If it's any consolation I have a garden in a similar situation and the neighbours behind tried to get me to reduce the height of my whole house to protect their view.
As someone said before though, they bought the house knowing the trees were there so it's not reasonable to expect them to be cut. They should have asked before they bought the house if it was that much of an issue. I think the photo you posted of the view from you bedroom window will explain the situation to your neighbours very well.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Keep a copy but I would still try a face to face approach with a friend so invite him round when you know a friend can be there. Then confirm your permission in writing and remind him you have a witness and photos but don't give him any copies.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Sorry to ensure that an old thread but; after we had sent the enter and photos we never heard from our neighbour behind us again, except he did cut the trees in his garden with a chainsaw, which we expected. in May this year we applied for planning permission to our house for a 2 storey rear extension, this does not impact any of our neighbours properties in any respect (part from the noise from the builders, should we go ahead with the plans) . It is currently past the stage of neighbour objections (as far as I know) and we are just waiting for the council to conduct their site inspection.
2 days ago however I heard the neighbours chainsaw again, but thought nothing of it until I looked out our bedroom window tonight and discovered that he has cut the top off one of our trees. The neighbours diagonal to us can now se clearly into our bedroom window.
The tree is definitely in our garden as I double checked tonight and it looks like he has been cutting quite a few of our trees that do not encroach his garden. What do we do now? I’m so upset, I’m considering moving to avoid an expensive legal fight and to forget about our required extension....please help. I’m scared of this effecting my health, it ultimately did the last time this was raised by our neighbour.
@ New Gardner, I'm so sorry to hear that and sorry for the distress it has caused you. Has your neighbour has cut a lot off the top? Is he able to reach your trees from his garden or do you think he has come into yours to do this? I do wonder what his objective is, presumably he wants a better view from his top windows but it is unforgiveable and illegal to cut down a neighbour's trees. However it is difficult to see what you can now do without causing yourselves more worry.
Would you feel able to write to him pointing out that it is illegal to cut your trees down and you will be consulting your solicitors.
Hi lizzie27. Thanks for your reply. I had previously written in a letter in June 2018 to him that he did not have permission to cut our trees and that we would have to pursue the matter further legally if he did. Clearly he has not taken this seriously. He has cut quite a lot off the top of the tree now to allow him to have a nicer view of the city. I’m assuming he has reached from his garden to cut the top of the tree but the tree is about 1m or more inside our boundary.
I do sympathise with your situation and its easier said than done not to let it upset you, but I can also see your neighbours motivation to cut them down a bit. All he can see are your trees which hide a view. We once bought a house once with a lovely view of a windmill and fields only for the pine trees belonging to a neighbour below us to gradually obscure the windmill from both downstairs and upstairs windows. Obviously that doesn't warrant his actions but even though he bought the house seeing your trees he might have thought he could get you to lower them a bit but you quite rightly said no so it's been needling away at him these last 2 years. I don't think it costs a great deal to see a solicitor for a preliminary chat to go over the situation. Have a look at your insurances as one might include a legal help line which just costs a phone call to get advice.
K67 thanks for the advice. What also annoys me a little though is that our next door neighbour has trees much taller than ours (not conifers though), but he hasn’t attempted to cut their trees only ours which were always much lower in height to begin with. I personally feel targeted by this neighbour because he simply didn’t get what he wanted, so he’s taking it anyway.
Perhaps a fast growing tree further into your garden, petty I know but then he's totally out of line doing his hatchett job on your tree. Paulownia will grow like lightning with huge leaves the size of car tyres, ours has gained nearly 6ft this year doubling in size. Just plant it well of the boundary and smile
Hostafan1, It wouldn't be out of place to once the police but I'm worried about it devaluing our property/making it harder to sell should we want to. It has certainly made us think twice about doing our extension. As our neighbour has not listened to us, I was considering wilderbeast's option but I'm not sure where to plant it so it wouldn't damage the rest of the trees whilst allowing it to grow. It seems my next door neighbour actually has paulownia tree which as I said is quite a bit taller than ours were.
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Would you feel able to write to him pointing out that it is illegal to cut your trees down and you will be consulting your solicitors.
All he can see are your trees which hide a view. We once bought a house once with a lovely view of a windmill and fields only for the pine trees belonging to a neighbour below us to gradually obscure the windmill from both downstairs and upstairs windows.
Obviously that doesn't warrant his actions but even though he bought the house seeing your trees he might have thought he could get you to lower them a bit but you quite rightly said no so it's been needling away at him these last 2 years.
I don't think it costs a great deal to see a solicitor for a preliminary chat to go over the situation.
Have a look at your insurances as one might include a legal help line which just costs a phone call to get advice.