Severed roots

[eggsarascal]

Under English tort law roots on your property count as trespass/nuisance and you are fully within your rights to remove them back to your boundary without notice.

 

Would be interesting to see a ruling if this did go further for damages, how it was ruled in regards to who was liable.

 

Is this correct ?

[treequip]

Under English tort law roots on your property count as trespass/nuisance and you are fully within your rights to remove them back to your boundary without notice.

 

Would be interesting to see a ruling if this did go further for damages, how it was ruled in regards to who was liable.

 

Is this correct ?

 

Well yes and no, as a general principal that's correct but as a statement its a bit blanket and that's a bit dangerous. As a general principal you are responsible for your actions (duty of care) and this case in point is a good illustration.

 

Leaving aside issues such as statutory protection, lets assume the root removal is within common law, is it acceptable to then leave the object in a dangerous condition?

 

Well provided the other party had served the tree owner of their intentions, and allowed time for the prudent man to act, I for one don't think the average beak would find issue. Its what "putting on notice" is all about.

 

Saying nothing and doing the cutting while the neighbour is on a beach somewhere would be viewed in a different light.

 

So, allowed to remove the encroachment while exercising your common law rights, yes certainly. Allowed to leave the object in a dangerous condition? Well, "duty of care" ........ Discuss

[Stubby]

A complete knob jockey 2 doors up from me waited till my neighbor went on holiday and then dissmanteled the complete fence and moved it 3 inches to gain that extra width . Un believable !

[treequip]

A complete knob jockey 2 doors up from me waited till my neighbor went on holiday and then dissmanteled the complete fence and moved it 3 inches to gain that extra width . Un believable !

 

Unfortunately not

[hamdogg]

So what's happened in there return Shane?? 🍿🍿

[elspedo]

Discuss

 

It's a hard one as the owner of the tree is usually the one with the duty of care for that tree but obviously the cutting of the roots has had some impact and I would agree he has some duty of care in that respect, although he was well within his rights to cut the roots and by law he doesn't have to give notice of doing so.

 

"the owner of a small property where a hazard arises which threatens a neighbour with substantial interests should not have to do as much as one with larger interests of his own at stake and greater resources to protect them: if the small owner does what he can, and promptly calls upon the neighbour to provide additional resources, he may be held to have done his duty: he should not be liable unless it is clearly proved that he could, and reasonably in his own circumstances, should have done more."

 

Goldman v Hargrave, 1966

 

Everything I can find relates to the owner of the tree, I would agree the neighbour should have done what he deemed reasonably possible to prevent it happening and appears to have been negligent.

[Shane]

I waited till I had a call from either party.

The 'neighbour' is still away till next weekend - and still hasn't contacted me.

I've had a couple of textx sayin 'Ill contact you tonight' but he's off the radar.

 

The owners got back from hols on Friday and spent the weekend pondering the mess.

The mother is a legal professional, the brother is a magistrate and another family member is a solicitor.

 

They have concluded that he DID have a right to arrange to mitigate the trespass of the roots, but, as mentioned above, he has a duty of care to do so without causing any long term damage and/or destabilisation. A 'reasonable' person would have consulted with the owners first (they were around on the day it was done).

 

Another option might have been to have called in a professional tree specialist to discuss the options with the owner.

 

The owner has contacted her insurer who has said they are 'happy' to pay for the clear up and re-planting, but they want the details of the neighbour so they can recover costs off of him.

OOOOH.

 

She has also asked me for a letter descibing what has happened.

I think a straight facts only statement with photos will be just the ticket there.

 

She also said that she will pay me for the clear-up herself, since I've heard nothing from the neighbour the owner is kind of taking over as my customer. She also wants me to grind out the stumps and re-plant once this is all sorted.

 

As long as she is happy to take over thats fine with me. I just wish the neighbour would get in touch as I don't want it to seem as though I'm changing sides. As long as I stick to the actual facts all the way through there shouldn' be a problem.

 

The Insurance legal bods can have a good old bunfight while I get on with tree work.

 

I'm going up there tomorrow to look at the deodar which is close to the fence, it's had a few tiny roots cut BUT it is TPOd. I feel a bit of a reduction may be sensible as it has a large bough over the roof.

 

I just wish the neighbour would come back and talk to the owner, they are (sort of) friends and I dont want to stir up any animosity, though I suppost it was the enthusiastic biggus dickus with his chainsaw who really started it all.

 

I'll keep you updated.

[David Humphries]

.......I'll keep you updated.

 

That's appreciated

 

Good luck with it.

 

 

 

.

[john burgess]

and the logs ?

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

and the logs ?

 

 

Fairies??