Neighbours Tall Tree

[t_allington]

Hi, I have recently moved into a house with a 40' garden. There is an alley (wide enough for a car) at the back, then the garden of the people in the next road.

The gardens backing onto those on my road have 150' gardens. A number of them have really (about 60') tall trees. They are overhanging mine and my neighbours gardens, as well as the alleyway (ie. not their property), and are blocking a lot of the light.

An elderly next door neighbour has also expressed concerns.

Is there anything I can do about it? I don't want to upset the people, and I can't really find out what house they live in, as my road and the road behind are both long, and there are no real 'landmarks' for me to distinguish where their house is (typical surbubia where all the houses look the same!).

Many thanks
Terri

 

[Porker]

I believe that you can remove the branches etc. that are overhanging your boudary as long as you return them.

From my own perspective (as I sound like the 150' garden offender), I would urge you to make best efforts to contact the neighbours. I live in similar circumstances and had some difficulty establishing who they were. (I had a neighbour leaning heavy items against my fence which was pushing it over. Despite my assumptions, they were fine when I went to speak to them) All I can say is that nothing would wind me up more than receiving a letter from some 'authority' when a simple conversation would have sorted it out. Most people are reasonable. If they're not, then by all means resort to other (legal) means. Just my opinion.

 

[david and julie]

If you go to your local library or Town Hall, they have OS maps of the full area in good detail. All roads and buildings are shown usually with house numbers etc. Or you could ask the postman he would probably know the house.

I agree it's a waste of time just ploughing in, it upsets everyone and is usually counter productive. When you find the people bite your tongue if need be(at first).

Legally you are allowed to cut any branches overhanging your property. You have to offer the other person the waste, you cannot just chuck it over their fence. I'm not sure about the entry as that is not your property.

Try your upmost to resolve this in a friendly manner.

We ended up moving house over a tree in next doors garden!

 

[AdamW]

You might not be able to legally remove the tree branches...

My parents have a large garden with two horse chestnuts in it, I would say around 60' tall as well. There is actually a preservation order on the trees. It annoys some people, especially their next-door neighbours (ever seen how many leaves a conker tree drops? ). Then every few years one of the trees will drop a big branch onto the lane down the back, which is when all the menfolk within earshot of the crash run round with saws and hack it up in 30 minutes flat. Everyone loves it, it's about the only legitimate reason for firing up a chainsaw. But I digress.

Basically, you might find that even the tree owners can't do anything about it even if they wanted to. A preservation order will mean that only necessary tree surgery can be carried out, i.e. removing any branch that poses a hazard.

You might also find on your deeds that you have no "rights to light", in which case you probably wouldn't get far in any legal capacity.