I want STW’s best and worst on this one please.

Lived in our house for 8 odd years and we have quite literally lived in the shadow our neighbour’s 6 huge and I mean MASSIVE conifers that run along the right hand border of our back garden… I’m in no doubt that I have cause for complaint under “ASBO massive hedge act etc etc” (the back of our house is in shadow from about 1pm onwards due to them, so they defo effect our light)… the closet of them is also the largest and it towers above our house due to the fact that not only is it MASSIVE… Have a said before how Blooming Large these things are?… but also because the garden slopes up hill from the back of the house, so the bottom of the tree is about 10m away from the back door and is already 2 meters higher than the patio… so god knows how high the top is?

Now they were there when we moved in so basically have put up with them(although I was under the impression from the vendor at the time that they where coming down) and I’ve cut my side back(some of their widths had grown over half way across my garden !!… the garden is thin and long 12m x 90m) at my expense once 5 ago…

There is an old dear next door who we get on with and who is “emotionally attached” to them and doesn’t want them down…. (didnt stop her cutting other trees in her garden last year without offering to do anything on our side)… when ever we bring up the subject she clams up

Now they need cutting back again our side or in an ideal world down

So STW over to you

Copper nails.

http://www.clareh3.webspace.virginmedia.com/

Email in profile

Accidently dump some diesel or a large amount of salt on their roots….

http://www.ravenousbeavers4you.com

(although, if you like Jujuuk68’s suggestion, I can send you a handful of copper nails, spare from resulting a roof)

Invite your neighbour to see them from your side of the garden. she may not realise what effect they have on your lives.

By the sounds of it, however she probably does, and the excuse of “emotional attachment” is probably to avoid having to deal with it. Tell her that you’re coming round in a couple of days specifically to discuss the trees, which gives her a few days to get ready for it. Open with “I want them out” be prepared to compromise down to a point where you are both in agreement

have a look at local council website re fence etc heights and see if you can find anything to use as backup to above discussion

There’s a legal limit on height of boundary conifers now. I’d talk to a planning officer.

free pdf

Hope this helps

hmm this is interesting, our nearest neighbours have a 60ft conifer overshadowing our garden, it has ruined my shed roof by dropping all its crap on the roof and causing it to collapse.
So can I ask them to cut the ruddy thing down?

Copper nails won’t be killing them in a hurry, nor the diesel/salt unless you are talking about serious pollution quantities.

If she won’t have them topped, council and right to light may be the route to follow, shorter when you moved, lack of maintenance.

And you do have a woodburner don’t you?

gardenlaw is worth a look.

hmm this is interesting, our nearest neighbours have a 60ft conifer overshadowing our garden, it has ruined my shed roof by dropping all its crap on the roof and causing it to collapse.

Blaming someone else’s trees for your lack of maintenance?

I’m in no doubt that I have cause for complaint under “ASBO massive hedge act etc”

You do indeed, Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. So what’s the problem? The trees are clearly excessive and within the scope of the Act, so why not just use it?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/9411/highhedgescomplaining.pdf

Like naughty children everyones trees or children are like the holy graial to their owners.

and their owners will have nothing said or done about them.

They burn quite well, tres that is.

Your neighbour obviously has a deep rooted problem as you do to…perhaps you should branch out and offer to pay half you don’t want to come across as a sap

Greybeard…. I don’t know?

Guess I’m a soft touch (can’t help thinking what if the old girl was my Nan… although I’d probably be talking my nan around for her poor neighbours if it was the other way around)

I thought the “they where there before you moved in” was quite a good point… guess STW doesn’t seem to think so?

That’s good enough for me ….. guess it’s time to be a bit selfish (unlike me)

Think I’m going to unleash the wife…. she’s been chomping at the bit every summer.

Oh …. and wood happyily pay half if those trees Furked off

What sort of conifers? I’m basically going to make my conclusion here based on whether or not they’re nice trees, or something crap like leylandii or arborvitae or something. Got to have a pretty good reason to cut down a proper tree in my book.

May I suggest you see if you can borrow one of these for half an hour?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn8MZc15vcY[/video]

Oh there are crap … like Leyandii but the foliage/fur starts a couple of feet above the top of the fence !!

