Owner uncontactable or not responding

[GarethM]

No, Adjacent is next to, IE bordering.

 

Opposite is not the same as adjacent, opposite would be on for example the other side of the street.

[peds]

Mate, it really seems like you're the only one having difficulty imagining the setup that led to this question. At this stage I reckon you are just being willfully obtuse.

 

 

 

 

 

[Steven P]

Time to go back to the question. I might be off here but if my neighbours tree overhangs my garden, I can trim it back to the propery line - so long as I offer the the branches back or something like that? So in this case, if the unknown owners trees are overhanging the road then the highways department can cut them back to make them safe?

 

 

(sometimes the quickest way to know who owns soemthing is to start work - legaly - they crawl out the woodwork pretty quick)

[john87]

A person has a right to abate a nuisance. Just do what is needed.

 

john..

[Kylus Sylvestris]

2 hours ago, john87 said:

A person has a right to abate a nuisance. Just do what is needed.

 

I think that right is limited to an 'actionable nuisance'.... one which unduly interferes with the use or enjoyment of land. It needs to be a VERY serious matter! In any case, the trees would most likely only qualify if they're either a) completely FUBAR'd and very high risk to persons/property or b) have extended to the land of their neighbour and interfered e.g by causing physical damage. Tell your client to park on their own property rather than the road!

[Puffingbilly413]

Try the Local Government Act and the Occupiers Liability Act for the legislative detail.

 

There are several council publications online that summarise it.

 

 

[Alex Seaview]

11 hours ago, Rich Rule said:

Perhaps a tree fell from the woodland onto someone's private property.  They may have even had a car parked on their drive which was damaged.

 

Not exactly an inconceivable scenario.

This is what happened 

[Alex Seaview]

18 hours ago, Jackalope said:

Do you know who the owner is but they just are not responding?

Or are you completely in the dark about who owns it?

Both present their own problems but are rarely insurmountable. I've done a lot of chasing landowners over the years, usually to gain access for grey squirrel control.

 

 

I have found who owns it through the land registry and searching on companies house but have not been able to get anywhere as the directors details are hidden and  the companies have no phone number or address.

 

 

[Jackalope]

4 minutes ago, Alex Seaview said:

I have found who owns it through the land registry and searching on companies house but have not been able to get anywhere as the directors details are hidden and  the companies have no phone number or address.

 

 

Ok, so I found the old school approach was usually more productive. It's very time consuming but knocking on the doors of the other local landowners, farmers etc is a good shout.  Usually someone will have an individuals name and that'll eventually lead to a phone number. The direct approach of turning up and speaking to people always yeilded better than a phone call or dropped business card.

Have a notebook ready to scribble names/addresses etc.

Be prepared to sink a huge amount of time in talking to folk though. I was fortunate as the whole job was on salary so time spent following breadcrumbs wasn't costing me anything.

 

[Muddy42]

It looks like several houses might have been built on what was once woodland.  So you could also look for the land registry documents attached to these and who sold the land.  Walk round the perimeter of the wood.  Is there access from farmland somewhere?  This might give a clue as to the farm to knock on the door of.

 

However just to play devil's advocate, I can see the other side of this.  That looks like beautiful mature woodland where even apparently healthy trees can fall expectantly or drop branches. For example storm Arwen came from a northerly direction near me so caught a lot of trees by surprise.  Cutting the odd tree or branch, hiring a climber or traffic lights is phenomenally expensive. In my experience there is no way that could be recovered from firewood quality timber sales.  Traffic lights can be £1k a week alone, so the temptation is to fell trees into the wood away from the road to reduce the time lights are required.  Volume makes timber sales more economical, so before you know it, the temptation is to fell the whole wood!

 

This exact situation happened near me. A village badgered a landowner to manage some trees and complained that whenever the road was blocked he took too long to clear it.  I helped the poor guy a few times, when I found him in his 70s trying to clear up with an electric chainsaw in the dark. Eventually he had enough and applied for and received a felling license and felled about 50 acres in a 30m strip bordering the road.  The same neighbors went mental at the loss of their 'amenity woodland' and view etc. It has regrown and looks quite nice now.