Shes a leaner but can it be delt with?

[frontier guy]

Right this is a bit of a tricky one, we are lucky enough to live in a woodland but there has been no managment of the woodland in front of our house and there has been alot of self seeded trees grow to quite large trees now. The first problem is we know who owns the first meter of the land but behind that it is old ruins of some houses that we think were knocked down as part of the slum clearance years ago. So the first concern is the big leaner that is covered in ivy and I have no idea how it has not come down yet by itself. If I have it looked at and its classed as dangerous and needs to come down and I cannot find the landowner do I have any right to have the work done or am I stuck untill I can find who owns the land? If I find who owns the land is it there responsibilty to have all the trees made safe (others have dead wood that will come down in a good wind) or is it down to us seen as its us who want them sorting out?

(the leaner is (just) between our house and next doors so it wont come down on the house but it will do a fair bit of damage to other things if it does fall down!

 

[Paul Jenks]

You do need to find out who owns the land, as, by extension, they own the trees. Land registry should be able to help. It's worth getting in touch with the local highways authority too as these trees may have the potential to obstruct the highway if they fail.

Tree owners have a duty of care to maintain the trees on their property where there is the potential to cause harm or damage to others or their property. Ignorance is no defence, and it helps your cause if you know who they are prior to any failures and you have the opportunity to ask them to carry out the works.

[HCR]

1. Is there any specific relevance to your statement that there are lots of self seeded trees? Trees grow, mature and produce seeds - some of which then grow into trees. That's how woodlands work.

 

2. You could contact the Land Registry to try to trace ownership - if the land has been registered (e.g. if it has changed hands since compulsory registration began in your area), they will be able to help. Get the local authority to confirm whether or not it is theirs as well. It may well have been the subject of a Compulsory Purchase Order if sub-standard housing has been demolished in the past.

 

3. You don't a right to work on a dangerous tree on neighbouring property, but you may be able to rely on the fact that you were protecting your own property as a defence. It sounds like the same thing, but there are subtle differences. If it overhangs yours, you may cut back to the boundary line though.

 

4. There is no duty as such to have the trees made safe, but every land owner has a duty of care to his neighbours.

[Dan Earp]

Aye all down to the land owner to sort out

[Steve Bullman]

Is that tree above or below the bt line? cant make out from the pic

[frontier guy]

Thanks for the replys, thats good news, I will push on and see if I can dig anything up on the owners first. The road is private and not part of the highway but it does have public footpath right of way so do you think the highways would be any help with it only having access rights for pedestrians?

 

HCR, just in the fact that nobody has planted the trees that are causing prblems and nobody seems interested in maintaining the boundry fences etc.

 

I have done a search on land registry when we bought the property and I have the docs for all 3 main landowners around us and its nobody in the local area and if I search on the direct area all I get is "no infomation" which is annoying! The only other thing I could find was a more in depth search which cost a fair bit.

[treequip]

Of the tree is an an immediately dangerous condition the LA has powers under the miscellaneous provisions act to make safe.

 

Speak to the tree officer

[frontier guy]

The BT line is holding the tree up:lol:

 

A huge branch came off another tree 2 years ago and im still putting it through the woodburner now, that took out the line then but they were not fussed when the came and fixed it that it was going to happen again.

[HCR]

Thanks for the replys, thats good news, I will push on and see if I can dig anything up on the owners first. The road is private and not part of the highway but it does have public footpath right of way so do you think the highways would be any help with it only having access rights for pedestrians?

 

A public footpath (i.e. a public right of way) is a highway maintainable at public expense. Armed with this information try telling the highways dept that there is a danger to the public.

 

A tree is a tree is a tree - how it got in the ground doesn't matter.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Best way is for you to apply for title to that land, if it comes back as no one has title then you have aquired more land foc, otherwise you will be told who the title holder is

[frontier guy]

If only it was that simple! I have contacted the council so I will wait to see what they say and go from there. Now just need to find the scumbags who seem to have been flytipping at the end of the road:mad1: