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Howdy 
I did search and this topic has been discussed few times, however I decided to run few questions past PT forums to make a definite plan of dealing with the issue.
I have recently bought and moved into a central Auckland house (freehold section). Along one boundary, there are two big Privet trees, which are heavily overgrown onto my section, that I would like to remove, because of the following reasons:
1. They are right next to my concrete garage and roots might be damaging it.
2. Privet is classified as pest by NZ council and it very active during blooming and may cause allergic reaction to some degree. I think I'm experiencing it because since I moved in almost every night I need to use nose drops to clear congestion. I have not had to do that in the past.
3. The leaves/debree(spelling?) from the trees falls on my driveway, cars, roof (gutters), blocks stormwater drains hence these need to be cleaned at lest weekly.
4. Blocks the sun in the afternoon
I have already briefly spoken to my neighbor, kinda wierd guy, and he mentioned that he would like to keep those trees (at this point I have not asked him directly to remove them). He allowed me to trim those trees to the boundary, which I sortof did, but because the trees are pretty tall, I'm not able to completely trim it. Even if I could trim them to the boundary exactly, I would still get most of the issues, and moreover this would probably cause the trees to be unbalanced therefore would raise other concerns and risks. Also, it's not possible to definitely say whether these two trees are on my side, his side or boundary, as no boundary markings are to be found anywhere. I cant even tell if the fence is on my side or his.
To make matters worse, he has at least one other large Privet tree well inside this section (that also overgrows onto my section).
My plan of action is to write him a nice letter explaining how much I would like those three trees removed and offer to do it myself/at my cost.
Question is what are my options should he refuse to comply ?
Somebody told me that since this is a Privet tree, I can apply to council/court to have these removed, and since it is classified as pest, and I believe I have strong case, while my neighbor has no reasonable counter arguments, other that that he 'likes them there', council/court might issue order for removal.
I'd appreciate input.
Thanks.
I did search and this topic has been discussed few times, however I decided to run few questions past PT forums to make a definite plan of dealing with the issue.
I have recently bought and moved into a central Auckland house (freehold section). Along one boundary, there are two big Privet trees, which are heavily overgrown onto my section, that I would like to remove, because of the following reasons:
1. They are right next to my concrete garage and roots might be damaging it.
2. Privet is classified as pest by NZ council and it very active during blooming and may cause allergic reaction to some degree. I think I'm experiencing it because since I moved in almost every night I need to use nose drops to clear congestion. I have not had to do that in the past.
3. The leaves/debree(spelling?) from the trees falls on my driveway, cars, roof (gutters), blocks stormwater drains hence these need to be cleaned at lest weekly.
4. Blocks the sun in the afternoon
I have already briefly spoken to my neighbor, kinda wierd guy, and he mentioned that he would like to keep those trees (at this point I have not asked him directly to remove them). He allowed me to trim those trees to the boundary, which I sortof did, but because the trees are pretty tall, I'm not able to completely trim it. Even if I could trim them to the boundary exactly, I would still get most of the issues, and moreover this would probably cause the trees to be unbalanced therefore would raise other concerns and risks. Also, it's not possible to definitely say whether these two trees are on my side, his side or boundary, as no boundary markings are to be found anywhere. I cant even tell if the fence is on my side or his.
To make matters worse, he has at least one other large Privet tree well inside this section (that also overgrows onto my section).
My plan of action is to write him a nice letter explaining how much I would like those three trees removed and offer to do it myself/at my cost.
Question is what are my options should he refuse to comply ?
Somebody told me that since this is a Privet tree, I can apply to council/court to have these removed, and since it is classified as pest, and I believe I have strong case, while my neighbor has no reasonable counter arguments, other that that he 'likes them there', council/court might issue order for removal.
I'd appreciate input.
Thanks.
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