Advice regarding tree on a shared boundary

Section62

GDB2222 said:

Durace11Bunny said:

Slight update, for anyone still reading

I spoke with our neighbour (who also has problems with this persons overgrown vegetation). Like us, they tried to ask about getting things trimmed and were ignored. They also mentioned our old house owner had tried the same in the past & got nowhere

So it seems like several sets of people have previously tried, but to no avail.

We'll continue down trying to ask, but it appears like it might end up needing intervention from another party (eg: council or mediator) if all else fails

The council have some power to help, eg with high h3dges. I’m not sure how much they can do about single trees. There must be lots of cases where one neighbour likes a tree and the other doesn’t. I’m not sure why the council would want to be involved?

One (costly) route is to claim damages if the neighbour's tree is damaging your property. However, it’s not clear whether that is the case.

You may just have to put up with it. 

They can't use the high hedge legislation because the definition for that is "two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs..."

A council is only likely to step in where the tree is large enough and is diseased/damaged that it poses an immediate danger to people (and possibly buildings), or impacts on the highway and highway users.  Generally councils see trees as having an amenity/environmental value - if the only problem is with overgrowing a boundary they are probably likely to point out it is a civil matter between the neighbours and otherwise keep well out of it.

FreeBear

Cherry trees have a typical life span of 30-60 years. To get an idea of how old your problem tree is, take a look at the Tree Age Calculator to get a very rough indication.

Cherry is susceptible to die-back and other infections if not pruned at the right time of year (spring & summer). Pruning when the tree is not recommended. Most cherries will be coming out of dormancy about this time of year, so you may want to wait before getting the chainsaw out.