Verge tree ownership

[Mesterh]

No clue but if the council cut the grass on the verge I would imagine/expect/imo/probably/possibly the tree is their responsibly.

 

Btw, I'm not a shill for big Verge.

 

Good on ya for doing your bit. 

 

 

 

[Paul in the woods]

Well, in my experience when highways fly tipped waste several meters into my property they claimed ownership but when the hedge right next to the road needs cutting the ownership suddenly becomes mine. 

 

Anyway, you can ask for a map which shows boundaries. Sometimes the highways do own bits of land and it will be shown on their maps. Our council has a specific person who processes these requests.

 

On the other hand, if you had asked the land owner guy who owns the tree as it's worth £2k these days for firewood he may have claimed ownership...

 

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Paul in the woods

[Dan Maynard]

8 hours ago, Mesterh said:

No clue but if the council cut the grass on the verge I would imagine/expect/imo/probably/possibly the tree is their responsibly.

 

Btw, I'm not a shill for big Verge.

 

Good on ya for doing your bit. 

 

 

 

We have patches in the village which the parish council mow but are owned by county council, one had a dead sycamore on it and PC said county would deal. I kept looking at it thinking I would just dismantle it before it fell on the road but eventually the county tree team came and did the job.

 

Sounds like that tree is outside the village though so definitely not PC.

 

Only ones like this I have done have been in the hedge line so seem to be clearly the landowner responsibility.

[trigger_andy]

My property runs along a stretch of road that’s maybe 100m in length? I own right up to the road itself.

[Jon Heuch]

12 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

The thing is, is there a definitive ownership of roadside trees, or does it vary?

My local council seem very keen to give up responsibility for every single bit of ground they can get away with at the moment, but roads need verges.

Who owns them and the trees that are often contained within them?

 

Easy to ask and of course important to know but the answer is.....it depends. A bit of land law is useful, understanding that rights of use and ownership are two different things.

 

So two preliminaries:

 

Do you have a district/borough/city council separate from your county, or do you have a unitary authority? Either way it is the Highways authority (not agency) that you need to identify. Let's assume it is a county.

 

Secondly, it depends on the size of the road; sounds like a country lane type rather than a major highway. Ancient rather than newly built?

 

With a country lane, the adjacent landowner is assumed to own the land to the centre of the adjacent road. The Highway is a right of way over the landowners land. The Highways authority is responsible for maintaining the highway but the adjacent landowners still own the trees and are responsible for keeping them out of the way of the highway, whilst the authority keeps the highway itself clear. However, the authority will do a variety of things on the land adjacent to the highway. In Kent, they hire a farmer to strim the verges about once a year for visibility purposes. They effectively cut herbs a few feet back of my land.  They write me letters to prune my hedge and trees from time to time if I don't do it. However, the authority will also take control of some land beside the road. Totally unpredictable so you need to check with them as to what they claim as highways land. They will have a definitive map, and sometimes this is online so you don't need to depend upon a vague phone call where you try to describe an odd bit of land which has no features to describe. Worth checking in the first instance.

 

All you really need to find out is whether the tree grew on highways land; if not, it's the landowners, regardless of what they thought.

 

Sometimes, the parish council owns odd bits of land; simply go onto the Land Registry website. Mapsearch on that gives you a definitive picture provided the land is registered. You may need to register for a free account to get to it. £3 to get hold of the title register itself which will show you the named owner.

 

In terms of clearance costs, if someone had phoned the highways authority they would typically have cleared it at their expense as its their responsibility to keep the highway clear., regardless of ownership. I have no idea if you might get something for your efforts but no harm in trying?

[donnk]

normally highways but it really depends on the road classification some times.

[Hodge]

I own the land that is bordered in red. We used to own the bar no the left and the house on the right. When we came to sell the house after my Grandfather died we had to split the land and barn away from the house. The land registry were involved and the said we own up to the middle of the road. The highways dept maintain the road, grit the road and empty the gully's. We have always maintained the verges even before we found out we owned them.

[Mark Bolam]

5 hours ago, Jon Heuch said:

Easy to ask and of course important to know but the answer is.....it depends. A bit of land law is useful, understanding that rights of use and ownership are two different things.

 

So two preliminaries:

 

Do you have a district/borough/city council separate from your county, or do you have a unitary authority? Either way it is the Highways authority (not agency) that you need to identify. Let's assume it is a county.

 

Secondly, it depends on the size of the road; sounds like a country lane type rather than a major highway. Ancient rather than newly built?

 

With a country lane, the adjacent landowner is assumed to own the land to the centre of the adjacent road. The Highway is a right of way over the landowners land. The Highways authority is responsible for maintaining the highway but the adjacent landowners still own the trees and are responsible for keeping them out of the way of the highway, whilst the authority keeps the highway itself clear. However, the authority will do a variety of things on the land adjacent to the highway. In Kent, they hire a farmer to strim the verges about once a year for visibility purposes. They effectively cut herbs a few feet back of my land.  They write me letters to prune my hedge and trees from time to time if I don't do it. However, the authority will also take control of some land beside the road. Totally unpredictable so you need to check with them as to what they claim as highways land. They will have a definitive map, and sometimes this is online so you don't need to depend upon a vague phone call where you try to describe an odd bit of land which has no features to describe. Worth checking in the first instance.

 

All you really need to find out is whether the tree grew on highways land; if not, it's the landowners, regardless of what they thought.

 

Sometimes, the parish council owns odd bits of land; simply go onto the Land Registry website. Mapsearch on that gives you a definitive picture provided the land is registered. You may need to register for a free account to get to it. £3 to get hold of the title register itself which will show you the named owner.

 

In terms of clearance costs, if someone had phoned the highways authority they would typically have cleared it at their expense as its their responsibility to keep the highway clear., regardless of ownership. I have no idea if you might get something for your efforts but no harm in trying?

Good info Jon, thanks.

 

It’s in Ashford Borough in Kent, the road is the downgraded A2070.

 

I will get in touch with Highways just to see what the situation is.

 

It’s about the sixth time I’ve done this now.

 

Just seem to get a bit of goodwill on Facebook and that’s it!

[topchippyles]

2 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Good info Jon, thanks.

 

It’s in Ashford Borough in Kent, the road is the downgraded A2070.

 

I will get in touch with Highways just to see what the situation is.

 

It’s about the sixth time I’ve done this now.

 

Just seem to get a bit of goodwill on Facebook and that’s it!

Next time just leave it and see who turns up to clear the fallen tree 

[Mark Bolam]

The way Ashford Borough Council operate mate it would probably be some ‘operatives’ with hand saws and the village would be bolloxed for half a day.