Neighbours oak tree is excluding light from our garden

This will be a very unpopular opinion but I would love to have an oak tree next to my garden. They are magnificent trees.

You should speak to a soliciter. When I lived in Aberdeen, 6ft was the limit for hedges, and check you might be able to removed tree branches that overhang your garden?

I love just about every inch of leafiness there possibly could be in this sad world. So much of it being destroyed. I’m thinking global warming issues as well as my own preferences. Our next-door-neighbour has recently started making noises about our sycamore and about his other neighbour’s tall conifer. However we were here first and our both trees were fully grown when he and his family moved in.

For those who are astounded that people don't know how big trees grow

Was anyone astounded that people don't know how big trees grow?

I was questioning an oak tree putting on 20ft in growth in the course of 12 years... I have an oak tree growing right next to an electricity pylon (one of those very big ones). It was repainted about 10 years ago and at the same time the contractors cut back the oak so that people couldn't use it to climb onto the pylon. I'd say that it's grown only 4 or 5 ft since then, nowhere near doubling its size.

But, of course, small trees grow into big trees.

We nearly lost our dogs because of a neighbour's crab apple tree that was huge and overhung our garden. It dropped masses of little apples, the two Goldies ate a couple and were VERY ILL. Sorry for graphic description but I have never seen so much blood and diarrhoea, EVERYWHERE and it took me three hours to clean the kitchen. The vet said it wasn't the crab apples themselves that hurt the dogs but some kind of virus that lives within a bacteria within the apple. (don't know the details, my husband reported back and he isn't always accurate over medical things) Both dogs were fine, the older one had to stay in overnight on a drip and it cost £1,500+ in vet's bills. The tree owners were horrified and had the tree cut back. Who knew?

This may interest some of you:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/20/sheffield-council-issues-apology-over-tree-felling-scandal

and this:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/tree-felling-getting-permission

Rather than pay someone every year, to remove the leaves from your neighbours tree, buy a leaf blower ( a one off cost) then blow the leaves back to the “ owner”

It's illegal to return the leaves to the 'owner' - or to blow them into the road or public pathways. Many of us didn't plant the trees, we inherited them. Ours have TPOs on and there's nothing we can do about them whether we like it or not. Even with a TPO it may be possible to get permission to cut the tree back, which may help a bit.

For those who are astounded that people don't know how big trees grow - we were young 'urbanites' when we bought our house and had no idea of the trees around us and no one to tell us. Nor did we inspect our neighbours' gardens. Imagine our surprise five years after moving in to see the conifers appearing on the other side of the six foot fence, and our horror as they grew into trees the height of our house.

We have a lovely house on an unadopted road, one side is 24 houses, and the opposite side is that village green that is tree-lined. When we came here, the trees were small, neat and very nicely maintained, but over the last 15 years nobody has ever attended to the trees. Trees are beautiful and we were townies so didn’t forward think. We are now both in our 70s. We spend half the year cleaning up, cherry blossom, cherries, then leaves in the autumn. They damage the paint work on our cars, they fill our gutters up and our roof has to be cleaned every year. They are so overgrown. They seem to shade our solar panels and our lounge is dark 24/7. When vehicles drive through our road, they catch the branches on the trees, which usually lands on our vehicles or driveway. We have had a smashed windscreen in the past. I have pleaded with the Parish Council to prune them back to their side of the road, without success. The law of the land says they must not cause damage to other peoples property, but trying to argue that seems impossible. We can’t move now so we just have to accept all the expense and hard work associated with these trees… maybe in our next life we will be more careful when choosing where we live.

