Not DIY I know but you guys seem to have a good knowledge of most things.
My neighbour has a tall Birch tree (30' plus) in his garden. The problem is
quite a bit of it overhangs into my garden and blocks the sun, some may say
good in this weather! I get on reasonably well with him so don't want to
'muddy the water'. If we have it pruned who pays, him cos it's his tree, me
cos it's over my garden or both as it affects us both. I do not mind all
the arranging of it etc but would he be expected to contribute. I realise I
would have to get his permission first. Any thoughts? BTW he is a
pensioner but doesn't seem to be struggling financially or healthwise.

Cheers

John

"John" wrote:
Not DIY I know but you guys seem to have a good knowledge of most things.
My neighbour has a tall Birch tree (30' plus) in his garden. The problem
is quite a bit of it overhangs into my garden and blocks the sun, some may
say good in this weather! I get on reasonably well with him so don't want
to 'muddy the water'. If we have it pruned who pays, him cos it's his
tree, me cos it's over my garden or both as it affects us both. I do not
mind all the arranging of it etc but would he be expected to contribute.
I realise I would have to get his permission first. Any thoughts? BTW he
is a pensioner but doesn't seem to be struggling financially or
healthwise.

Cheers

John

I don't know, I would be interested to know the answer. All I can think is
that it is up to the two of you to come to a mutually agreeable arrangement
regarding costs. Even if the law say that you or he must pay, you are no
further on if either disagrees and refuses to pay their share. At the end of
the day you are neighbours. It is the sort of issue that they deal with at
http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/

"Phil Anthropist" wrote in message
...
"John" wrote:
Not DIY I know but you guys seem to have a good knowledge of most things.
My neighbour has a tall Birch tree (30' plus) in his garden. The problem
is quite a bit of it overhangs into my garden and blocks the sun, some
may say good in this weather! I get on reasonably well with him so don't
want to 'muddy the water'. If we have it pruned who pays, him cos it's
his tree, me cos it's over my garden or both as it affects us both. I do
not mind all the arranging of it etc but would he be expected to
contribute. I realise I would have to get his permission first. Any
thoughts? BTW he is a pensioner but doesn't seem to be struggling
financially or healthwise.

Cheers

John

I don't know, I would be interested to know the answer. All I can think is
that it is up to the two of you to come to a mutually agreeable
arrangement regarding costs. Even if the law say that you or he must pay,
you are no further on if either disagrees and refuses to pay their share.
At the end of the day you are neighbours. It is the sort of issue that
they deal with at http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/

I think you can prune anything that overhangs your own property, but must
give it back to the neighbour!
So if a branch is removed you have to give it back to your neighbour. I
don't think there's any compunction for your neighbour to pay for this work
to be done even though it's his tree.

I think a friendly chat might be in order - whatever happened to chatting
with the neighbours before consulting the legal position?

I'm sure google will dredge up loads about his - you aren't the first.

Paul

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:44:50 +0100, "John"
wrote:

|Not DIY I know but you guys seem to have a good knowledge of most things.
|My neighbour has a tall Birch tree (30' plus) in his garden. The problem is
|quite a bit of it overhangs into my garden and blocks the sun, some may say
|good in this weather! I get on reasonably well with him so don't want to
|'muddy the water'. If we have it pruned who pays, him cos it's his tree, me
|cos it's over my garden or both as it affects us both. I do not mind all
|the arranging of it etc but would he be expected to contribute. I realise I
|would have to get his permission first. Any thoughts? BTW he is a
|pensioner but doesn't seem to be struggling financially or healthwise.

Best to come to an amicable agreement. I cut down a tree about the same
size and a beech, on the my neighbours side of the border between our
neighbours and our garden **with** their agreement, at my own cost and own
labour. It was much too high, and they could not afford to do it.
Interesting project felling a tree branch by branch, then taking the trunk
down in six ft lengths. The last cut was with a chain saw which I blunted
by allowing it to touch the ground :-(

I heard this discussed at some length on the Beeb many years ago, and I
hardly think it will have changed. IANAL

You may cut the tree back to your border without asking permission, but you
should offer them the wood.

I would repeat, Best to come to an amicable agreement.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Google Groups is IME the *worst*
method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a
newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These
will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies.

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 14:11:01 +0100 Dave Fawthrop wrote :
You may cut the tree back to your border without asking permission,
but you should offer them the wood.

Unless you're in a Conservation Area or it's a protected tree: in such
cases even if it overhangs you commit a criminal act by touching it
without the LA approval.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk

whatever happened to chatting
with the neighbours before consulting the legal position?

American type lawyers....

Dave

my garden was overhung by a huge tree belonging to the council. When I asked
them to cut back the offending branches they did it within three weeks.
Official explained to me they were totally liable and had no right to
intrude across a line vertical to the edge of my property




"John" wrote in message
...
Not DIY I know but you guys seem to have a good knowledge of most things.
My neighbour has a tall Birch tree (30' plus) in his garden. The problem
is quite a bit of it overhangs into my garden and blocks the sun, some may
say good in this weather! I get on reasonably well with him so don't want
to 'muddy the water'. If we have it pruned who pays, him cos it's his
tree, me cos it's over my garden or both as it affects us both. I do not
mind all the arranging of it etc but would he be expected to contribute.
I realise I would have to get his permission first. Any thoughts? BTW he
is a pensioner but doesn't seem to be struggling financially or
healthwise.

Cheers

John

John wrote:
Not DIY I know but you guys seem to have a good knowledge of most things.
My neighbour has a tall Birch tree (30' plus) in his garden. The problem is
quite a bit of it overhangs into my garden and blocks the sun, some may say
good in this weather! I get on reasonably well with him so don't want to
'muddy the water'. If we have it pruned who pays, him cos it's his tree, me
cos it's over my garden or both as it affects us both. I do not mind all
the arranging of it etc but would he be expected to contribute. I realise I
would have to get his permission first. Any thoughts? BTW he is a
pensioner but doesn't seem to be struggling financially or healthwise.

Cheers

John

You can cut both branches and roots that intrude into your garden but
you are liable if the tree is unbalanced and falls. You have to offer
the trimmings to your neighbours but if they do not want them you have
to dispose of them.

It is best to talk to the neighbours about it first. We had trouble
with a very large ash tree that was knocking on our windows and making
the back of the house very dark. The neighbours were not very friendly
so we did not want to approach them. The cost of trimming it would
have been high so we kept putting it off. Luckily the house was sold.
We told our new neighbours about the problems with the tree and they
said it was causing problems for them too. They cut the tree down soon
afterwards.