I bet you are, and I'd be thoroughly annoyed that they'd moved the boundary too. I'm not sure what you should do about it though - any legal action you take won't be welcomed, and you have to live next door to these people. If you're friendly with them, would it be possible to go round (when you've calmed down) and make protestations about what's happened and ask them to move the fence back to the right place - your Yew tree will regrow, (it'll take years) but if they leave the fence where it is, it'll be in their garden, not yours. This might be a good reason to speak to them about moving the fence back where it should be. I guess you know they were not legally entitled to cut your tree down, as it was in your garden, but of course, it now looks like its in theirs! I'm not even sure that it doesn't count as criminal damage - we have a legal person on the site, let's hope she logs on and sees this.

Your relationship with your neighbours is already under pressure now and they must know what they've done. I would go and have a word with your local town hall then ask next door to put the fence back.

Thank you Bamboo, just needed a bit of a rant! Trouble is, the neighbour is elderly and will be totally unaware of what they have done.I do not wish to upset her in any way, and if I ask for the fence (concrete posts and all) to be moved she would become aware. I have written a letter to leave attached to the fence in the morning asking for the two 'fencers' to meet me after I return from work to discuss how they can address the damage to my property. I am hoping that with another 24 hours I will be calm enough to talk to them. I have also stated that the elderly neighbour must not be told of this trouble.

Thanks Heron, Thought I might just be over reacting a bit, as some people would say 'it's only a foot'. Although angry about them moving the boundary, a tree that has been growing that long and just felled has upset me more.

How upsetting for you Bubblesok - It's one thing moving the fence but unbelievable and unforgivable to fell your tree. What a shame.

have you got a coppy of your dees if not the land registry office will have one,with this there can be no doubt in anyones minde were the fence must be ,any change without consulting the land regestry office is a crimanal offence and if you go along with it you also are guilty of braking the law, I am not a solisitor but have had a little experance off it in regards to boundries.

Bubblesok painful to your neighbour or not you need to deal with. Basically one of your trees has been cut down without your permission and, to add injury to insult they have placed the new fence within your ground. Get in touch with your local council a.s.a.p. and get this sorted. As has been said the juniper will re-grow but it is going to take time. You might also want to consider sueing the company that did this so that they think twice about doing it again - or, at least, threatening them with court action! They had absolutely no right to even enter your garden!

Being the good neighbour, I'd told them that they could come into my garden to help them work.

Hi Bubblesok, i think you are a very understanding neighbour, and i can fully see why this would be upsetting for you i would be furious, and i doubt many of us would find it easy to be so gracious. i think pinning a note on the fence is a good way to try to resolve this... you know if you do not get the fence moved back after a certain amount of time the land will become thiers regardless of what your deed says... i am not 100% sure on this so it is best to check, Andrearicher is the member you need to speak to she will know...

I think you will finde that it is twelve years

Thanks all, unfortunately I am well aware of the laws regarding boundaries as I have just been fighting my mum's neighbours for the last year! They decided to try and take a part of her garden due to a paperwork error 20 odd years ago. Right was on our side and we have got the land recorded in her name, but it was still a year of hell and bad feeling. Not what I want to go through again, and knowing how badly it affected my mum, that is why I want to save my neighbour the same stress at her age.

Well, it is your choice, lose part of your land plus the yew tree or stand up and disagree! Which is more important to you? I assume the land and the tree or you would not have posted the blog.

Put like that it focusses my mind,Yup, I guess my tree!

you have my simpathy I went through it some time ago may be the people who did it will see sense especaly if you let them know that you have allready been sucksesfull and give them an idear of the cost to the looser and tell them of your concern for what it will do to the old lady, good luck with it

Thank you. I will let you know how it goes.

Similar problem for me good friends next door we have now fell out over a new council fence,he got the boundary moved but not all he wanted,so I now have a six foot high border of weeds which he will just leave.

What a terrible sock for you, I would nt be pleased either.

Good luck Bubblesok - hope you can get things sorted out without too much pain...

I realise this is not going to be easy but think you have made the right decision. Otherwise you are going to fulminate for months or years...

my freend write:
Too many possible variables.
One would be the possibility that the boundary fence was in the wrong location in the first instance, resulting in the felling of a tree that you may have originally bought, but unwittingly planted in the neighbours garden. That being so, once planted, the tree was not yours.
Your first course of action therefore, is to ascertain exactly where your boundary lies. Cliffo seems to have pointed you in the correct direction for this to be achieved.
Worthy of note would be the fact that the fencers could well have known of the correct location of the boundary, and upon finding that the tree was within their boundary, now had every right to do with it whatever they wanted.
Remember, people now-a-days are more aware of legalities than formerly, so it is more likely that they are correct before you asume that they are not.
Check your position first, before you expound upon a position of ignorance.
DerekF - hop this help yoo

I will write a list to ensure you are aware of what you need to do.

Get a copy of your deeds.

Check on the title plant to ensure the boundary is the responsibility of your neighbour.

The boundaries under your responsibility to maintain are marked with an inverted 'T'

It is impossible to know the exact location of a boundary. The boundary you have when you buy your house is always assumed to be in the correct place. You will need a land surveyor to ensure you have the correct position of the boundary.

Fencing agencies will not know the location of a boundary. It is likely they will have done the work in the most convenient and cheapest way possible.

They should not have moved the boundary without consulting you or the lady they were doing the work for.

They certainly should not have cut down a tree. It sounds like some ignorant horny handed costamongers to me.

Speak to your neighbour. Be apologetic and explain you do not want to cause her trouble but you believe the people she hired to work on her property have damaged your property and illegally moved the boundary. Basically this is criminal damage.

