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Tree advice

8 replies

Lemonyfire · 31/07/2025 21:10

Bear with me for this I'll try and keep as succinct as possible!
Bought the house in February this year, our garden backs onto an allotment with clear boundary. We rent the plots behind our garden. To the left is a large area of land owned by a local family that have lots of land in the area. Many of the houses in the road back onto this.
Most of the trees on the border ( in the land) have TPOs on them. One large oak tree has concerned me when we moved due to its size and proximity and overhanging on our shed. I did raise this with landowner at the time and provided pictures.
Today several huge branches have come down effectively splitting the tree in half, they've come down on our shed,fence, trampoline and into our garden and allotment causing damage.
The landowner came round to look and advised that he doesn't own the 6ft triangle that this tree is on! We've since purchased Land registry records and title and he is correct. Bizarrely one small triangle of land where the tree sits is owned by someone who moved to Australia in 1960's and has been uncontactable since.

Our insurance company is calling us tomorrow but advised today we need to contact the owner ( of which is going to be near if not impossible). Where do we stand with this? The damage and cost of safely removing the branches is going to be huge. Not to mention the fact the tree is now very unstable so we will need to apply to the parish council to have the TPO lifted so it can be removed, but we can't foot the cost for this too!
Sorry if this is all a bit of a jumble, but would appreciate any similar stories/advice.

OP posts:
christmascrazylady · 01/08/2025 01:46

You need to use your own house insurance and make a claim with them. Last year a branch from our tree fell on the neighbours shed and our insurance said we aren’t liable as it’s a act of nature and the neighbour would need to use their own insurance cover

PrincessofWells · 01/08/2025 01:50

Unless there has been negligence, as pp said, you claim off your own insurance. It is up to your own insurance company to seek an indemnity from the owner of the land, not you.

PrincessofWells · 01/08/2025 01:52

Re finding the owner - you can use a tracing agent. They are advertised in the Gazette.

Lemonyfire · 01/08/2025 06:32

Thank you!!
Re tracing the family I think it's very unlikely to come to an outcome.
There's a chance there's been negligence as the trees should have been maintained and there's a query about it being diseased. However due to the complication of tracing someone who left the country over 60 years ago home insurance is the way to go.
Will continue with our home insurance wasn't sure whether not having an 'owner' of the tree would impact claiming so appreciate the responses!

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Collaborate · 01/08/2025 09:39

The owner will have either died or forgotten they own it.

In an emergency a tree can be made safe even if there is a TPO. You will still need to contact the LPA to get them to okay the works but that should be straightforward. Don't worry about niceties such as ownership.

See this https://liverpool.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/trees-hedges-and-conservation/tree-preservation-orders/

Tree Preservation Orders - Liverpool City Council

You need consent to carry out works to trees covered by a TPO, or trees in conservation areas.

https://liverpool.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/trees-hedges-and-conservation/tree-preservation-orders

Blushingm · 01/08/2025 21:45

Force of nature - unless you can price it was rotten etc

slightlydistrac · 01/08/2025 21:50

Contact the tree officer at your local council. Hopefully they will be able to advise.

Lemonyfire · 13/08/2025 18:35

Update- insurance WILL cover it as the owners are untraceable and will cover all damage. However if tree needs to be maintained in future ( it will as tree surgeons all agreed it's dangerous now ) the local council will need to agree to take ownership of that strip of land etc

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