i am incandescent with rage

[sarah]

i am so angry i dont know what to do with myself!!  a couple of days ago our nieghbour put his head over the fence and told my husband they were getting a tree surgeon in the following day (yesterday) to chop back some of the trees which grow on our side of the boundry but shade a lot of their garden. fair enough we thought, seems reasonable, it needs doing and if they are prepared to pay a tree surgeon then thats fine and we didnt have a problem with it.
when i returned from work yesterday tea time i went adn had a look at what had been done. i could cry, infact i have cried.
i dont know who they employed but it certainly wasnt a tree surgeon. possible a butcher or maybe a used car salesman (which is what my neighbour is).   they have hacked off all the limbs of a very old chestnut tree which has been there so long that our boundry fence actually bisects the tree. not only have they removed the limbs that encroach on their space but also the rest of the limbs that dont. they have cut the limbs with a saw part way through and then pulled the rest down. all the cuts are like this. i am fuming. they have hacked mopst of an old laurel which i am not so fussed about but in doing so they have been on my side of the fence and walked all over plants that ihad planted heuceras and geraniums and ferns. then in amongst a holly which needed cutting back (but for some reason theyhavent touched) a beautiful rowan... they have just swiped the top off and left a fifteen foot trunk with nothing at the top. this was on our side and was causing no problems at all. not like the holly. i dont understand why theyhave chopped that tree.

o i am sorry to rant but i am so angry i jsut want to go round and punch his lights out. but i know thats not the right thing to do.
the chestnut i am sure will die. the rowan i thinkwill too. my unerplanting i can replace but the hole they have left in our boundry looks awful.  better stop or i will get really crazy.  :'(

[sarah]

[Lacelotte]

Sarah that sounds terrible! I would be furious!
Surely it is trespassing and criminal damage? I'd have gone straight to my neighbours door and vented my anger. And insisted on knowing the tree surgeons name.

Have you a picture or before and after?

[sarah]

i've just been and taken some pictures jsut now. i thinkihave some that i took a couple years ago when i planted the shade plants. i really do want to go round and vent my anger but i'm not very good at anger.  i know i need to calm down though . ???

[markfield rover]

Do you have a tree conservation officer in your area ? maybe too late but some redress is needed.

[Mr Smith]

I have been in a similar position myself with a previous neighbour over their tree which was sixty foot from the back of their house and only twenty foot from mine needless to say I brought in a tree surgeon and let him have  good go at it, have you ever seen an Ash tree with a 'Crew cut' ;)

[Baccy Man]

As lacelotte said that is criminal damage. It would be your neighbour that is liable for the damage to the trees as he is the one who employed the tree surgeon & instructed them on what to do and if you pursue the matter they are the one who charges would be brought against. The 'tree surgeon' could be charged for the damage to your plants.
What was carried out was not what you gave your consent for & there is no reason why they should of trampled your plants in the surrounding area.
I regularly remove trees but when they are on a boundary line between 2 properties I won't start work until I have spoken to people on both sides to ensure there are no issues over ownership or the work being done & I do my utmost to ensure there is no damage to anything in the surrounding area if there is a risk that something may be damaged due to the size or location of the tree I will explain the risk beforehand & do whatever I can to minimise that damage.

[gonz]

That's terrible.  I would be furious if that happened to me.  I agree will all of the other posts and would definitely be speaking to the neighbours and then speaking to the so called Tree Surgeon who carried out this work.  They shouldn't be allowed to do this to anybody else's property.  Its a disgrace.

[Kea]

i feel for you.....I have a neighbour who does this sort of stuff.

There's a site called Garden law, it may be helpful www.gardenlaw.co.uk

[Old bird]

Wow - that sounds TERRIBLE!

I am all for speaking t your neighbour - but I think the better thing would be to write it down!  

As a woman we tend to get emotional and our voices get higher and higher then we screech a bit then break down in tears of frustration!

Best I think to write a strong letter then you can get everything down in writing and go over it and rewrite it a few times to make a good job of it.

Keep a copy of letter!

Sounds really horrible - but hopefully the trees will survive and cover up again.

Good luck anyway!

Old Bird

[Melbourne12]

... they were getting a tree surgeon in the following day (yesterday) to chop back some of the trees which grow on our side of the boundry but shade a lot of their garden. fair enough ...

Sorry to cast further gloom, but if that's exactly what you agreed to, then I think you gave permission to chop back trees in your garden.  The quality of the work is another issue, of course.

