My neighbor, who bought the property 8 years ago, claims that her underground pipes are invaded by roots of my Jacaranda tree. The distance between the tree and the fence line is 3.5m. She has already made other neighbors to chop their coral tree. Now she demands us to do this. As evidence she has photos of roots in the pipes and insists that they are roots from both tree. She is very determined to chop our tree. How can I defend my lovely tree. What is my responsibility?

Thank you very much!!! Such a good advice!!! I have a good dog.

I don't know mark maybe its time to get a banjo & get an old fashioned feuding going.

If the roots are going next door and damaging the pipes what's it doing to your house footings and pipes...?

shoodbegood said..
>>> though not really water sports

Who said it had to be water sports??? All the water sports have there own forums, (and some that aren't water sports). This is general discussion.

Been dealing with a neighbour who believes "trees belong in the forest" for nearly 10 years.

What rod_bunny says is mostly true... The thing to consider is are they your tree roots or could the roots in the reported photo be from another tree.

AND, you must take reasonable action to prevent damage... i think root pruning is reasonable...

Ben 555 said..
Jacarandas are in the moderate scale for root invasiveness ( not a word I know)

ie not as bad as ficus

A simplistic thing is to look at the canopy - if it's over her land and around the vicinity of her pipes. - then the roots will be there too.

If it's nowhere near and the property is older ( without the plumbing being renewed - ie old earthenware) then tell her to join the modern age

Root pruning on a Jac is fairly easy - just be sure to paint the root end that you want to kill ( not the tree) as quickly as possible after cutting - as the cells close of quickly inhibiting the chemical take up

Agreed. If the neighbour replaces the sewer pipes with PVC, then there will no longer be any problems. The old pipes will have seals that fail. Any drop of moisture that leaks will attract roots, and the pipes will probably end up blocking.

I think yards need trees, and I think the only long term solution is to replace the pipes.

She can proon the rutes on her land. Tell her to suck your balls

As Toph said: in WA, the council will have a neighbouring trees policy. There are steps to follow and its up to the complainant to prove, at their cost, that the tree is a problem and represents a danger to life or property. This is done via a report from an independent Arboriculturalist (not just your local tree lopping guy) Quoted $450 for the report. The Arboriculturalist report is unbiased to ownership and only states the issue and potential outcome. (ie Root lopping/barrier, tree removal etc)


To the OP: keep a log and write it all down. You're on the 'other side of the fence' to our situation so take heed at our outcome....




We are still going through this 9 months since discovering our neighbours tree wanted to be in our yard more than theirs. www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/General-Discussion/Chat/Tree-ID/?page=1

Our neighbour has not even looked over the fence and refuses to acknowledge its their problem. She had been advised by another neighbour a few years beforehand - so she knew of the problem.
The tree (Gleditsia Sp) was cut down (at my and another affected neighbour expense as the tree owner refused to pay for it). We either paid for it and started repairs or go legal and drag it out (as she refused to attend mediation or anything else on the Councils neighbouring trees policy checklist)

Due to the tree type, it suckers even when roots are separated from the trunk. All poisoning did was kill the lawn - it still suckered from roots that had been poisoned.
The roots had to be removed - all of them. We found roots under paving under the main roof of the house 12m away from the tree - way outside the tree canopy area.

We have had movement in footings (cracked roof support columns) in one corner of the house.

Root barrier has been installed to 600mm. We cant get anything mechanical in to our yard so everything has been hand dug.
Retic, power and rainfall drainage had to be repaired or removed. (We have PVC drainage but the tradies didn't glue it together)
Existing paving had to be dug up and laid again.

The other affected neighbours have also had paving re-laid - due to their age they didn't opt to dig up the lawn and garden dug etc - they are now spraying the hundreds of suckers that are coming up.

Design decisions have been made around her refusal to do anything. We cant have any water or fertiliser enticing the several other trees under the fence, thus we now have a paved area instead of lawn and fake lawn going in.

There has been a massive number of hours my wife and I have spent doing the repairs (digging out the roots, which has been approx. 75m2 to a depth of 400mm - roughly 30 cubic meters or 48 ton that had to be moved multiple times by shovel!) To visualise 30 cubic meters of sand think 45 trailer loads from your local garden center.

Essentially we have had a worksite as a backyard for 9 months to get it back to being a usable back yard for our kids to run around in.

So far, it has cost over $6000 for repairs to our yard.

House insurance doesn't cover garden, so that's $6000 that we either suck it up OR now that the full extent is known, I sue the neighbour for.
Given she wouldn't stump up the $280 to get the tree removed at the start of the year - I can see that I'm going to end up in a legal quagmire.
She is already abusing me over the fence due to the noise from compactors and brick saws - she is gonna completely loose her ** when she gets the bill for this. Which will make for a relaxing neighbourly relationship.



Our back yard is now an albatross - I hate going out there as it just reminds me of how much money and most importantly; time with my kids that I have lost because a neighbour did nothing years ago and this all could have been avoided.



Note, I like trees; I liked the tree that was there before I found out what was going on underground. The lack of tree was the one thing my wife and I lamented when we bought our place 8 years ago, we live in a now "normal suburban block" where the houses takes up most of the block and our neighbours houses are never more than 5 meters away in any direction. The fences are all colourbond steel and do nothing to prevent roots travelling (like the old super6 did)



Massive trees have no place in this type of development. Its like keeping a horse in your backyard, you can do it when you have enough space around it for it to prosper and not annoy anyone else. Trees with massively invasive roots should be banned from being planted in these developments.
Not your tree type, but the Gleditsia Sp is banned in QLD and NSW, it is on the WA Dept of Ag Harmful Plants list.






Long story short - engage with your neighbour - don't be a c**t and accept that with great trees comes great responsibility.

Just make sure he's not cutting your grass

She bought this block 8 years ago, shopped all vegetation on the land, covered with tiles, lifted her level by 60cm, damaged the fence, built the ugly wall retention on my side. Than she built extension of her house to 1m from the fence with two big windows. She does not live there, she has two sets of tenants. Young men are walking around with their heads above our fence. I never complained. This part of her house is new, so the pipes should be new, made of PVC.

Galina said..
She bought this block 8 years ago, shopped all vegetation on the land, covered with tiles, lifted her level by 60cm, damaged the fence, built the ugly wall retention on my side. Than she built extension of her house to 1m from the fence with two big windows. She does not live there, she has two sets of tenants. Young men are walking around with their heads above our fence. I never complained. This part of her house is new, so the pipes should be new, made of PVC.

Blocking a view, you must be.

rod_bunny said..
Hate to tell you this but you are legally responsible for all trees on your property.
Once you have been advised that there is damage to another property is your legal obligation to not let the damage continue or get worse.

If you choose to do nothing, you can be held financially responsible to make good the damage that the tree has caused.

that is bull sh!t

Cobra said..

rod_bunny said..
Hate to tell you this but you are legally responsible for all trees on your property.
Once you have been advised that there is damage to another property is your legal obligation to not let the damage continue or get worse.

If you choose to do nothing, you can be held financially responsible to make good the damage that the tree has caused.

that is bull sh!t

Of course it is but that is the way it is. Don't matter what the rules are. What matters is that you know what the rules are.

Old cast iron or clay sewer pipes are hubbed every 10 feet with a male and female end and either a rubber ring or lead and oakum to seal it. It's very easy for roots to get into at this spot. Newer sewer pipes are plastic and glued together, roots cannot get in at all. If it's the leach field pipes running from the septic tank these have holes in the bottom for the water to run out, roots will get in there and nothing can be done to prevent it.