Neighbours

[morverngirl]

The new occupants of a property which borders ours (their back gargen runs down towards the side of our house) have planted a xmas style tree right on their boundary, approx 5 feet from our utility window, if that wasn't bad enough ,the house next door to theirs also planted trees about 13 years ago (about 10 feet away) from corner of house and more or less on top of drain. When we asked him originally to move trees due to close proximity to our house ,we got a load of abuse, trees reached about 30 feet, but a least he has now cut them back. I can understand they might feel overlooked and we do have a grape vine which covers trellis in summer, but they are quite high compared to our house and we do only have loos/bathrooms and utility facing their property. Why do people put trees so close to other properies. Any ideas on dealing with this

[WendyC]

I had a similar problem with a neighbour's willow tree last year. We solved it by inviting them to come around and look at the shade it was causing. They did this when we were on holiday and they were looking after our cat and garden. Hey presto when we came back a fortnight later the willow had been drastically reduced and sunlight once again reached our garden. Good luck.

[lottie dolly]

you have to be careful about tree roots going into your founds and drains,keep an eye out for any cracks,hope you get things sorted,

[taff]

dig down on your property line and stick slabs or something into the soil. It'll stop the smaller roots from the top inches of soil, but won't stop the bigger ones.
cut any branches off that cross your line too. Depending on how close it actually is, you might kill it off.
Or you can just admire the tree

[morverngirl]

Our insurance company asks questions on whether there are any trees over certain height within distance of our house and that was one of the options i used with the neighbour who planted his trees many years ago in convincing him to reduce height of his trees , very pleasant last time we spoke so either he had mellowed from previous episode or it was a different guy altogether.Or could have been the thought he might be liable for any damage. Silly builders put drain 90% on our property ,with 5% on each of 2 neighbours property and fence on top !!!!!!!!!

[di]

The impulsive way to respond is to fight back...if that's what your neighbours want, then it could be a long fight. Best 'fight back' is to respond to them with niceness....even if you do need to vent your anger here or elsewhere several times a day

Invite them round, subtly show them what an impact their trees are making....if it doesn't work...use the search button for good weedkilling methods that work on trees. x

[Hilary B]

If you cut off all the bits that come over the boundary, make sure you give them back. You don't have to have the stuff growing across your garden, but it is still their property.
Unless your house is pretty old, foundation problems are rarely direct. Not many trees actually pucj their roots through the foundations and modern foundations are pretty resistant anyway, but what does sometimes happen is that the tree drinks so much moisture out of the soil that the ground under the foundations shrinks just enough to cause a problem. Whether this is a risk depends on the soil type, clay is worst, but some other soil types can react this way.
Anything built since 1976 will have been designed with these matters in mind.
Drains are more vulnerable, especially if there is the slightest trace of a leak already, tree roots seek out the damp (and the.... fertilizer....) that seeps out, find where it is coming from, and next thing is a blocked or badly leaking drain run!

[chris]

We had a lovely conifer right by our drains - the roots went it, and created a fan like weave blocking all our drains up.

The tree is now no more, and probably now is useable compost (must check that).