[Kea]

Old Bird I sent a letter to the neighbour about him cutting my hedge with the blackbird nesting in it. I got a torrent of abuse and foul language in front of my kids from the end of my drive (she bravely rang the door bell then retreated down there so she could shout at a distance!) because I wrote a nasty little note ( I had a copy and is was over polite in fact). The next morning as soon as my husband left for work another ring at the door and the husband was there with an equally abusive torrent finishing with we were the neighbours from hell and what a lot he'd had to put up with since we moved in...at which point I said'I'm sorry you think like that but would you mind enlightening me as to what other things have upset you? He said 'well.....humpf!' and walked off...because there wasn't anything. It's him that has loud parties, his family parks their cars in the way, his wife throws her cigarette butts under the fence etc.....none of which we have ever complained about.

In fact when we moved in he pointed out it was our hedge and the previous people had cut his side for him as well and I said fine I'm quite happy to do that and I was half way through cutting last October when he did it again (I cut it by hand with secuters because otherwise you lose the berries).

So I'm the nasty note lady and he's told everybody including his buddy the guy who was supposed to come and paint our house and he kept saying (two years) he was coming and never turned up. He's across the road right now painting for another neighbour and if I catch his eye he looks away....so I know why he didn't turn up because his friend bad mouthed us.

Anyway I sent them a very nice and expensive card to apologise for the nasty note (that wasn't nasty at all). But at least I have the moral high ground except the poor baby blackbirds didn't make it. Next time I'll report him to the police for disturbing a blackbird. Don't laugh i know there is a thread saying the police don't do anything but we've been specifically asked at our allotment site and given a policeman to contact if we see anyone disturbing nesting birds.

[sarah]

hmmm thanks for all your replies everone. i have calmed down a bit but havent been to confront our neighbour.  they have lived next door for about ten years and we have always got along ok but not had much to do with each other beyond the odd conversation here and there.   i certainly dont want to confront them and then have a bad nieghbour thing going on. i just want it not to have happened  :-\ . i am sure that they have done what they have done  out of ignorance and they have obviously just got a mate or relative in to do the job, certainly not anyone trained.  they are not plant people in any way. i could have made less of a hash of it with a breadknife.  i dont know what i will do yet. i think i will have to let them know at the very least how upset i am but beyond that i dont think theres much i can do exept live and learn; as melbourne 12 says i did give permission. but thaey did say a tree surgeon was coming in to do it.  i will sleep on it and see how i feel in the morning.  :-\

[Uncle Joshua]

I think if its that bad you should take action, as others have said it is criminal damage.

[kt.]

At the very least, you should approach them to reimburse the damage to other plants in your garden and have it put back into a decent order.  Also, a long shot, if they did hire a tree surgeon ::),  they may not be aware of the damage he has left in your garden ::) ::)

[twinkletoes]

If you are worried about upsetting your neighbours and want to keep the peace - would just asking for the tree surgeons name and contact details be any use?  You could then tell your neighbour how upset you are at the work that was carried out and just say you know it's not their fault(!?) and would like to complain to the tree surgeon about the amount of damage caused. That way, your neighbour would know you are unhappy about what has happened and will be aware of your distress but you will appear to be blaming the tree surgeon and not them - that should ease their conscience and deflect any bad feeling.  Of course, if it was a friend/family member who carried out the deed ....................    Well, it was just a thought.
twinkletoes

[sarah]

thanks for all your advice - all good advice too.  we have been round now and complained to the neighbour and he is aware of our feelings. he wasnt inerested in talking about it though. I have written a letter stating formally our grievance and have made it quite clear that any future incursions beyond their boundary will not be tolerated. i have been given some good advice by a fellow a4a-er and think we will be able to save the tree with some remedial work.  i am going to leave it at that. i have made it clear in the letter that i condsider it to be crimnal damage and i hope he realises he has got off lightly with out me demanding financial recompense for the plants. i will be sending him the bill for the remedial work though. thanks again guys you really helped.  ;)

[artichoke]

Our new neighbours wanted a short row of limes on the boundary between us to be cut back to let more sun into their garden - fair enough. Everyone assumes they are our trees,  though they might not be, but we wanted to control the job so we hired the tree surgeon and paid for it.

I could have wept when I saw the result. Lovely waving canopies full of birds (made everyone wait until after nesting time) and flowers in season, were reduced to awkward stumps. Last season they sprouted a few desperate leaves and no flowers.

This year I have to admit they have thickened up beautifully, and look almost as lovely as they used to. I do hope this is encouraging.

Neighbour is never going to be able to ask us to do it again, after all that fuss and expense.