Neighbours Trees
Wonder if anyone can offer some advice – I actually no longer live in Ealing – I moved to Richmond four years ago but we don’t have such a forums to pose such queries on so I hope you’ll indulge an old Ealingite.I have the problem of a neighbours trees overhanging the rear of my garden – this isn’t my next door neighbours but a house in another road whose garden goes across the back of ours. The trees are enormous – very very high – with very big leaves. The problem is that they block the light to the back of our garden which causes the back of our lawn to die. Of course there are associated issues such as HUNDREDS if not thousands of leaves dropped in our garden at autumn, animals nesting in the tree (such as squirrels who have ripped the roof of our shed off!) etc but it really is the lack of light that bothers us – we only have a small garden so the lack of light making a third of it virtually useless is quite an issue. I have googled this issue and nearly all the websites say the same thing – that we can chop off branches etc as long as they only hang over our property, and that the owners can ask for these trimmings back (why?) and that the tree must not be damaged and we must only cut to our border etc etc. It also says to check that there is no preservation order on the trees (there isn’t) and they are not in a conservation area (they are not)If we are talking a few branches of some medium sized trees we would consider doing this ourselves, but this is certainly one for the professionals – this would need tree surgeons and would be quite a lot of work and so cost and I don’t see why I should pay for that. I have spoken to the council who has advised that this is a civil matter and something they would not get involved in.My intention is to go see the owners of the house/trees and ask if they are planning to do this work and explain my situation – I hope that this can be resolved amicably; but I also am trying to be forearmed and informed in case they simply refuse to do anything about it – does anyone have any experience or can advise whether legally I have any leg to stand on – I really don’t want to start incurring costs if it’s something I can’t win. Any info would be gratefully received
Trizia Fiorellino ● 3874d3 Comments