Neighbour etiquette...

We have some trees that grow close to our fence line. Unfortunately that means that occasionally they start to grow over the fence into our neighbour's yard. I'm just wondering what people think the neighbourly etiquette is in this case. We're not green thumbs by nature, so our garden is mostly left to it's own devices until we get a gardener in. I do the general weeding most of the time, but we rarely even notice if the trees have started growing over the fence. If our neighbour ever came to us and let us know they are going over, we would straight away call in our gardener to trim them back (and do the rest of the garden at the same time!).

But instead of coming to us, our neighbours take things into their own hands. This has happened twice now... Sometime between yesterday morning and late this morning, the neighbours have cut the branches right off that overhang into their own yard. Now I have no problem with that. In fact, if that was all they did then it would simply save us trouble. BUT, when they do it they throw all the branches over into our yard! Is this normal?! There's now two huge piles of branches along our back fence which I luckily noticed not long after DS went outside to play today. I know our backyard is generally safe for him, but two piles of sharp cut branches is NOT what I want him playing in. Also, one of the piles was thrown half onto my vegie patch and broke the little fence that I had around it. Granted, the fence was just made out of wooden stakes and string, but it was functioning fine to keep the dog out of it. Luckily it didn't damage any of the vegies that are almost ready to pick.

I'm just not sure whether I should go around and say something to them. I appreciate that it's our responsibility to keep the trees trimmed to stop them going over their fence, but a simple comment from them to let us know they want them trimmed is all it would have taken for us to get it done. Is it normal for neighbours to do this?

I think the cutting off themselves is fine, but the throwing them into your yard is plain weird if not a tad rude! My parents neighbours ask them to trip their trees (no one asked them to build their house so close to the fence), when they start to get a bit too much over the fence. They would rather they just did it when they thought it needed to be though.

I don't know if it's 'normal' but it's probably fairly common.

I'd go and chat to them. They'll probably be a bit embarrassed to be confronted with you face to face and with such a reasonable attitude about it - 'just let us know and we'll deal with it etc'.

I think its about the attributions people make about situations and other peoples behaviours. They were probably a bit annoyed that your trees were overhanging their yard (for whatever reason). They may have made a few wrong assumptions that a) you knew the trees were growing over their fence; b) you didn't care about it (because they noticed it and then you did nothing for however long) and c) that you were not going to do anything about it. I think when people feel personally injured by others (or by a situation) they tend to make false attributions about the other party that the behaviour was intentional and specifically designed to upset them. It seems rare to find people who's first thought is to take the most positive and innocent view of things.

:hug: I wouldn't go into all the reasons you are annoyed about their behaviour because they'll only feel attacked (unjustly in their mind) and retaliate. I'm sure in future they'll let you know if you tell them you do see it as your responsibility (You're very good to do that btw, I think it's far more common that people feel whatever is in a properties airspace is their responsibility and likely the neighbours will have past negative experiences).

My parents have a neighbour who walks dogs and everytime they are out, they come home to dog doo in their backyard. They can't prove it was her but she only lives three doors away, is walking dogs multiple times every day and it's only when they are out. Now I find that weird that she would let them into someone elses backyard and then not clean up after them......

I think they actually can put them in your yard as technically the branches belong to you, but I think they could have handled it better.

While I dont agree with it at all sadly he is legally well within his rights. My neighbour does the same thing to us. We have palm trees on our side that regularly drop their fronds. He always puts the dead ones over the fence back onto our side. Really freaking annoying and not something I choose to do but ar for saying something I dont think I would bother. You will most likely get the law quoted to you! Just keep an eye on his overhanging trees and branches and make sure you repay the favour!

It's actual a council "law". They're in their right to do it.

As someone who has half a jungle that grows over our fence from our neighbours, into our carport and all over our damn car, I hate the fact i have to prune a tree thing that isn't mine. If I wanted to prune an out of control plant I'd plant my own. (ok, vent over XD) I think it's unfair to expect them to take the branches away.

It would have been nice of them to give you the heads up tho, I think.

Actually, they'd be in legal trouble if they didn't give you the branches back - you can charge them with theft if they don't.

You can ask them to give you a warning though, but they don't have to.

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Actually, they'd be in legal trouble if they didn't give you the branches back - you can charge them with theft if they don't.

You can ask them to give you a warning though, but they don't have to.

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seriously?? that gave me a bit of a chuckle!! lol

I would speak to them, and let them know you are happy to trim them if they let you know or if they want to do it can they let you know or agree somewhere where more convenient for them to leave the branches. Without speaking to them they have no way to know that they are not doing you a favor, and you have no way of knowing whether they are annoyed or not about having to do it. Personally I think so many misunderstandings in life these days are caused by people not communicating because they are concerned about what people might be thinking, much better to know what they are actually thinking and I think people are in general more reasonable than many people expect (also when they are unreasonable at least you can be justified in seeing them as unreasonable :-)).

