Duty of care- dangerous trees

[chris cnc]

 

i would have thought that even unpaid advice would carry some liability should the worst happen?

 

 

 

...bearing in mind that although probably not looked upon as a "professional", i am level 3 qualified

[felixthelogchopper]

Are you sure about that?

 

A contract without any form of consideration is no contract. In other words, if you haven't been paid in some way then you have no contractual obligation aka nudum pactum

[ad15]

funny this comes up today,,,

 

so, tomorrows job is a montery pine that is TPO'd,, the neighbors have been subjected to falling branches etc for over a year,,, they applied to have work done to the tree to rectify the problem

 

so the TO comes out,, looks at the tree and recomends it be removed as it is in decline anyway,, the house was built on the root plate and at some point it will flatten one of 3 houses..

 

we informed the owner,,, he doesn't give a monkeys,,, we've also informed the letting agency he is using to let the house out so technically they are all aware of the issue with the tree.. if the tree comes down then the insurance will not pay out as the owner is fully aware of the tree but chooses to do nothing,,

 

the LA are fully aware,, but they are not doing anything,,

 

so tomorrow's job is sorting out the immediate danger of falling deadwood and branches so that at least the familly can use the garden.. at the neighbours expense,,,,

[chris cnc]

funny this comes up today,,,

 

so, tomorrows job is a montery pine that is TPO'd,, the neighbors have been subjected to falling branches etc for over a year,,, they applied to have work done to the tree to rectify the problem

 

so the TO comes out,, looks at the tree and recomends it be removed as it is in decline anyway,, the house was built on the root plate and at some point it will flatten one of 3 houses..

 

we informed the owner,,, he doesn't give a monkeys,,, we've also informed the letting agency he is using to let the house out so technically they are all aware of the issue with the tree.. if the tree comes down then the insurance will not pay out as the owner is fully aware of the tree but chooses to do nothing,,

 

the LA are fully aware,, but they are not doing anything,,

 

so tomorrow's job is sorting out the immediate danger of falling deadwood and branches so that at least the familly can use the garden.. at the neighbours expense,,,,

 

bad situation, what would happen if the tree owner did not want the dead wood removed? (despite the neighbour paying for it). can such necessary works be "forced"?

[felixthelogchopper]

bad situation, what would happen if the tree owner did not want the dead wood removed? (despite the neighbour paying for it). can such necessary works be "forced"?

 

The tree owner's claim would be for criminal damage, and the neighbour's defence would be necessity ( F v West Berkshire Health Authority ) or abatemant of nuisance. Then it's down to the respective barristers to persuade the court that their client's actions were reasonable. If the falling deadwood was causing sufficient nuisance or hazard then it's unlikely the case would succeed.

[chris cnc]

makes sense!

 

what if the tree owner physically prevented the work from being done in the first place?

 

i ask just because you do get those people who are VERY funny about people coming onto their land, even for good reason

[chris cnc]

and i realize that a lot of this is hypothetical, but i think it raises some interesting questions about boundary issues and liability, etc

[bob]

If LA get involved and it gets done under miscellaneous prov act it gets out of hand and any hours sorting and trying to get owners to do work and any contractors costs ect will all be passed onto the tree owner. which gets silly with all legals and time it takes

If the owner then does not pay it gets attached to the property as a land charge so then it cant be sold till all paid in full which makes for a more awkward and expensive sale

Not an ideal way tbh but can sort it

have heard of a few been well over 10K:blushing:

[cerneARB]

You could also inform the Highways agency too.They have powers to deal with any tree believed to be endangering the highway.

[Matthew Arnold]

We had some tree work done on our trees by the highways agency a few weeks ago. as far as we could tell the trees were in perfect health. The only thing they had against them was they were growing from a slight bank and had a bit of a lean toward the road but they were in no way dangerous.