You do , (maybe you feel that you don’t) have to balance moral and legal considerations here. Haven’t a clue about the laws and don’t intend to look but I can bet they will be half arse and will make me angry. Morally though, if she isn’t feeling cooperative then you should drop it. They were there first and you new it.
Blame your vender maybe ?

Yes, they were there when you moved in but I expect they are now significantly bigger. And you we given to believe that they were coming down, even if that was the owner who said it. They may well be a danger to your house (blowing over, roots dry the soil out and affect the foundations, etc). A compromise could be to have the tops cut off them?

Or you could tell your neighbour that they really have to go, as they are dangerous at that size, but you’ll help find something else to replace them?

Not necessarily much help, but legally, you can cut off anything that overlaps your land (including roots) without permission, but you have to give the offcuts back.

Slightly disappointed expecting a massive dispute but the dispute is about massive trees. I guess that could change depending on the outcome of discussions.

Take them right back to the boundary line on your side – take the cuttings round and leave her emotional attachments on her front lawn ?

Blaming someone else’s trees for your lack of maintenance

yup.

Go the legal route before doing something illegal.

Copper nails.

myth.

The only way you are killing a tree with copper nails is to get about 3kg of them.

Then melt them down and make yourself an Axe.

If it’s THAT BAD then, seriously, she must leave the hose at some point, just flipping chainsaw the things down. What’s the worst that can happen? Police caution? Once there’re gone, there’re gone……

She lives in a hose?

[video]http://youtu.be/QC8jnSaCqxY?t=1m4s[/video]

Any excuse for this ff to 1.04

Cut down everything that is over/on your land and pass it back over. If the trees are that large then I’d be worried about strong winds and one falling on your house.

OP

Time for some new pets

nah, if you want the job done right you need to enlist a Beaver!

60ft and NONE of the roots are trespassing on your land?

Cut the roots and hand her them back, as they are trespassing on your property.

nah, if you want the job done right you need to enlist a Beaver!

Good call Andyl ,we have a bit of a population explosion of the wee chancers up here.
Maybe I could go trap some and send them down to the OP.
Not sure if the OH would let me go out looking for beaver,and I don’t think she would share the cost of the fuel used. 🙂

😀

The dustbin lids have been restless since about 3 I’ve been thinking about bloody trees since then…. now it’s 6:30 my body clock is in the wide awake club.

The last few post have brightened my mood… ta guys

Thing is guess it’s not really much different from loud music, or other from of anti social behaviour…. it not just us these trees effect, neighbours on our other side (remember the garden is quite narrow and we are a semi with the other side) are effected by them, the couple across the road at the front have moaned and the old fella at the back… in fact, he gave me the impression that an old shed of his “accidentally” caught fire, years before we moved in, taking out a couple them that where closest to him.

Mattsccm… yes I have considered the moral side, knowing full well the the ASBO act is in our favour (for what it is worth) that’s why I haven’t pursued it further before … but I’m starting to realise that she has to have a social and moral obligation also.

A largish branch came down the other week in the storms taking out a fence panel and landing in our garden… what would happen if next time one of them falls and lands on one of my kids faces while they were holding a baby Robin ??… Let alone a whole tree coming down?.

Oh and BTW I cleaned up the mess, no worries… and this is why this has come about again now really. I was talking to her son yesterday before I posted. Saying I’ll help him replace the fence and save her a few bob and I mentioned the trees to him saying while a few fence panels are out I may as well get someone around to cut back our side and if it’s ok can I take the cuttings (somehow “cuttings” doesn’t portray how much there will be) out around the side of her house please as we don’t have side access. It was at this point I mentioned how much the wife hates the trees in general and he reminded me of her his mum’s emotional attachment, how his dad had planted them and we had moved in knowing they where there….. at which point he made his excuses and left

Having just written all that out I can see what a soft touch I really have been….. now where’s that thread about feeling you’ve been had/ taken for a ride/conned/fobbed off.

battery drill, and synringes of neat roundup

drill hole in each tree – inject with roundup

make hole in hard to find place (that will not be found once subsequent felling takes place due to dangerous dead trees…) and squeeze in roundup. plug with a small piece of bark

They were there first and you new it.
Blame your vender maybe ?

Rubbish – them being inconsiderate before you moved in doesn’t mean they have a right to be inconsiderate after you moved in.