We have a strange law in the UK whereby if a branch overhangs your property boundary, you are perfectly entitled to lop it off, but only as far as the boundary. Lop it off 6" over their side and you're causing willful damage! However... the branches and any fruit on it remain the property of the person in whose garden the main trunk of the tree/shrub is and you have to ask permission before you do any cutting at all or disposing of the branches.

I'd love to be able to report my neighbour for cutting the branches off my small Viburna. I know it wasn't me because I haven't been out there lopping for over a year. But he's cut them off level with the top of the fence, thus killing the whole tree. Grrr. Can't prove it was him, even though he's got the only garden with access. He doesn't like the leaves on his lawn.

LTS