Woodland Law

[Old Tip]

We have a lot of land that joins on to woods, most of the woodland owners are great and keep their fences and walls up and are good to work with.
But just had a bloke at the door who’s threatening to take me to court because I won’t let him have access to my field where a large limb has fallen out of the wood. In the past any wood that’s fallen in the field we’ve cleared up as it’s on our land and is in the way for any field work. This limb is fairly big and has been down since last October but it’s been too wet to do much with it apart from make it semi safe.
So my question is, does the limb belong to the owner of the wood even though it’s on my land and do I have any legal obligation to give him access to remove it.
I might add he never repairs his boundaries and we are constantly repairing wall gaps and costing up fencing.

Thanks in anticipation

OT

 

[ollie989898]

Its on your property; he is fudged.

 

[Formatted]

Are you an NFU member? Might be worth checking with their legal team or if you've got insurance with the NFU I'd also call them and ask.

 

[Goweresque]

Its possible that legally it is his wood, and you have no right to it. Certainly with branches that overhang a boundary you can cut back to the boundary, but must return any material to the neighbour who is the technical owner (or offer and comply if they say they want it). What the situation is for fallen branches I couldn't say - whether the same rules apply, or its falling is considered to be an 'act of god' and as its on your ground as a result of nature it becomes yours I couldn't say. I would think that even if it is his log, he doesn't have a right to come and reclaim it without your permission, that would be trespass. To be honest most of the time disputes arise when people want their neighbour to remove fallen branches, not want to hang on to them.

Could you not just chuck it back over the fence into his wood?

 

[Old Tip]

Its possible that legally it is his wood, and you have no right to it. Certainly with branches that overhang a boundary you can cut back to the boundary, but must return any material to the neighbour who is the technical owner (or offer and comply if they say they want it). What the situation is for fallen branches I couldn't say - whether the same rules apply, or its falling is considered to be an 'act of god' and as its on your ground as a result of nature it becomes yours I couldn't say. I would think that even if it is his log, he doesn't have a right to come and reclaim it without your permission, that would be trespass. To be honest most of the time disputes arise when people want their neighbour to remove fallen branches, not want to hang on to them.

Could you not just chuck it back over the fence into his wood?

It will weigh about two tonne or maybe more, if it ever drys up I may do that just no way to get near it at the moment

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Is the branch still attached to the tree or is it entirely on your land?

If it's no longer connected to or touching his property, I would call it finders keepers and get it sawn up and shifted.

 

[Old Tip]

Is the branch still attached to the tree or is it entirely on your land?

If it's no longer connected to or touching his property, I would call it finders keepers and get it sawn up and shifted.

It’s totally on my land and at least a few metres from his tree, as others have said when it drys up I’ll go with the tractor, chip it up and lift it back in the wood. No way am I letting him on my land after his performance today

 

[Old Tip]

Are you an NFU member? Might be worth checking with their legal team or if you've got insurance with the NFU I'd also call them and ask.

Thanks for the tip, rang them and they said legally the limb still belongs to him but as it’s been down for half a year and this is the first time he’s approached me I am perfectly within my rights to say he can’t have access. Also he’s is being negligent in not contacting me sooner.
Their advice was to put the limb back on his property, but I would need to cut it up to do that and the ground conditions will have to improve drastically.
Just what I needed when at the moment

 

[alex04w]

My understanding of the law is :-

Where a branch is attached to the tree and is overhanging your land, you can cut it, but you must return it to him.

Where the branch has fallen off the his tree onto your land, it is yours.

The same applied to the fruit on a tree. If your neighbour's apple tree overhangs your land, you cannot pick the apples off it, they belong to your neighbour. However, once the apples fall off the tree and onto your land, you can lift them and keep them.

 

[brigadoon]

Goweresque has the rights of it - even if technically it belongs to you it is hardly worth getting lawyers involved - once the ground permits put it back over the fence.

Cut it up if you have to but take some photos first and try to cut it at a bend, twist, crack or anything else that is an end point rather than putting your chainsaw through the middle of a straight bit if you can.

You are of course fully entitled to cut any overhanging branches that interfere with your operations - but again you need to return them to him.

 

[Kidds]

Carve it into a bat and whack him with it.

 

[Grain Buyer]

Arguing over a branch........yes get the solicitor involved. Brilliant.

 

[Bogweevil]

Of course if said fallen branch had landed on a cow killed it, said bough would have been his and he would have to cough up.

 

[Jameshenry]

Hire a big chipper and blast it back over his boundary !! As he is being a twit !! ,,, would be satisfying if nothing else

 

[Al R]

Hire a big chipper and blast it back over his boundary !! As he is being a twit !! ,,, would be satisfying if nothing else

Burn the branch in situ?

 

[Darranfarm]

Let him down to collect it, and charge for any damage to your fields

 

[renewablejohn]

Just noticed a neighbors tree has fallen down into the stream and is now taking away my land having diverted the stream. Dont think I will have a problem removing the tree but what about restoring the lost land is the neighbor responsible.

 

[Dry Rot]

Neighbours should be banned!

Let him in and he's sure to leave a mess. Shift it for him and bill him. Preferably to an inaccessible part of his wood. Or agree to a mutually acceptable (and expensive) contractor to do it at his expense with him cleaning up to your satisfaction.

I let mine in so he could bang a strainer in back over the fence. When I went to look later, I found he stapled the top wire of my fence to it so I can't tension that wire. Not only that, the staple is driven right home damaging the galvanising and there's no way it can be eased out without digging into his post! Funny how little things like that can be so annoying! I hate to see stupid bad workmanship. Yeah, I know.

 

[michael N123]

Who thefeck cares about a branch that much ?!