[bunch29]

p.s its our house not council !

[GrannieAnnie]

I don't think the Council will care one way or the other if your house falls down Bunch29!

But there must be someone you can talk to for advice of the 'proper' kind!!!!   Good Luck with it

[penance]

But then surely if the neighbour's tree causes damage to bunch29's house foundations, they are liable for the damage, which could be horrendously expensive.

Yes, and that is why it needs to be properly discussed with the nieghbour.
Just because the tree may possibly damage your property does not mean you can hack away at it.

[GrannieAnnie]

Shame!!!!  We could have had a tree lopping party!!!!   

[FCG]

Eucalyptus grow extremely fast and have very thick shallow roots. You'll not be able to grow anything underneath them for sure - moisture vanishes around their bases. I've got a massive one (er, 20ft? Cant remember but it is definitely significantly higher than our house). We've made noises about it being cut down but all that happens is it gets the crown cut down every few years. I'd seriously offer to tend to the tree for them or advise them on how to get it cut.. forget about it for a year or two and it'll get massive!

[Stripey_cat]

Would they be amenable to suggesting that they should fell it and plant something more suitable to an urban garden?  Maybe even agreeing to split the replanting cost 50-50?  Even if you coppice it (and they can be lovely coppice trees) the roots will still be there.  How bit is it at the moment?  If it's manageable to fell without getting in a tree-surgeon it could be a neighbourhood bonding project!  Just make sure you either dig out or poison the roots.

[bunch29]

It was was about 20ft it was taller than the house, they cut the top off end of last summer so prob now about 15ft  which is still huge considering how close to the house it is!

There was a huge one at my kids school which they cut down to a stump over the summer hols and it already has new shoots a coulple of ft high.

reading your comments it really does need to go, the plants in my front garden will really start suffering otherwise

[sunshineband]

I doubt if the council would be all that helpful as the laws seem to ralte more to hedges or trees causing obvious structural damage (Insurance company might take this up!)##We had a eucy which was 18 years old --- 45ft high and the trunk 1.75m across. Very impressive. No issues for us as the rain just drip through the leaves (they hang down) but caused huge shadows in several of our neigh bours' gardens. Took it out. Cost us £600 and we missed it for weeks. So did the local woodpigeons! Have had to be careful that the bonsai collection housed under it's shlter has not frozen this winter without its protection, but to be honest it has opened up our garden and given us loads of possibilities now ....

The best bit ius that one neighbour (whose garden was not shaded by the way) used to collect up all the leaves each spring, when it shed hondreds of red ones all over the place and dump them over our fence by the binload -- wel she can't now,can she? Must drive her mad!!!!

[dereklane]

Depending on the kind of eucalypt (there are hundreds) and the soil type,rainfall etc, you'll get quite different root spread in different scenarios. They do generally (in my experience) have very deep tap roots, though again, this may be related to soil conditions and rainfall (most I've seen have been in Australia).  In Australia, you'll find gums along rivers which flow only in the wet season - the rest of the time the trees get their water supply via their tap roots from the water table, which is often very deep. (Hence the reason why if you see a line of trees along a gully and need water, its as good a place as any to head towards.)

Their roots are tough and do pull up foundations, by expanding with growth. If you cut roots off along a fence line (just one fence line) there's probably little chance it would keel over (due to not just a root spread, but a deep, thick tap root accompanied by roots on the other sides). I've pushed over maybe 30 or so dead gums in my time (with a tractor - the trees had been poisoned by someone else a long time before), and, with the minor roots gone, the main root ball, with the thick roots, doesn't usually exceed 5 m in diameter for a tree perhaps 30 metres high. 20 foot for a gum tree, dependent on species (snow gums I think are generally quite small) is not high. Some gums grow to over 100metres. Most species are probably in the vicinity of 20-30 metres.

Also, along with the tap root, they tend to be pliable in the weather - many forests will stand up to (shredded and split often, admittedly) category 4-5 cyclones. They get beaten around a lot, but even in such weather a significant portion survives. So for most UK weather even a root 'trained' gum shouldn't present too much of a problem.

But if you're looking for a way to raise the subject again with your neighbours in a tactful way, point out the probable damage the tree is probably causing to *their* foundations, and direct them to experts on subsidence - there seems to be plenty of examples even in the UK of eucalypts causing subsidence problems.

cheers,