YOUR NEIGHBOUR'S TREES
Your neighbour's trees may grow
tall enough to block out your sunshine; they may alter
the environment of your garden causing difficulties to
your own plants; they may reduce the amount of light
coming through your windows. But it is only when their
branches overhang your land, or their roots encroach
beneath it, that you can really do much about it.
Legislation is being prepared
thwt will tackle the problem of high hedges, or nuisance
hedges, but it is still too early to give advice relating
to this.
What you
can do
If the branches or roots of your neighbour's trees
encroach upon your land, you may trim them back to your
boundary. You do not need to give notice that you will do
so, provided that you do not trespass on your neighbour's
land to do the work. You can even (with the permission of
your local authority) trim trees that are the subjects of
preservation orders. But you cannot keep any fruit that
was growing on the branches that you removed.
If your neighbour's trees are shown to be doing actual
damage to your property (for example, - banging against
your roof when the wind blows, - roots taking enough
water to deprive and damage your own plants, - root
growth causing ground heave resulting in broken garden
walls, - roots extracting water from under your buildings
causing subsidence and damage to buildings) then
you may be able to take legal action, either to have the
roots restrained from encroaching on your land, or
possibly to have the tree removed, as well as to recover
damages. For the best advice on trees, consult an
arboriculturalist, but if you want someone to measure the
positions and heights of trees and the lengths of their
shadows then you should consult a chartered land
surveyor.
This page was updated on 09 April
2001
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