Bloomin' housing associations

[Donkmeister]

I'd be interested to see if anyone has resolved a similar situation to mine...

The bottom of my garden butts up against the bottom of the garden of a housing association-owned house in the next street.

The previous owner was an elderly chap who planted a tree many decades ago, and nurtured it, pruned it and kept it under control. A beautiful tree, and a beautiful garden.

Unfortunately, he died a couple of years ago and the garden and tree have since been neglected. The Housing Association leased the house to a couple who have absolutely no interest in the garden or the tree.

The new residents are generally OK but they have made it clear they aren't bothered about looking after the garden.

A couple of years has passed and they haven't done a thing to the tree. I assumed that property maintenance is the duty of the housing association, so, I made a discrete call to the housing association... Their response?

"We can't do anything about it, the tree is in the garden and therefore the responsibility of the resident."

I pointed out that the tree is part of their property as the residents are hardly going to wander off with it when they move away. I also pointed out that tree surgery is not cheap, and it was only fair that the association shouldered a portion of the bill for maintaining their property where it affects other parties. No luck.

Now, I will be very careful not to spill weedkiller on the tree roots as we're likely to end up with an overgrown DEAD tree, even worse! Also, the residents look like they will stay put for a good many years so I can't just wait for them to move out and accidentally chop it down before the new residents arrive.

So, how does one deal with such a situation? When I bought the house the tree was a small coiffeured affair. It's not like I bought a house under a mature tree and then decided I don't like it!

 

[Blasphemous]

How about a picture Donk?



That's of 'the tree/garden' in question and nothing else before anyone chips in thank you.

 

[Donkmeister]

I'll have a crack at getting a photo during daylight at the weekend, would be interested in any ideas.

The tree looks like an Ash to me (although I am terrible at identifying plants) and grows about 10-feet upwards and 5-feet outwards each year. The trunk is right up against the boundary. Looking at the moisture of the soil around that end of the garden it appears to be a thirsty brute but doesn't dry the soil enough to damage any of my plants.

When the previous chap died it was about 15-feet tall. It is now getting on for 40 feet. My garden is 60-feet long so no danger of it coming down and damaging my house yet.

I'd hate to damage it, I just want them to trim the blimmin' thing down to a more appropriate size. I have even considered doing it myself but it's got to the size where it really is a specialist job for people with harnesses and chainsaws. Not me up a ladder with a pruning saw

 

[Blasphemous]

I'll have a crack at getting a photo during daylight at the weekend, would be interested in any ideas.

The tree looks like an Ash to me (although I am terrible at identifying plants) and grows about 10-feet upwards and 5-feet outwards each year. The trunk is right up against the boundary. Looking at the moisture of the soil around that end of the garden it appears to be a thirsty brute but doesn't dry the soil enough to damage any of my plants.

When the previous chap died it was about 15-feet tall. It is now getting on for 40 feet. My garden is 60-feet long so no danger of it coming down and damaging my house yet.

I'd hate to damage it, I just want them to trim the blimmin' thing down to a more appropriate size. I have even considered doing it myself but it's got to the size where it really is a specialist job for people with harnesses and chainsaws. Not me up a ladder with a pruning saw

10 FEET UPWARD EACH YEAR!?!?!? BLOODY HELL!!! It's definitely not a leylandii?

As for tackling it yourself, I agree, leave it to the experts. I still shudder when I think of that poor lad that used to post on here who was killed trying to cut out a tree stump. Awful thing for the whole family.

Yeah, try and get some pics up mate. I'm off ta bed.
Adiós.

 

[LastMagicBean]

I dont quite understand why you haven't been round to the residents of that property............ and discussed it with them????????

They might not have given it a second thought regarding the maintenance.............They might well agree with you and agree to complain to their landlords themselves (which may result in a better outcome)...

 

[WDIK]

contractualy by taking on the house, the tenant is not responsible for a prexisting fault,
therefore it is the landlords resposibility in law

 

[Nige F]

You`re about 20 years too late to get any sense out of "maintenance" on any HA. I used to do that job, directly employed - it`s all contractors now and they wont give a flying..... You could have called in to our office and @ least had a fair hearing as to the future of the tree- There used to be a housing officer there too. And a resident warden on site @ the old folks sheltered housing

 

[Bahco]

The local press will love a story like that. Imagine the headlines..............Local Housing Association refuses to maintain their gardens encouraging rats etc!

 

[oompah]

I wonder if it is a Eucalyptus Tree,these blooming things grow at a rate of knots(no pun intended)old boy who used to live next door planted one and after about ten years it had grown far to big about 30ft high,so we cut it down.Does it look like this View media item 19214

 

[Donkmeister]

I wonder if it is a Eucalyptus Tree,these blooming things grow at a rate of knots

Funnily enough, I have a Eucalyptus tree in my garden!!! I just thought it was a nice-looking smallish tree, then my grandad took one look at it and said "you do realise that's going to grow like mad... they use them for firewood in some countries just because they grow so fast!". So, every year I'm out there with a ladder and a saw keeping it down to ~12 feet or so. You're never short of firewood and mulch round my place!

I dont quite understand why you haven't been round to the residents of that property............ and discussed it with them????????

Well, the fence on their boundary broke down... due to one of their friends jumping through it. They apologised and said they would fix it once they had the cash, but couldn't afford it yet as they were getting the house in order.

So, I figured that if they don't have the money to pay for a few fence panels then they don't have the money to pay for a tree surgeon... When I went round to talk about the fence I got the impression they weren't exactly flush.

TBH, I don't think it's fair for the HA to expect them to pay for it. Sure, the tree was there when they took the house on, but they should at least offer to either chop it down for free rather than expect the residents to pay an arm and a leg to look after it. I thought the point of HA's was that people can afford to live in a nice house even if they don't have a grand or so to trim the trees each year.

It's not impossible that they're just spending their cash on booze, fags and Disneyworld holidays, but tbh I think that if HAs are going to allow people to plant trees they should be prepared to follow up the maintenance if required.

 

[Donkmeister]

You know what, I might wait until a point where we're having a pleasant conversation over the fence and ask them if they enjoy the tree. If they aren't bothered I might offer to chop it down in return for a few logs... plenty of room to let it fall onto my garden.

Ah well, wishful thinking perhaps

 

[WDIK]

just spike it wth a copper nail

Tried that years ago and as far as I know the tree is still alive and well.

 

[Donkmeister]

just spike it wth a copper nail

And end up with a big gruesome dead tree instead

Of course, that would give me EVEN MORE FIREWOOD!