'My neighbour's tree drops berries on my car. Can I cut it back?'

[OwlHoot]

Alternative: water it with glyphosate.

Tried that once with a neighbour's giant copper beech tree. I dug a ten foot deep hole to some large roots, drilled several holes in these and poured gallon after gallon of concentrated weedkiller through lengths of hosepipe into the roots.

Result: Zilch. The tree grew more vigorously than ever the next year. It's like blowing a pinch of pepper in the face of a charging rhino!

[DoctorStrangelove]

Copper nails in the trunk during the night.

Problem solved.

Alternative: water it with glyphosate.

[Old Greg]

AtW has dangleberries

Hopefully he’ll give it a good flush when he’s wiped you off.

[vetran]

AtW has dangleberries

[OwlHoot]

Do you own your "parking area"? If so, I'd tell the people who live there, and the agents, that you intend to remove the branches and then do so. If not, you'll need the owners permission to remove the branches (but no-one is likely to do so if you do it anyway).

Does the tree house squirrels?

But bear in mind that if you trim branches of some kinds of tree, more than ever will grow from the stumps, which is the principle of pollarding

[Paralytic]

You've no right to force anyone to remove a tree. You have a right to remove any branches overhanging your property, but at your cost and you must give/offer them back to the owner. You cannot force the owner to pay for their removal. You have no right to any recompense for any damage anything falling from the tree does to your property unless you can prove negligence on the owners part (eg, the tree starts rotting, is clearly at danger of falling and then falls onto your car).

Do you own your "parking area"? If so, I'd tell the people who live there, and the agents, that you intend to remove the branches and then do so. If not, you'll need the owners permission to remove the branches (but no-one is likely to do so if you do it anyway).

Does the tree house squirrels?

[northernladuk]

Like CUK sockies?

Or Brillos wives?

[BrilloPad]

Many of them are sloppy and get recycled after so many years.

Like CUK sockies?

[xoggoth]

What sort of tree is it? Maybe scrape the berries off the car and make some wine or jam with them. A bit of bird poo provides a nice tangy flavour.

[Paddy]

These Q&A columns are mostly fake. The Newspapers buy them in bulk from an agency, it's a lot cheaper than wasting journalists time. Many of them are sloppy and get recycled after so many years.

[AtW]

"Q My next-door neighbour has a 20ft-wide lawn which borders the front of my house. There is a large tree in the corner of the lawn near my parking area. The boughs don't significantly overhang my driveway.

Every autumn the tree sheds lots of berries which fall predominantly onto the public pavement and my parking area, and therefore onto my cars. Similarly, and of greater concern, throughout the year bird excrement falls onto my vehicles rather than his, which are on the other side of the lawn, away from the tree. The tree therefore is a nuisance to me, but not to him.

My neighbours rent the property and occasionally sweep up the berries but, of course, do not clean the bird dirt from my cars. I am concerned that the bird dirt will cause damage to my cars' paintwork if not removed promptly, such as if I'm away, and I have already started deliberately parking the older of the two vehicles closest to the tree, to try and protect the more valuable car but still at the risk of damage to the other.

At what point does this tree constitute a legal nuisance? Other neighbours tell me they have complained and I feel we would be dismissed out of hand if we approached the rental agents. We don't know the details of the absent landlord. I would happily pay for a legal letter to the agent if removal of the tree would likely be their most pragmatic response. "

Source: 'My neighbour's tree drops berries on my car. Can I cut it back?'