Excuse me if I’m repeating info already offered, but I’ve not read all the comments.
I’m on our village parish council and have had some experience with this type of issue.
Firstly, with any type of problem like this it’s best to try and resolve it amicably with your neighbours and reach a compromise.
You do not have a right to light over your garden that I know of, but cannot be 100% sure. You do have the right to cut back branches, from an overhanging tree, right up to the boundary. As long as doing so isn’t going to cause the tree to be lopsided and be in danger of falling. Also it may be different if there’s a preservation order on it.
Regarding the hedge, the legal limit is 2m or 6.5ft, and you can ask your neighbour to trim the top to that level. Unless there is a chance of the hedge falling or causing damage to your property then your local council isn’t likely to get involved. Your best bet might be to offer to pay towards having it trimmed down, in order to keep good relations with the neighbour.
You can trim your side right up to the boundary and offer the branches back but your neighbour isn’t obliged to take them and dispose of them.
There is a lot of info available on the government website that you may find very useful.
I hope I’ve been some help.

If the roots are obvious on your side, may you cut/dig them out? Just as far as the boundary?

The trees roots are probably grown under your house by now but my son has similar problems with the lady that lives next door to him and she doesn’t have long left so they hoping when she’s gone that whoever buys it will cut it down. My daughter inlaw gets fed up collecting leaves etc that fall into their garden but it was there gardener who said about the roots etc

You can ask the council about the conifer hedge, but they may want an upfront fee. A block of flats was built next door to us about 15 years ago. They planted a conifer hedge along the boundary and over the years it grew to about 40 feet high. We did ask them if they could trim it, but the response was that their ‘tree expert’ had said it was safe. We thought about asking the council to intervene, but there was an upfront fee of £750 to apply, with no guarantee of getting it back.
Luckily Storm Eunice came to our rescue, bringing down 3 of the trees in the hedge and the others were then deemed unsafe & cut down too. It did damage the fence, but the flat management company fixed that.

I don't think I'd offer to have it cut unless they'd refused to do anything about it. The rate that that damned things grow the OP could be paying out every year to keep it down to size..

Good idea re the hedge Philippa111

I don't imagine the doctors surgery would have any incentive or extra money to be bothering with the hedge. You could offer to pay to have it cut? It's of more interest to you than to them and could be money well spent.

A bit off topic but I live in a divided Victorian house and the upstairs part is rented out. There is no soundproofing. I asked the owner if he would put a carpet and good underlay in the sitting room as it was bare floor boards and very noisy. I offered to pay half of the cost of the carpet. He agreed. It's a large room and it cost me around £350 but it was worth every penny.

Rather than pay someone every year, to remove the leaves from your neighbours tree, buy a leaf blower ( a one off cost) then blow the leaves back to the “ owner”

We had a meadow at the back of us, and a tall mixed hedge at the side. Neighbour built on the land, and the bungalow put next to us was only 5 foot from boundary. And the people who bought it went on and on and on and on some more- about the mixed hedge stealing their light and elderberrie staining the patio

Mixed hedges are lovely, we have one along the back and some of it must be quite ancient. However, it has been kept as a hedge and we have it pruned to about 8ft every year. Others have had theirs removed and one neighbour let some of it grow into a 30ft tree which was annoying as it shaded our garden. However a new neighbour had the hedge removed altogether which is a great shame.

NotSpaghetti

Fleurpepper I think that was a horrible situation. I wonder why the people took the hedge out eventually- were they ground down by the neighbours?

I do know it can be annoying though - I put up with my neighbour's thousands of sycamore seeds/leaves and bloomin' seedlings every year - as it's a very old tree and was there before me.

It was bought to become a nursery (children, not plants). All my beautiful borders, rose beds and the hedge were destroyed for the new purpose. That is fine. where the hedge was is a long vegetable garden so children learn how to plant and care for veg.

But the point being that the hedge was there exactly as they complained, and well pruned and maintained- when they first saw the house and consequently decided to buy it. It was significantly cheaper than the others that were exactly the same. So they must have been aware.

MaizieD
That was my first thought but I didn’t know the facts.

Fleurpepper
My comment pales into insignificance when the OP is considering cutting down an Oak tree.

NotSpaghetti

^If I had my time again I would never have bought a house surrounded by trees^

I wish more people would consider how they feel about darker gardens/leaves because of trees before they move.