Write to the company involved or contact them and ask to speak to the person in charge. Get them to come on site to discuss this with you.

You have to involve your neighbour as it is work commissioned by her.

Do some research into how much a mature tree (12 year old Yew) costs to buy retaill and insist they reimburse you.

If the 12" of land is yours, ensure you write to the company to insist they move the fence to its correct position. This should be done at their expense and they should not ask your neighbour to pay for further work caused by their mistake.

If they refuse to co-operate, you may need to go to a solicitor, however it is easy to take something to the Small Claims Court yourself. You can PM me for further advice if you wish.

Before you do anything, make sure you have evidence of the original boundary line.

Let me know how things are going, this is an awful position to be put in and the idiots have now put you in a difficult position with your neighbour which is a terrible situation. Good luck.

If you read Andrea, it was her neighbours family that done the fencing so how would she stand there, horrible situation both are in, its a shame.

How did you letter pinned to the fence go Bubblesok, hope all went well.

Talk to her neighbour, that is the most important thing. Ask her to contact her family to discuss this and then proceed as you would if it was a fencing company. Sorry to get the details wrong, I read Derekf's post and when he said fencers may have known where the boundary was I thought there were so called experts carrying out the work.

The fact it is family members is difficult, they may be ignorant of the law, but to ride rough shod over another persons property and land is out of order. So many people are ignorant of garden law and it causes so much bad feeling when people are misinformed.

I hope Bubblesok lets us know how it is going....................

Thank you Andrea, so do I.

Me too. Our village is a case in point of gardens not being on the boundaries. The village was built for the workers on the Brodie estate, our house was the saw millers home. The houses were dotted about either side of the cart track and it was common for the house to be on one side of the track and part of the garden on the other. Didn't really make much odds as they were all tenants in any case. Then the cottages and houses were sold, generally to the then tenants. A proper, if somewhat narrow, tarmac road was put in and folk started putting up fences and hedges as boundaries. These didn't always get put up in the correct places! When a proper survey was done recently we discovered that a part of our garden is actually owned by the neighbour on one side, whilst on the other side part of our land is in the neighbour's garden. Being sensible folk we've agreed that where the fence/hedge is at present is the boundary and are leaving it at that. But had any one of us decided to be awkward it could have caused huge problems.

(Derek's friend writes this)
Derek has been telling me of a colleague that a neighbour who, when renewing his fencing, placed it exactly on the boundary line. In order to do this, he had to remove a gutter downpipe from an outbuilding belonging to the colleague (without permission).
The colleague took the neighbour to court, on the basis that the neighbour should not have placed half the width of his fencing on the colleague's land, particularly when this nescesitated the removal of a drainage pipe on the colleagues property.
The court ruled that the outbuilding should be placed sufficiently away from the boundary, so that the drainage pipe drained onto the colleague's land. Prior to the new fencing, this indeed was the case, albeit exactly adjacent to the boundary line.
The neighbour had no right to place his fencing where any part of it was placed upon, OR OVERHUNG, the colleagues land.
Consequently, the neighbour was forced to re-site his fencing, rather than the colleage having to re-site his outbuilding.
Sometimes with aggresive neighbours, fencing placement can come down to millimetres.
The account serves to support the need to ensure that the exact location of the boundary line is known.

Hi Everyone who took the trouble to reply.
When I returned home that evening, the main 'fencer' (Grandson-in-law of my neighbour) met me with a new yew tree. Not as large, or nice a the chopped one, but I appreciated the gesture. When I spoke to him about why he had moved the boundary, he kept harping back to 'needing a line'. He did not realise, or care,when I told him he already had a line, where the original fence had been. He did not grasp the seriousness of his actions, and still appears to think that I have over-reacted. I had to walk away from him. I calmed down enough to go back and ask for his and his sidekick's details. I have been hoping that my neighbours daughter would call round to discuss, but she is obviously keeping her head down. I am still considering what my next step will be. I will keep you posted.

Next step is council unfortunately Bubblesok - sounds as if he is basically admitting he knew what he was doing was wrong! Giving you the yew tree is a very valid point! Does he realise the original tree is going to re-grow?

Thats good of you to keep us informed, seems they knew they done wrong by presenting you with a new yew tree, which would infuriate me more. If you check above at Andrearicher she is a leagal person in this has given you advise on what you can do. Hope all works out well and will look forward to new update.

I bet he doesn't...

That is my thought Bamboo... just cutting a yew down does not kill it - but is pretty brutal!

I don't think the local authority can help in England and Wales with this particular problem. The law may be different in Scotland though. Councils can help with boundary height, but not a legal issue. This person has taken your property without a previous agreement from you. Write this person a letter. Mention you may be forced to take legal action against your neighbour if he forces your hand by not acknowledging and correcting the fact he has broken the law. If he cares about his elderly relative next door, he will do the right thing. You must let your neighbour know he has a, cut down your property and b, broken the law by taking a piece of your property without your permission. Keep her up to date, he may be giving her a different story.
Ask this person if he realises how long it takes a Yew to grow, thank him for replacing your tree, but I would still be tempted to find out how much the original one would cost to replace (height and age, etc). Deduct the price of the new one, give it back and bill him for a replacement!!
I will help you with an overall letter by PM if you need it to cover all issues.

This is a good link and gives to the rights and wrongs about boundary disputes. It gives an example of a dispute, much worse than yours, but it also gives you good advice.
OS maps can be about 1 metre off the true boundary and the title plan is based on the OS map. The title plan only gives the legal responsibility for maintaining a boundary by an inverted 'T' on a plan.
The only way to get an expert opinion is chartered surveyer. If it comes to this, which I hope it doesn't. This is a good site for advice

http://www.1stassociated.co.uk/boundary-article3.asp