Tpo question

[Paul Cleaver]

Can anyone tell me the current standing on the following scenario

 

Tpo boundary trees are on neighbours property - overhang proposed for sympathetic pruning - I should know really but been out of touch on such matters:blushing:

 

is it:

 

subject to councils approval on the work - offer the arisings back to the owner?

 

reg

 

Paul

[Paul Barton]

Exerpt from the 'blue book':

 

 

Nuisance

6.9 The LPA's consent is not required for cutting down or carrying out work on trees so far

as may be necessary to prevent or abate a nuisance.

67

The term 'nuisance' is used in a

legal sense, not its ordinary everyday sense.

 

6.10 Under common law

68

a landowner can cut the branches from a neighbour's trees if

they overhang his or her property. The overhanging branches are regarded as a 'nuisance'

and may be cut at the boundary between the two properties whether or not they are

causing any damage. The cut branches, including any fruit, remain the property of the

neighbouring owner. The same rule applies to encroaching roots.

69

Two properties must be

involved, and so householders cannot claim that the trees in their own garden are the

cause of a nuisance to themselves.

 

6.11 Whether the branches or roots of a protected tree can be cut back in this way under

the exemption has not been settled by the Courts. In the unreported case of Sun Timber

Co. Ltd. v Leeds City Council (a case involving overhanging branches) it was decided that

the exemption applies only where the nuisance is 'actionable', in other words where the

overhanging branches are causing, or there is an immediate risk of their causing, actual

foreseeable damage. If this interpretation of the exemption is correct the LPA's consent

would be required under the TPO before cutting back branches or roots which are not

causing damage.

 

I would ring the tree officer and ask for his/her guidance on this before any pruning occurs!

[treequip]

Can anyone tell me the current standing on the following scenario

 

Tpo boundary trees are on neighbours property - overhang proposed for sympathetic pruning - I should know really but been out of touch on such matters:blushing:

 

is it:

 

subject to councils approval on the work - offer the arisings back to the owner?

 

reg

 

Paul

 

 

Yes and yes but if you do return them to his property with a degree of care there isn't a lot they can do about it.

[HCR]

Perrin & Ramage v Northampton BC [2006] EWHC 2331

 

Nuisance means actionable nuisance, not just an overhanging branch. Irrelevant that an alternative scheme, ie root protection, could also abate nuisance.

 

I think this went to appeal though, and don't know what the outcome was.