A nuisance tree!!

[Honeybea]

Does anyone know if there is a law concerning height and width of trees.

I have a very small garden, but immediately at the back of my garden right up against my fence is the tree from hell. Don't get me wrong i love trees, but this is roughly 40 to 50 feet high and about 15feet wide in summer, my house is really small and it completely covers the WHOLE of my house in shade all day long.
There are no other houses at the back of me so it is only me that it bothers, the tree belongs to the church at the back of my house.

I am partially disabled and often suffer with pain, so to sit in my garden in the sun would be a godsend to me, but i never ever get the sun as this tree completely blocks it out, but also the whole of the back of my house is in the shade all year round. All the bedrooms etc are dark because of thsi.


I did have the tree lopped last year, but it appears that they only lopped the lower branches, the tree needs to be largely thinned out and the height brought down much lower.
The tree is a conker tree so it protected, but it is making things difficult for me.
Any ideas of what i can do.

 

[wotan]

You are perfectly entitled to remove any overhang that crosses your boundary.
A few copper rods driven into the trunk might speed things along.

Wotan

 

[merlin50]

you do not seem to like the house. move simples.
its not your house or tree, damaging it could get you into trouble

 

[WabbitPoo]

Have you tried talking to the vicar about it?

You won't get many reliable legal opinions on here I'm afraid but you could try the garden law website - they have a very busy discussion forum on just this subject. To save you the bother of finding it, here it is

 

[UKMICKY]

You can remove any overhang but unless its a evergreen hedge which could allow to apply to the council and may gain an order to have it reduced in height after paying the fee their is nothing you can do to force them to cut it back.

Also before you touch it and cut back any overhang check that it does not have a TPO and that you dont live in a conservation area.

 

[Honeybea]

Thank you for your replies, the tree is such a pain in the backside. It has been cut back once, as i brought it to the owners notice once before but all they did was cut the branches off up to a height of about 8 or9 feet.

I have now studied the tree further and the tree is actually wider than the whole of my house, plus its 20ft higher. so i have no chance of getting any sun again this summer.

It is a protected tree so i always have to have permission before anything is done.
Even though most of the tree overhangs my garden, i would never be able to get high enough to cut them off, and as i rent the property i can't really afford to pay for it, but also why should i.

I am going to write to the landlord once more to see if anything can be done to help me have a little bit of sunshine.