Neighbours trees

[Herberus]

I'd be grateful for some advice: I recently bought a lovely town centre bungalow which I am modernising and extending. It has a south west facing garden which gets no sun because of the trees in a neighbouring garden. There are eight copper beech trees and two Monterey Cyprus within three / four feet of the boundary wall which itself is three / four feet from the side wall of my house.

 

The Monterey Cyprus is one of three which were planted so close together that they've grown through each other and have reached approximately 70 feet tall and the beeches are approximately 30 feet tall. The trunks of the beech trees are between 30 and 50 cms round.

 

I attach photos.

 

I am wondering how likely it is that the roots may cause damage to my property. the proximity of the beeches to the existing property in particular is concerning, but equally, with a crown which is eight metres wide, the root ball of the Cyprus must be significant.

 

I hope someone can advise. I know that the only certain way to prevent root damage is to fell the trees. The overall plot on which my property sits is only 12 metres wide by 20 metres deep (and my neighbour's plot is smaller ... the trees are within nine feet of her own property) so I wonder what are good replacement trees to consider. I was thinking fruit trees if well maintained and acers. The land is coastal (north west) so the soil is most likely sandy with a little clay.    

[Conor Wright]

7 hours ago, rapalaman said:

This!
Plus there’s no way they are 70ft high from that picture - 40ft I’d believe

Don't you understand?! The height changes. They're 70 when complaining to the neighbour about loss of light, then 30 when asking one of us for a quote to fell over the phone.