess at the height being around 3.5M I would tackle them myself

It'll be a surprising quantity of surprisingly heavy timber - it could catch you by surprise. No idea how I know that :-(

I don't blame the OP at all for having a pro in to do this, especially in the awkward circumstances.

Avantra, I take it it's hard to communicate with this neighbour now? So there's no chance of a calm, rational discussion over the boundary location? Ie, asking them to prove their claimed boundary location?

The comments they made on your planning application are useful, but I understand are ultimately largely irrelevant to them; you can take down these trees regardless, and you don't have to replace them with anything you don't want to.

CCTV to cover the work area, and/or phones set to record. If they interfere, see if the 'surgeon will phone the local Bobby instead of you - that will likely make it seem a more impartial move, and the attending officer less likely to be anticipating  yet another 'neighbourly dispute'. (But, if the TS insists you do it, then fine.)

mi-key

Anyone who tries to assault a man holding a chainsaw is definitely going to come off worst...

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

35har1old said:

Why involve a tree surgeon these trees are made up of branches which are easily cut with the tools below

 Taking a rough guess at the height being around 3.5M I would tackle them myself

It'll be a surprising quantity of surprisingly heavy timber - it could catch you by surprise. No idea how I know that :-(

I don't blame the OP at all for having a pro in to do this, especially in the awkward circumstances.

This^

Removing trees is riskier than most people would probably imagine, and with a risk* of the trees falling onto the neighbour's property and causing damage it would be better to use a professional, after ensuring they have up-to-date insurance cover for third parties and public liability. 35har1old may feel competent to do the job themselves, but due to the risks involved I think it is unwise for 35har1old to encourage other people to do DIY tree felling/dismantling.

(*a risk exacerbated if the trees are diseased with something which affects the strength of the trunk and branches)

In addition, none of the tools 35har1old suggests would assist with disposing of a large quantity of green matter and wood.  Although the wood can often be freecycled away, the green stuff is harder to get rid of.  So the other advantage of getting a professional to do the job is having them shred the trees and taking the waste away.

(Edit:Formatting)

TELLIT01

Getting somebody in to do the work makes a lot of sense.  Not only are they likely to know what they are doing, they will have either a lorry/trailer to take stuff away in or a chipper.  Make sure they completely remove the stumps as you won't be able to get anything into the ground otherwise.

theoretica

This neighbour doesn't happen to conveniently go out to work on a known schedule does he?  So you could arrange for the tree surgeon to come when they will be able to work in peace?  Best do it soon, so you can be confident there are no birds nests.

ThisIsWeird

theoretica said:

This neighbour doesn't happen to conveniently go out to work on a known schedule does he?  So you could arrange for the tree surgeon to come when they will be able to work in peace?  Best do it soon, so you can be confident there are no birds nests.

Good point. What are the chances this entitled, selfish neighb suddenly becomes a 'bird-lover'?

Ectophile

ThisIsWeird said:

It'll be a surprising quantity of surprisingly heavy timber - it could catch you by surprise. No idea how I know that :-(

From pas experience of removing conifers, you'll get very little heavy timber and vast quantities of leafy bits to get rid of.

Slinky

Can't think why the neighbour is so attached to these trees, they must be blocking light out of their windows

GDB2222

ThisIsWeird said:

theoretica said:

This neighbour doesn't happen to conveniently go out to work on a known schedule does he?  So you could arrange for the tree surgeon to come when they will be able to work in peace?  Best do it soon, so you can be confident there are no birds nests.

Good point. What are the chances this entitled, selfish neighb suddenly becomes a 'bird-lover'?

Surely, the point is to get on with the job,  so that the birds simply find somewhere else. Isn’t it a criminal act to disturb nesting birds?