The trees and weeds from an adjoining field are ruining my view. Exhaustive enquiries have failed to identify the land owner. Can I prune these old trees and shrubs or is it illegal?

Id do it anyway widge the land is obviously not looked after so i would think no one would care if you landscaped it either that or a few gallons of weadkiller or a disgarded match only joking

Is this in Portugal or England Widge?
In UK its legal to prune anything that overhangs your property (and hand it back to owner)and clear anything on your side of the 'border',
Im not familiar with Portuguese laws regarding this and don't know where you would stand, so I would be a bit careful if I were you. Is there anyone you can talk to regarding the legality of doing this?
good luck anyway

Don't joke about 'fires' Jose..have seen plenty of damage through this (and loss of life)in my time and its no joke!

Ellie wrote:Don't joke about 'fires' Jose..have seen plenty of damage through this (and loss of life)in my time and its no joke!

Don't start a fire; Just use "agent orange" (like in Vietnam) or "piss" on it.

A lot of Countries have a Weed Act or Noxious Weed Act which gives the local council powers to deal with such things. We used it once when the site management wouldn't carry ot their obligation to mow the grass. Might be something similar in Portugal although their system might not be that fast.

Does this post relate to your last on here Widge? In which case, the foliage must be getting really high by now.

Yes Laserblazer it does relate to this and other plots surrounding mine. I tracked down the owners of one plot and made an offer which wasn't accepted. The other land is of unknown ownership so I think i may start tidying it up first.

We will have the same problem with next door plot ( Last undeveloped in area ).
Again tried to track down owners ( no success ), we had the idea of buying it so as to control type of building.
Problem is that these abandoned plots become a dumping ground for garden waste etc ( have seen expats doing this ).

At least we might get some free firewood.

We had the same problem on the east coast in Lincolnshire. If the owner cant be found through the land registry or by other means, just put a fence around as much of the land you want, put some chickens on or a few goats to keep the grass down and in twelve years hey presto its yours

cant you find the owner through the land registry?

Finding the name of the owner was not the problem

Finding the owner is.

put an ad in the local paper saying he has won some money and iam sure he will reappear!!