Richard wrote:

Hi,

My neighbour to the rear of my garden has leylandii frowing. These block out
the sunlight in my garden from just after midday.

Has anyone got any legal tips or persuading them to trim them down a few
metres?

Many thanks,

Richard

Our battle against neighbouring leylandii has gone on for several years.
The neighbour, an elderly lady, just refused to trim her trees. They
finally reached over thirty feet. Once the sun reached midday some 50%
of the garden was in total shade. Not only was the height a problem but
also their closeness to the fence some two to three feet away, one was
within arm's length of my rear wall! Great thick roots are coming under
the fence above the ground and the life was being sucked out of that
part of the garden. Branches were protruding into our garden with no
attempt to keep them in trim. We have tried every thing apart from
legal proceedings. Letters from solicitors and insurance companies
holding her liable for any possible damage cause by one particular tree
went unanswered. We could not have a sensible discussion through a
letter box ! All invites for tea and cake were refused. All our
concerns were rubbish, no sunlight in your rear room, go sit in another
one, you've a big garden go sit some somewhere else.
Suddenly, out of the blue, work men appeared and the trees were cut down
to about ten feet ! Well ! Well !
We offered to pay for a sensible hedge but no way. These trees extend
laterally in her narrow garden some 5 to 8 feet so she is loosing an
awful lot of her own garden ! It's not as if we live in two story
houses, but trees twice the height of your your bungalow, ridiculous.
Now what to do about our fence........ There is a limit to what you can
do from one side. I can't reach the bottom panels to re nail nor can I
replace new bottom arras rails. My neighbour's response is any work
that needs doing has to be done from your side. We have reached an
impasse. Unless I can do maintenance on both sides of the fence
ultimately the fence will have to rot and fall down.
What a tale of woe and I've not started on the b###dy pyracantha....
Dam neighbours ! We have four neighbours whose gardens surround us, the
other three wonderful.
We've been contemplating employing a hit man ! I've had so many raids
on these trees but they defy all attempts at ruination. I've tried
very long copper nails to no effect they just laugh them off, they are
an incredibly tough species. At ten feet we have our sun light back
but they are still incredibly close and I have all the work of trying to
maintain a reasonble hedge my side.
You are not alone. Bring on the Bill!