Neighbour complaining about height of bushes in our garden

[trybefore 6]

Plant some bulbs spelling rude German words. They'll be asking you to increase the size of the trees then.

[dci02 18]

3 hours ago, lunaCH said:

Although a further twist is we planted some very small conifers in between these higher bushes and a few weeks later received a registered letter stating that they must stay below the height of the fence (about 1.2 metres and which borders the street). The woman did tell me we would receive the letter and explained it was to protect their view (they live on the first (upper) floor and these are small plants - so the mind boggles...) and the view of whoever would inherit the flat after they've gone. We feel the letter is meaningless (any ideas?!) as it merely sets out what they want.. 

The letter is a legal basis for later in case youlet the trees/bushes grow too high. From my understanding of the laws (and we have had a similar problem ourselves with trees on our boundary which were there before any houses were built), if there is no complaint etc within 5 years of your tree being planted, it gets protection. The letter is just a formality to make sure you keep the conifers to a set height.  But eeach township seems to be different. I live in BW but our town lets upto 150 cm height where the trunk is 50 cm from the border and every 50 cm increase in height the tree needs planting 50 cm further from the border. In the weinberge double the distance is required.

[jeba 4,364]

I 'd give her permission to cut them down a bit herself, explaining that you dont want to spend money on her view.

[lunaCH 972]

3 hours ago, dci02 said:

The letter is a legal basis for later in case youlet the trees/bushes grow too high. From my understanding of the laws (and we have had a similar problem ourselves with trees on our boundary which were there before any houses were built), if there is no complaint etc within 5 years of your tree being planted, it gets protection. The letter is just a formality to make sure you keep the conifers to a set height.  But eeach township seems to be different. I live in BW but our town lets upto 150 cm height where the trunk is 50 cm from the border and every 50 cm increase in height the tree needs planting 50 cm further from the border. In the weinberge double the distance is required.

The thing is none of the bushes are along a border between our property and theirs. 

 

Regarding though this 5-year rule in general. What if there are trees growing in awkward or objectionable positions but they were planted before you acquire your property - do the 5 years start from when you take ownership or have they already been running uninterruptedly beforehand and a complaint should have been put in by the previous owner? 

[dci02 18]

3 hours ago, lunaCH said:

The thing is none of the bushes are along a border between our property and theirs. 

 

Regarding though this 5-year rule in general. What if there are trees growing in awkward or objectionable positions but they were planted before you acquire your property - do the 5 years start from when you take ownership or have they already been running uninterruptedly beforehand and a complaint should have been put in by the previous owner? 

From my understanding, it starts when the trees are planted/or get larger than is allowed. With us it was obvious our neighbour couldn't do anything as the trees were there decades before her house was built, but I looked into our local laws and asked our then ortsvorsteher what the regulations were as some other trees were planted by my in-laws 20 years before I moved in. There is some special gewohnheits recht, which applies after x years which protects large trees apparently.

[lunaCH 972]

1 hour ago, dci02 said:

From my understanding, it starts when the trees are planted/or get larger than is allowed. With us it was obvious our neighbour couldn't do anything as the trees were there decades before her house was built, but I looked into our local laws and asked our then ortsvorsteher what the regulations were as some other trees were planted by my in-laws 20 years before I moved in. There is some special gewohnheits recht, which applies after x years which protects large trees apparently.

It would be interesting to know what happens then if more than 5 years have passed, yet at the same time the trees infringe an accord set out in a notary document which forms part of the land registry deeds for a property. We actually have this situation also. 

The document, from 1999, states that the right of the owners of the flat with the windows (ground floor), to access daylight, has to be respected by the owners of the land which is outside of the windows. The trees were planted by our neighbours after 2006 (when they purchased) and now / nowadays they block light, particularly in the summer when fully green, but in all probability they were planted more than 5 years ago. We purchased in 2017. The previous owner put in a complaint about a shed which had been erected on this land after 2006 - in direct infringement of the 1999 document, but did not make a complaint about the trees - presumably as at the time they were still tiny. I don't know if we'd have a case here about the trees or the shed. 

[dci02 18]

On 27.4.2020, 18:17:34, lunaCH said:

It would be interesting to know what happens then if more than 5 years have passed, yet at the same time the trees infringe an accord set out in a notary document which forms part of the land registry deeds for a property. We actually have this situation also. 

The document, from 1999, states that the right of the owners of the flat with the windows (ground floor), to access daylight, has to be respected by the owners of the land which is outside of the windows. The trees were planted by our neighbours after 2006 (when they purchased) and now / nowadays they block light, particularly in the summer when fully green, but in all probability they were planted more than 5 years ago. We purchased in 2017. The previous owner put in a complaint about a shed which had been erected on this land after 2006 - in direct infringement of the 1999 document, but did not make a complaint about the trees - presumably as at the time they were still tiny. I don't know if we'd have a case here about the trees or the shed. 

This would be interesting, personally I would say that you are correct with regards the articles in the deeds. Our case was pretty clear cut, it was against town laws but since the tree in question was there before the house was built it didn't apply, and the other trees (which I wanted to actually chop down and the then neighbour didn't as she didn't want to see her brothers house) were protected since they had been tolerated for so long. If I am not mistaken, (and this might bite me), there is a third law that trees over a certain size are also  protected in some townships to preserve the local character, I should have had the three I want chopping, felled several years ago when I had others felled, but money was tight (tree felling is expensive...), I still have no idea why they were planted them sporadic on the border with no attempt to make a hedge, and love to hear "well I never thought they would grow so tall"  - okay they are conifers, ...

 

After the asides, I think it is worth people checking with the local council, it is what we did, (and something I am going to have to do again late summer regarding the felling of three large trees).