We have had people climb in and damage trees too. We did discover who it was though as we caught the culprit in next-door's garden with a chainsaw, butchering a perfect Normandy Poplar.
I called over the fence to him and he said he was working with permission of the council. It turned out he'd called the council and said he wanted to cut down/back a tree and gave the address of our next door neighbour. They said there was no reason why not as there wasn't a preservation order on it. They assumed he was the owner of the address!
He butcherd it so badly it looked dreadful. The owners then took it down.

My opinion is that it's unreasonable to expect neighbours to remove or cut trees that were obvious when you moved in. I would learn to live with it and if I really couldn't I would probably move.

A house now would not be allowed to be built next to such a huge tree. When you’re in your twenties, have been brought up in the inner city and buy your first house you really don’t think about the problems you might face further down the line. In fact we were down to buy a newly built bungalow at the time but my ex was angry that the builder had pulled down some established trees that would have been in the garden. If you’ve never lived next to a huge tree before you just see it for what it is, which is, of course, a beautiful tree. The farmer then planted Lelandi all around us which he later removed, his tree of choice becoming Sycamores. When the wind blows and the tree sways over the roof of my house it terrifies my neighbours but, thankfully I can’t see it. A neighbour further down has a tree that takes up all of his garden. When he tried to get it removed another neighbour who was on the parish council put a preservation order on it. It’s all very well loving trees, which we all do, but another thing having to live with them. I have to pay to have my gutters cleaned twice a year and the bird poo has rotted my bedroom windows which I’ve had to have replaced. I had to switch to another insurance company because the original one refused to insure me because of the tree. I doubt if anyone would buy the house but the farmer will probably put in a ridiculous offer and then rent it out, which is what he has done with the house down the road.

TBH, I'm a bit dubious about the OP's estimates of the heights of the tree and the hedges. Oaks don't grow 20ft in 12 years.

I wouldn't put anything past a leylandii, though. They're arboreal mile a minute vines..

Fleurpepper I think that was a horrible situation. I wonder why the people took the hedge out eventually- were they ground down by the neighbours?

I do know it can be annoying though - I put up with my neighbour's thousands of sycamore seeds/leaves and bloomin' seedlings every year - as it's a very old tree and was there before me.

I expect the conifer hedge that is twelve foot high may be easier to address than the oak. Hedges can be 2 metres tall without being subject to the High Hedges legislation. We keep ours to 2 metres for that reason. I suggest you speak to the surgery about this as a first step.

MerylStreep

Did you not see a 20ft oak tree next door when viewing your property?
As a keen gardener surely you must have known how big they can grow.

Sounds unkind, but yes.

We had a meadow at the back of us, and a tall mixed hedge at the side. Neighbour built on the land, and the bungalow put next to us was only 5 foot from boundary. And the people who bought it went on and on and on and on some more- about the mixed hedge stealing their light and elderberrie staining the patio.

When we pointed out the hedge was there 30 years ago, the day they started building, the day they came to see the bungalow the first time, and the second, the day they agreed to buy, and signed the contract and moved in... they said 'we bought that one because it was cheaper than the others' !

They have long gone now, and the hedge has gone as it was taken out by new owners.

If I had my time again I would never have bought a house surrounded by trees

I wish more people would consider how they feel about darker gardens/leaves because of trees before they move.

We have had people climb in and damage trees too. We did discover who it was though as we caught the culprit in next-door's garden with a chainsaw, butchering a perfect Normandy Poplar.
I called over the fence to him and he said he was working with permission of the council. It turned out he'd called the council and said he wanted to cut down/back a tree and gave the address of our next door neighbour. They said there was no reason why not as there wasn't a preservation order on it. They assumed he was the owner of the address!
He butcherd it so badly it looked dreadful. The owners then took it down.

My opinion is that it's unreasonable to expect neighbours to remove or cut trees that were obvious when you moved in. I would learn to live with it and if I really couldn't I would probably move.