Cut down tree with TPO - help!!

[Expelliarmus88]

Hi
We have just found out there was a tree in our garden that had TPO but we were never informed when buying the house. We did the garden years ago and don't even know if this tree was part of it but there are no trees in our garden anymore. Its come up now we are selling the house - what do we do ??
Thanks a lot!

To the kind people who genuinely tried to help me - thank you so much.

Depending upon what it is and where it is you may be able to get permission to remove it, for example if it is causing subsidence to your property or has become unsafe, or is harming other mature trees and shrubs.

We had several trees with a TPO in our garden and the process to get them removed was easy enough. Sadly not quite quick enough to save the lovely laburnum from being smothered to death by the horrible TPO protected Leylandii ☹️

Seriously what moron puts a TPO that prevents trimming and lopping on several Leylandii in a small garden 🤦

Any tree warden who puts a TPO on a leylandii is an idiot.

You needed to level the whole garden after being burgled. Were there burglars living in the trees waiting for you to go out?

What absolute drivel. You wanted to cut the trees down and you used any excuse you could. Fortunately, most councils have heard all the shite excuses there are so hopefully they will fine you.

There are some unbelievably stupid and ignorant comments on here about TPOs. Given that it’s something which is pretty easy to find information on, it’s staggering how much misinformation there is on this thread.

This.

It wasn't even just one Leylandii, it was 4!

I have no sympathy I’m afraid.

You knew there was such a thing as a TPO. You knew you were destroying lots of large healthy trees. You took a risk and it has come back to bite you.

Actually you’ll probably get away with it but it might hold up your sale whilst you get an indemnity policy in place. But my honest view is that you shouldn’t get away with it. I say this as someone with lots of trees with TPOs so I know the process is a hassle

Haven’t RTFT but we recently had a problem with this as buyers of a relatively new build. There was a TPO covering 6 trees and the solicitor asked for confirmation that the trees had not been removed or pruned. Eventually the seller came back and said the trees were removed. I asked the solicitor about an indemnity policy but he said those policies don’t cover breaking the law! As buyers our concern was protecting ourselves against enforcement action and any issues when we come to sell. The solicitor asked the seller to get confirmation, in writing, from the council that no enforcement action would be taken. The council replied with a document from the new build plans that showed the trees were to be removed. So the council had approved it but it wasn’t submitted as a separate planning application. Phew. The solicitor said that if they’d been removed without permission we could be asked to replant them (fine with me) and that prosecutions are brought against the individual who removed the tree, or the person who instructed its removal.

I wouldn’t have walked over the TPO (there were much bigger issues that came out of conveyancing than that) because I too wanted to hang on to my mortgage rate! Everything was ironed out and we exchanged last week. Our mortgage broker said it’s possible to switch the mortgage offer to a different property, but the solicitor felt they’d find any excuse to withdraw the rate we’d locked in and we should plough on with the purchase.

@Zpack thank you so much. We are happy to fully take responsibility and be prosecuted and pay the 20k if it comes to it but don't want to lose the sale. We need to exchange within 3 weeks though so not sure if it is realistic. But at least the fact that our buyers can have peace of mind if we have it in writing that we will replant and assume responsibility - I'm hoping that's enough! Thanks for taking the time to post that!

I hope for your peace of mind that your buyers have accepted your offer to get your responsibility in writing @Expelliarmus88 . I’m intrigued how neither your searches nor your survey (homebuyers) mentioned the TPO? - both absolutely should have done…. If poss when you get to your new house plant a few trees (small ones even), world needs more not less. Hope you get it sorted.