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I would speak to them, and let them know you are happy to trim them if they let you know or if they want to do it can they let you know or agree somewhere where more convenient for them to leave the branches. Without speaking to them they have no way to know that they are not doing you a favor, and you have no way of knowing whether they are annoyed or not about having to do it. Personally I think so many misunderstandings in life these days are caused by people not communicating because they are concerned about what people might be thinking, much better to know what they are actually thinking and I think people are in general more reasonable than many people expect (also when they are unreasonable at least you can be justified in seeing them as unreasonable :-)).

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this is what i'd be doing

as has been mentioned, they are legally allowed to (and there are a few people that would turn around and have a go about theft if they weren't returned their branches) - we used to just get rid of overhanging branches until our neighbour turned narky and tried to forbid us trimming any of her tree hanging over the fence. she was asked three times to clean it up, then we did it (was hanging on our garage and preventing us opening the door properly) and put it back over the fence. we did make sure it didn't land on anything important. we would have continued getting rid of it (we had our own garden waste so no drama) but she became a cow lol

have a quick chat - let them know you weren't aware it was hanging over so badly, and next time, could they drop you a note if it's becoming a problem so that you can arrange the gardener to come in and clean it up, and get rid of the mess all at the same time rather than them having to do it. mention you're a bit worried about the kids safety as your primary reason if you need to

You girls are probably right that both parties are possibly misunderstanding each other. It's certainly possible that they think they are helping us. At the end of the day it actually is helpful, but I just want to know when they are going to do it. I would never expect them to dispose of the branches because I know the trees are our responsibility. Our side neighbor is a perfect example though, because a few days ago he let us know that a tree on his fence was starting to grow over. So we were already getting the gardener out shortly lol.

I think I'll just pop around to our back neighbors and let them know that if they let us know when they are overhanging we'll take care of them. Or if they prefer to do it themselves to just let us know so I can remove the debris before DS goes out to play.

This is the first time I've had a real garden and while it's very pretty it can certainly be hard work lol

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Actually, they'd be in legal trouble if they didn't give you the branches back - you can charge them with theft if they don't.

You can ask them to give you a warning though, but they don't have to.

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yup. DF works for a tree company, if the branches they are paid to remove is growing from the neighbours tree, they cut it and "return" the cut branches. works out cheeper for the person paying for the removal of them to.

I think your neighbours are obviously p!ssed with you about the trees or they would have handled it better kwim. You could choose to take them over a bottle of wine and some chocies and thank them for pruning your trees that are overhanging into their yard and say something about your concerns of the branches in your yard due to little ones and ask how you can all sort something out for the future that everyone is happy with :)

Or you could just get your Gardiner to come out on a some what regular occurrence to stop this from occurring?~?~?~

Legally, once the trees are over their side of the fence, they are their responsibility to trim if thats what they want. They also have to dispose of the trimmings appropriately - which does not include throwing them over your fence! At least that was the law in the council my parents live in - remember not all local councils operate the same way. If the law is they have to return them, then they should have asked you where you wanted them put, rather than just throwing them back over the fence - what if you had pets like chooks or something and it had've injured them?

I'd just pop something in the mail box or go over and have a chat, saying if they want the tree's trimmed before they get onto their property to ask, as opposed to throwing the trimmings over the fence, or if you have a garden sac, just let them know they can put them in there.

All I know is when my neighbours trees grow over my fence and they annoy me, I chop them off myself and take them to the dump with my own stuff. It doesn't bother me in the slightest, so I guess that's why I don't get the whole throwing them back over the fence thing!

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Or you could just get your Gardiner to come out on a some what regular occurrence to stop this from occurring?~?~?~

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I wish it were that simple. Our gardener costs us $300-400 each time they come out. When we moved into this house we thought the garden was lovely (and it is!), but never realised quite how much work it would be.

If the trees were the type that branch right out and hang I'd be quicker to notice they need a trim, but they are the type of tree that mainly just grows up, and they are pretty skinny too. So even when they start to go over the fence line it's not like they would ever actually hang down and get in the way. They would literally just be in the neighbours airspace above their heads.

But anyway, I'm not worried at all that the cut them, or even that they don't want to dispose of the branches themselves. I was just surprised that they wouldn't either just ask us to do it for them, or let us know that they were doing it and leaving us the branches. I know that they have kids as well so I would have thought that they would realise that throwing branches on the ground is a potential danger. Maybe because their kids are older they just didn't think about it...