Neighbours 50ft tree/conifer 2m away from property. Advice gratefully recieved!

[Dman77]

Hi Friendly tree experts.

 

Ive already checked in this section of the forum to see if my problem can be solved. There are similar threads but not exactly the same. Id appreciate some advice.

 

We are buying a house (early stages) and we are really worried that the neighbours 50ft ish tree/conifer which is 2m (trunk) away from our potential property (kitchen corner of the house) has roots all around our foundations waiting to cause untold destruction/subsidence.

No obvious cracks in exterior walls (no survey yet) but father inlaw has said to pull out the sale immediately as subsidence is a real possibility in ?years.

 

First of all - can anyone tell me what this is? This is a view from a neighbour (next to tree owner). Thats my potential house side wall.

 

 

 

(Never uploaded so hope that worked)

 

Based on that tree, what roots are likely? Shallow/deep, known for damage?

This is deep surrey near M25 and told clay is likely. House built mid 50,s.

 

I really dont want to start a long process unnecessarly if you kind folk think id be nuts to touch a property with this massive thing 2 meters away

Ps the neighnour also has 4 smaller ones half height of this 1 m each away along the boundary so probably root city down there

 

Any comments welcome. We really are stressing over this.

Cheers all

Dave

[Jake Andrews]

There are specific qual's for mortgage and subsidence reports as relates to trees. I'm not sure a "general" structural engineer or surveyor would necessarily encompass these attributes.

 

Do you have a link or lead too these quals Kevin? are you referring to the CAS mortgage report course?

[skyhuck]

No problem. I guess this all adds to the experience pot of the forum.

 

May help someone in the future.

 

Oh and i wasnt aware you cant claim against someone elses insurance for subsidence from their trees. Comes under 'peril' or something.

But you can claim off your neighbours if the same tree affects your drains though.

Funny that. So collapse somebody elses house with your tree through negligence (stupidity) of placement of tree or failure to tend to tree (lazyness) and you're not even responsible. Astonishing piece of law. Thats straight from two insurance companies.

 

I think the reasoning behind this is that houses should be built with foundations that will withstand the affect of trees growing near them.

[daltontrees]

Oh and i wasnt aware you cant claim against someone elses insurance for subsidence from their trees. Comes under 'peril' or something.

But you can claim off your neighbours if the same tree affects your drains though.

Funny that. So collapse somebody elses house with your tree through negligence (stupidity) of placement of tree or failure to tend to tree (lazyness) and you're not even responsible. Astonishing piece of law. Thats straight from two insurance companies.

 

That's incorrect. The tree owner has a duty of care to the neighbour, and if his tree causes damage to the neighbour's property he is negligent and the cost of making good can uually be recovered. There is lots of established law to that effect.

 

Whether the insurance policy of the tree owner would cover him is a different matter. Don't believe insurance salesmen, they are considerably better at taking money than paying it back out.

 

The claim is gainst the owner, not the insurer. If he's insured agains that sort of risk that's good for him, but it doesn't affect the validity of the claim.

 

I woudld just add, it was good of you to follow this up and share your experience on Arbtalk. So many people come on looking for advice and then don't even let us know what came of it, it's tiresome and it puts me off trying to help. Good on you. I'm sorry your dream house didn't happen but it's better than being sold an expensive problem. Hmm, definitely don't believe house salesmen either....

[Gary Prentice]

Second that about coming back.

 

It might not seem it now, after the aggro and expense, but it looks like you've saved yourself a lot of problems.

 

good luck with the house hunting, if nothing else you're a bit better informed on your future decisions.

 

Gary

[Dman77]

Thanks guys. Appreciate your messages.

Also very interested to hear about the liability of insurance. I was surpised by what the insurances conpanies said. Still, either way i can see insurance companies dragging their heels over expensive claims.

 

hello rightmove my old friend, ive come to talk with you again, because a house softly subsiding, grew its roots while i was sleeping...."

 

 

God i hope people get the reference.

[Gary Prentice]

maybe not the artist you were thinking of, but...

 

[ame]

[/ame]

[Khriss]

Ive got two Russian guys and a 9mm , they don't lay bricks K

 

( Seriously tho' its shocking what passes fr structural surveying these days )

[Dman77]

Well hello again guys,

 

Its been a while but I couldn't resist. Thought you might like to hear this.

 

The house we pulled out of remained 'under offer' for over a month until we just noticed (and this must have happened within a weekish) that its back on again as available....

 

...and we had already guessed what they'd been up too.

 

The new property profile picture now shows the property with that massive leylandi (and the smaller other three next to it - only about 40ft) completely missing. Yep, all chopped right down. I cant see if its completely gone because the shrubs in the front garden obscure the base, so it may have about 10-15 ft left. Or maybe not.

 

So basically, given the structural surveyors recommendation of reducing the tree slowly over years to reduce/not make worse the movement and cracks/sinkage and me telling this to the Estate agent, this would appear to not have happened.

Bit naughty this isn't it?

I hope the next buyers have a good structural surveyor and I think there should be a law in place that if a surveyor finds something that 'could prevent you getting insurance' as quoted to me, they should have to disclose this to each other, or somewhere that flags for buyers.

 

I would want to know that a 50-60ft tree 2m from the property I want to buy had just been hacked right down and had likely caused movement/cracks and this dramatic felling could make things worse.

 

What say you guys?

[Gary Prentice]

The overall change in soil volume will be the same whether the tree is removed in stages or in one go. In stages just increases the cost of removal and is no longer recommended.

[Dman77]

So the structural surveyor is wrong?