Friends have 3 Cyprus pines in the corner of their garden. The neighboring house has been bought by a developer who initially asked if he could cut the trees down. The answer was no so he went away, he then changed his plans a built ne extension that appears to have damaged the roots and subsequently the tree.

Brown patches have appeared on the tree but still a lot of green remains. What are the chances of tree surviving? Tree was damaged 6 months ago.

I think it will be ok, over to you lot.

has he damaged it or is he poisoning it?

Think he has damaged it.

Are the roots on his side of his property (neighbors side)?

If so I thought the Liability works the other way, your friend could be responsible to damaged to his property caused by the roots of your tree?

Basically the leaves/foilage and the roots are intrinsically linked and damage to one generally leads to an equivalent loss in the other

the amount of crown die back will indicate how much damage has been done

Will it recover – depends on the extent of damage and the ability to put out new roots

Not an expert but pictures and an expert opinion are required

Brown patches are likely to remain for a long time if not permanent, although to be honest I doubt the developer did it on purpose, and cypress are horrible anyway so why not cut them down and grow ivy up the neighbours extension instead? 🙂

Check garden law – they know as much about this sort of stuff as we do about bikes. Oh hang on…

It’s impossible to tell as some trees are more susceptible to root damage than others. I lost a much loved tree on my boundary when the neighbour dug it the drive out but the tree next to it survived with no issues.

No idea where you stand with the law on this one, but I do know about trees and that on the whole they don’t fair well having roots dug up, ground compacted or being surfaced over.
Conifers tend not to handle sudden change or regenerate so well, so probably the start of a slow down and decline for them.

They should be OK with a bit of root damage and regrowth should eventually cover the brown patches. If all trees keep dying off I would think they are poisoned. Horrible trees to maintain but do offer great cover, privacy.