Pistol_Pete

Hi all,
One of my neighbours house backs onto the side of our house. At the bottom of his garden he has two massive conifers that must be 35-40ft tall and about 25 years old. One of these tree's is within 2.5 metres of our house and it is causing lighting issues to one of our bedrooms and I am also concerned about the possibility of the tree root damaging our house's foundations.

Ive never actually seen or spoken to this neighbour (there is also a 6ft high wooden fence between our properties ) but its now we need to see if we can come to some sort of agreement about the tree being removed.

My first question is do we have any legal rights to get him to cut back the tree, aside from what is overhanging our property ?

Do we have any rights on the light blocking issue ?

What if this tree were ever to come down after a storm or if it caused foundation damage/ subsidance to our property ? Would we have a claim against him ?

I will probably offer to pay for the work, so does anybody have any idea what sort of money a tree surgeon would want to remove a tree of this size ? I dont want to get one to qoute at the moment because 1) its not my tree 2) I need to get something worked out with my neighbour 3) I want a rough idea that I can afford this before I start wasting peoples time.

Thanks a lot for those that have bothered reading this far and I would appreciate any advice people could offer.

MOK79

I'll do it for ya. My mates house had exactly the same problem. So what we did was jumped over the fence and dug a hole to the roots hacked at the roots a bit and poured this substance all over the roots. After about a month the tree was Fu&ked and the neighbour got someone in to cut it down.

richardg

As far as light is concerned, there is a legal process (look on www.odpm.gov.uk for "rights of light") but no doubt you are aware that conversation and agreement between neighbours is probably the easiest way. I believe conifers (esp leylandii) are usually referred in law as hedges rather than trees.

You do have the right under civil law to remove anything crossing your boundary (above and below the ground), but not the extent that it will kill the tree. The Government are trying to pass a law dealing with the height of hedges at the moment, but I'm not sure how far that has progressed.

Your local Council web site will have some advice on these matters, so it is probably worth checking that or calling them to ask the questions - these are questions they regularly answer.

No idea what it might cost to get the tree removed, but it is worth talking to your neighbour without committing yourself to any cost in the first instance. You can use the offer of financial assistance a little later in the discussion as a lever if you find you're not getting anywhere.

There is also the issue of structural damage to bear in mind - conifers can draw a great deal of water from the ground; potentially to the extent that structural damage can be caused. Again, there is a legal process for this (and there is probably something on odpm.gov.uk), and a strucutral engineer's report would be required in order to progress via this route.

richardg

this way is much quicker though!

messiah

Creosote.

How builders get round tree preservation orders - remove a bit of topsoil around the base, drill into the tree, fill the hole with creosote and then recover it. Tree will die off and have to be felled.

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

nip over the fence one dark night and do it yourself

Belmondo

Thats the way to go. Don't even say anything about the tree to this chap or any neighbours, just kill the ******. If you follow correct procedures and this chap won't play ball it will be too late to go vigilante.

MOK79

Thats the one

richardg

<cough>



this works too but can take a while

MOK79

It took about a month for my mates neighbours tree to die. I'm sure it was creosote. Could always try petrol ????

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

look a bit suspicous his trees just bursting in to flames one night wont it?

PoRk ChOp

And a match

richardg

could be explained as a miracle?

richardg

probably was creosote but i didn't realise it was that efficient. my neighbour tried it a few years ago and then resorted to copper nails. all he acheived was a change in colour of the tree - looked much more black and much less greenery. he probably did the creosote thing wrong i expect

Brendan Hughes

As regards cost, try to see where the tree might fall if someone cut it. If it won't fall in any direction without damaging something, that makes it trickier, and probably more expensive.

If it's leylandii, don't bother trying to burn it, they're crap for bonfires. Wouldn't bother with a shredder either, unless you have a massive industrial one. Just take it to a dump with an organic section. I speak from MAJOR experience here!

Rough guide for your house - the roots will come out as far as the branches. If the branches don't overhang, the roots are unlikely to hit the foundations. However, it's true that they will suck masses of moisture out of the earth (can lead to subsidence?!), and of course foundations don't include sewers or pipes which might route that way.

If you're going to kill it against the neighbour's wishes, don't even talk to them first, these things don't Just Die so it'll be obvious. From experience, drilling a couple of small holes and injecting Roundup (glysophate) doesn't help them at all. OTOH, we ringed our leylandii of similar size with a chainsaw, and chipped off the bark and even outer wood from the 2" band with a chisel, and the ****** was still growing happily 4 yrs later.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

I would ask politely. We had an issue with a neighbour and he was know to be difficult. I went round and said it causing a light issue and he was more than apologetic.
I still had to pay for it to be done. But I felt this was worth it.

If he had said no, then he would have found the tree dead with a couple of months

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

My Mum got her neighbour to remove a conifer hedge based on the moisture being sucked from the soil... there is a legal minimum distance that you are allowed to have conifers planted near a house, and clearly this is WAY too close.

