I have a neighbour who has 2 silver birch trees and 1 Scots pine growing in her back garden which borders my garden.  These are now very tall trees and at this time of the year block a lot of the late afternoon/evening sunshine coming through to my garden.  The pine tree also drops it's cones all over my lawn which is resulting in very narled mower blades.    Having looked at the pine tree, I would definitely say the majority of it's brances are now over hanging my garden.     Am I legally entitled to have them pruned right back or to ask her too?   

I also worry about the root systems of 3 large trees, these are trees for a forest, not a back garden, especially the pine tree.  Most of her garden is very overgrown, there are brambles & nettles growing through the fence which I have to blitz with weedkiller or prune back.

i wouldnt even occur to me there is an issue?

when i have branches hangling over into my garden and i wish to tidy them up (some i do, some i dont), then i just cut them.

i can't imagine why there would be law against this (is there?) or why the neighbour would object? (mine dont even notice)

If you cut down any of the branches you have to hand them back to the owner (ie neighbour) though I would have a word with the local council just to find out what your local planning department says about it. Each area will have different local by laws.

>i can't imagine why there would be law against this (is there?) or why the neighbour would object?

Yes, there are laws protecting trees and what people can do to them. In conservation areas you need permission from the parish council to prune established trees, and some have tree preservation orders and can't be touched at all. Large trees need an experienced person to remove branches to avoid destabilising the tree.

Small trees in a neighbour's garden with branches overhanging into next door can usually be cut back by the garden owner, but the cut-off branches belong to the owner of the tree who must be offered them.

The best course of action is to contact the owner of the trees and explain the problem; disputes about boundary hedges and trees can very easily escalate into expensive legal cases.

if these are not protected trees then you can cut them back to the fence line, infact you are entitled to cut back anything that hangs over your side. the law does say you should give back what you cut off but i've never done that and i don't suppose your next door would want the rubbish back anyway.
if you know them why not just pop round and tell them your having a tidy up in the garden and although you know your entitled to cut back the stuff hanging over your side you just wanted to let them know incase they were worried what you were doing.  least then you've been polite and there's no confusion with whats going to happen. you may even find their happy for you to tidy up as they have such a messy garden.

I wouldn't worry too much about the root system of the pine as they tend to have a narrower root system (thats why so many blow down).

There is some info here from falkirk council

I know that I'm not allowed to trim or prune the trees in my garden (and they are HUGE sycamores) without permission from the Tree Preservation people on the council. You can find out if any orders exist from the planning dept.

Thye law states you can trim back over your bit but you should offer the wood back. My advice would be to ask her if she minds you cutting the tree back or would she prefer to do it herself? Agree where you are going to cut and cut it off.

It upsets some people, (I know from experiance!!) so an amicable chat and alls fine.

Years ago we had a huge old pear tree of which at least a good third overhung the neighbours garden. One day they decided to prune it back big style and we came back to a load of wood that would have kept us going for a whole winter on the fire, thrown over the wall into our garden. It was a right mess but they did nothing wrong law wise its just it would have been nice to know they were going to do it. We didn't fall out but I always think a quick word is the way forward with neighbours.

Agreed. We have a neighbour now that has planted 5 oaks next to a retaining wall, its causing problems all around because of our new house we will have to serve notice under the party wall act and dig the foundations very very deep.

I doubt I could prune them as I would need a very tall ladder & a saw, these trees are over 20 feet in height!      If the Pine has a narrow root system, fine, but what about the 2 Silver Birches - one I would say is no more than about 10-12 feet from my house!  And you can be guaranteed when they start to drop their leaves and we have a strong wind, guess which way all the leaves blow?

From what I read Christine Silver Birch is OK for medium to large gardens but I would think their roots would be more invasive than the pine! I know when we built our house the foundation was strengthened with steel mesh because of the tree roots. I know what you mean about the leaves too, my father fights a losing battle with ours every year, especially with the ones that land in the gutters!! Have you spoken to the neighbour? If you can't because you don't get on then maybe the council would be the best place to start? Silver birch can grow to 60-100 feet so better to get something sorted now while they are still manageable.

well this is a subject thats been a thorne in my side (or should i say front and back garden) for a good few years now,
JG is right with her advice call your local council find out if theirs any orders on the trees if no (as in my case) you are free to cut back ANYTHING growing on your side and offer it back to your neighbour,
only problem here is you then spend the rest of your life in that house forever cutting back your neighbours trees, in my case its 5 trees, bine weed ivy and an awful lot of weeds that come under, over and thu my frence EVERY YEAR,  I have just about had enough this year as its never ending that im out their clearing up the sides of the fences of weeds and picking up the leafs, washing the garden funiture of the sticky nasty sap that the trees spill every year,
and to top it all this year we had to pay £230.00 to get a guy in to cut back the neighbours tree in their front garden as it was litrally coming inside my bedroom window i was feeling like i couldnt breath as no air was coming in the window,and my bedroom was in darkness in the days this summer ,
me and oh went out and cut back some what we could safley do but the main problem branches had to be cut by a pro, the branches have also caused the guttering on my house to be pushed upward and now that needs fixing ,

have to say im not a tree lover now after all the hassles we have had with our neighbours ones on both sides and they never tend their gardens ever their just an over grown big mess, very sad when their are people with children living in high rise council flats that would kill for a garden for their kids to play in and you have people like my neighbours with what could be great gardens and never use them only to dump their ols mattress and sofas in,
council should have rules if you dont tend your garden your out, ours dont care,

Its a pain yet we have a lovely neighbour at the bottom of our garden who has taken most of the lower branches off a huge pine so it does not over shadow outr garden (thanks Matthew!) and I can lay in bed and watch the squirrels scamper up and down the bark, its massive.

We are building soon and the neighbour has planted oaks on our neighbours side plus moved her compost bin against there fence so that they cannot use their new french windows because of flies inthe summer, and vermin!! They really go out of their way to be nasty, they have about a 10 bedroom house ex Colonel of the regiment, and we don't forelock pull so we are not considered to be of the right stuff!! as we are working class!!! and proud actually because if thats upper class its not for me. Our neighbour has a three year old, and a 1 year old, how can people be so cruel?