neighbour's Trees

Thinking of building an extension at the back and side of a house I am looking at, there are some large Trees belonging to neighbour, which overhang the boundary wall, also there is a bow in the boundary wall obviously from these trees and the roots.

My query is this, as part of the extension we will be building out to our boundary wall, so what is our position with regard to the trees/branches that overhang the boundary wall, also what happens if when putting in foundations the roots are in the way, what are the legalities of this situation, I would assume that you are entitled to cut back the neighbours trees where they over hang the boundary wall, but what about the roots ?

Has anyone been in this situation and if so what did you do and what would you advise in a similiar situation again.

I am pretty sure you aren't allowed damage the roots to the extent that it compromises the survivability of the tree so you need to think carefully before comitting to the extension. Apart from anything else, it could fall on top of your lovely new extension and then where would you be ?

You could try talking to the neighbour and seeing if they still want the tree - it is possible that they now find the tree too big and might be prepared to let you take it all down.

z

Will the roots also in time not affect the foundations of your extension and possibly cause subsidence? There was a very interesting item on BBC1 this morning in the 'Under the hammer' programme. I think it was a structural engineer who spoke of particularly bad subsidence in one house that had been caused by a nearby tree.