Speak to the Local Council and get them to check it, then politely speak to your neighbour and get him to remove it.

geeva

i seem to recall copper nails (not sure where you get these) will kill a tree.

they have to be nailed into it though, you cannot just wave them at the tree and hope it will die

Scooby-Doo

Depends who the neighbour is to if you want to try this method. If I was the neighbour I would have jumped over the fence and burned your ******* house down.

OllyK

creasote is now illegal I believe, there were a whole load of chemicals, often found in garden sheds, that were banned about 12 months back.

Copper nails - cool, but bit of a give away!

You can "ring" the tree as well, cut off a 1 inch strip of bark all the way round the tree, but that's kinda obvious too.

Talk to the neighbour first, you may well find they have had enough of them too, but can't be bothered to do anything about it

RB5320

obviously your best bet is to sort things amicably with your neighbour. The High Hedge Law was passed by parliament a few months ago, but has not yet been implemented, so will not help you yet. In any case, the powers that councils were going to be given have been reduced, so dont hold out too much hope here. You cannot remove any of the tree, apart from the bits overhanging your property. You also need to make sure that in removing branches from the tree, you are not making it unstable, although this should not be much of an issue with a conifer.
Your main concern should be damage to foundations, particularly if the soil is clay. If there is likely to be damage, the best thing to do (assuming no joy with the neighbours) is to speak to your insurance company, who will then write to the owners of the tree. The insurers have a lot more clout than you do. There have recently been court cases which have ruled that the owners of a tree are responsible for any damage its roots may cause. If you happen to slip this bit of information into your conversation with the neighbours, you may find they are quite happy to employ a tree surgeon to remove the tree!

Steve

Brendan Hughes

OllyK - as I said above, I don't think ringing it will work.

Copper nails are reputed to be a myth. I can guarantee glysophate will work.

Another argument in your favour is if you don't cut them now, they will be bigger, heavier, and far more dangerous to cut in 5-10 yrs time when someone realises that they DO have to come down!

Pete, can you post up a photo of the trees?

EvilKyote

what you could do is wait for the next thunderstorm, spray the tree with **** loads of petrol and set light to it (connect with the pyromaniac within yourself ) and simply say 'oh it musta been struck by lightning'

but seriously if you want to do that try this:

Injection Treatments: Use specialized tree injection equipment to administer a specific amount of herbicide into the tree when the cut is made. Treatments are effective when injections are made every 2 to 6 inches around the tree. For best results, treat trees 1.5 inches or more diameter at chest height.

Brendan Hughes

"Use specialized tree injection equipment "

WTF are they kidding? Drill holes with cordless, get cheap syringe, fill with Roundup. Repeat a few times. And fleece customer for £300...

IWatkins

Qualified tree surgeon round our way came and took down a 40foot conifer for £60. That included chopping it up and taking it away. Also cleaned up the driveway when finished. Oh and his helper was his wife, who turned out to be a Swedish stunner and fairly handy with a chainsaw.

Cheers

Ian

unclebuck

This should tell you everything you need to know:

http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/

Holy Ghost

god this is a nightmare situation that has ££££ & stress stamped all over it. i'm with messiah - jeyes fluid. don't forget, tap the hole with a manual hand-drill for stealth & wear a balaclava. clear away all wood shavings. replace all surface mulch. one tree per year.

Pistol_Pete

First off, big thanks to everyone who has replied. Here is photo, its the only angle I could get the trees height into. Its looking from the from of the house to the back. The end of the house wall is 2m - 2.5 m away from the tree although the picture probably does not convey this.
Excuse the mess in the picture, we are midway through having a garage built. In fact its was the buildings reg guy that commented on the tree and our house, but said it would not effect the garage.



I got the feeling that I should be going down the sneaky / stealth route on this problem - but thats not really me. I'd hate the though of somebody doing that to me and if it was the other way round I'd like to think I would be reasonable about it. So I think the tree poisoning is a no no.

The part of the house that is closest to the tree is an extension built in the 60's or 70's and at the edge comes within one metre of the boundary with another house. (I doubt you would allowed to build so close today)
I am not sure which was first, the extension building or the tree planting, although I think there probably wasnt much in it.

Any more thoughts or advice most welcomed, anybody like to hazard a guess at cost of removal ?

Cheers

Pete

ProperCharlie

I would have thought around £400 to £600, and seeing as I do/did this for a living, it's a fairly accurate guess. obviously if there is a swimming pool or something right under the tree that i can't see from the photo, that will increase the price.

Btw anyone who takes trees down for £60 definitely aint paying the same public liability premiums that I am. Unfortunately, when the tree is in the middle of your kitchen, it's too late to ask that question.

StickyMicky

we need pics if you do this, in the same kind of way that the wasps thread was done