Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place but would appreciate some advice. And I'm sorry it's long...
We bought our house in Jan 2017. It was built in the 80s as part of a small development of houses but on a large housing estate.
The house is detached and has a reasonably large plot. The main estate road is directly at the end of the back garden.
The whole estate is built on a hill, to give an idea the back fence is about level with the windows of the first floor of the house. All of the houses on our side of the road have big beautiful mature trees at the backs of the gardens; we have none. I always thought this was a shame but gave no real thought to it.
The house needs a fair bit of renovation and will keep us busy, and poor, for years to come. Eventually we planned to section the garden into terraces so we have a series of useable flat areas rather than a steep grassy slope.
Whilst talking to a couple of neighbours today, they mentioned that there is a covenant on the houses preventing any excavation of the gardens, as the gardens go some way to supporting the main estate road behind. This makes sense, and checking the deeds has confirmed this. Our concern is though that we have now seen another covenant forbidding the cutting down, lopping or topping of any of the trees on the land; I assume for the same reason - the trees were part of the structure supporting the road behind the gardens? Planting any further trees is also prohibited.
The previous owners of the house have at some point removed all of the trees at the end of the garden, thereby breaking the covenant. Where do we stand now, as current owners? Do we need to notify anyone (council/highways) and if, worst case scenario, there is some damage or something to the road and it is deemed that the lack of trees on our property contributed to it, are we liable for this?? And how do we fix it if we can't plant any new trees?!
Thanks if you made it to the end!