Would a Tree Preservation Order put you off buying a house?

[Thinkstoomuch]

Our useless council have just put a TPO on a very unexceptional tree on the boundary between ourselves and our neighbours. They did this to block a planning application for our extension. It prevents us, next door and any other immediate neighbours from doing anything to it, including routine pruning (unless you get special permission).

Apart from it being annoying because we can't trim it and it significantly overhangs our small garden and is frankly quite ugly, the main thing I'm concerned about is whether it will put off potential purchasers of our house. It has to be made known to any buyers and we hope to sell the house once the market recovers.

If you liked a house would a TPO showing up in the searches stop you making an offer?

How annoying, for you.

I bought my first flat despite a blardy great willow tree with a TPO about 10 feet from the front door, and I sold the flat no problem too. One of my neighbours invested quite a bit of time and efort trying (unsucessfully) to get parasitic things like mistletoe to grow on it .

Not really. OUr house is in a conservation area so all trees have TPOs by default apparently. I thought you were still allowed to do routine maintenance?

I always thought it was posh to have a TPO a bit like your property behing listed but then maybe I'm thick!

Wouldn't put me off. I love even ugly trees.

Quite the opposite as it means that the neighbourhood is going to remain relatively leafy.

We have several TPO trees in our garden and it's not a problem. You can just apply to the council for any reasonable requests for them to be trimmed.

Wouldn't put me off, I don't think. But if it blocked planning for an extension does this mean that there is no scope at all to extend? Does the house need extending?

I'm heartened to hear that it wouldn't put some of you off.

The TPO and the exclusion zone it creates does pretty much rules out any sort of extension by us or future owners as we've only got a smallish garden.

We weren't able to sell 'in the current climate' so the extension was to enable us to stay in the house for another few years. We can survive without it, it's just a bit of an arse pain really. And the house would be more saleable with an extension but not drastically so (it would be a 3rd reception room).

Hermione - you're not allowed to even trim the ugly bugger without doing the paperwork with the council. Harrumph.

Actually, I think it would make me think twice - sorry but honest. The only reason being if I wanted to buy and then extend e.g. you can't afford what you're looking for but want somewhere with "potential". But that isn't going to be everyone. And if you are waiting until the market picks up anyway then it will be less significant than if you were trying to sell now where everything can be seen as a problem.

Based on experience(my parents) yes it would put me off. They have TPO's on several treein there garden anditis aconstnt nightmare keeping them pruned, havingtodeal with storm damage,trees that die (they have to replace like with like, so it costs a fortune in buying mature trees). They had one that was 5ft from the back door that was slapped with a TPO it was undermining the foundations onthat side butthey had a huge fight to getit removed, but still had to then plant another one elsewhere in the garden to replace it.

I've never heard of having to replace a diseased mature tree with a new mature one. We live in conservation area in a national park (planning permission nightmare - you can't even change the colour of your front door without permission, and every tree is automatically protected), and when we had to have 2 diseased trees on our business premises cut down, even the park planners were happy to let us replace them with baby trees from a list of species their tree officer provided, so we didn't even have to replant the same type of tree.

Im in a conservation area, so all trees round here are affected. It doesnt bother me at all. It means that the area will stay green.
I've never heard of anyone applying for permission to prune a tree though, so maybe the council in my area arent too picky about how it is applied?

What sort of tree is it?

It also depends who at the council is in charge of tree preservation.

Ours doesn't really count sycamores as trees which is fine by us - they're ugly and dark and drench the life from the soil.

Anyway we had no bother applying to have two removed in our garden.

TPO's are not worth the paper they are written on in my experience as a Community Councillor. Developers and residents have been known to simply cut the tree/s down and pay the fine - if the Council get round to taking them to court - or replace it with a sapling or young tree.

It makes me

Wouldn't worry me, I would just kill it.

Would be happy to have a tree between both houses & for it to stay.

I guess you are right it must depend on the council. My parents' one is really strict. They have 6 silver birches in their garden all with TPOs and it is a constant battle with the council over doing anything with them. They have a like for like policy on replacement, so in theory if they remove a tree (are actually allowed to which is the first battle) they have to replace it wihth a silver birch and are expected to buy a mature tree if it was one. My father refused to do so based on cost and practicality so they finally allowed him to go for a younger one.

SHame the council aren't so forthcoming when it comes to maintaining the greenery/paths etc in the area.

we have three trees with tpos on boundary with neighbour at back and it made me even keener on the house, developers can't buy their plot to develop into flats because it'll be too near our beautiful trees.

We can remove dead wood with no permission, and they're too high for us to prune ourselves anway so as long as we get a decent tree surgeon they do all the paperwork (once in 5 years or so).

It certainly wouldn't put me off.

For me it would depend on the tree. A lot of the trees here have TPOs on them. My neigbhours have a huge cedar in their front garden and I don't think I'd buy a house with one like that. They have to go through the council and get an approved tree surgeon to come and prune it and it does cost them a fair bit each time. The roots are cracking up their driveway and punctured their water pipes which then cost a fair bit to replace as wasn't covered by the insurance or the Water Board and I worry a bit about the foundations of their house.

However at the top of the drive down to our houses are a lovely pair of Silver Birches which don't cause other neighbour any problems and I'd be fine with them.

i defo wouldnt buy with a tpo we have a tree with some legal stuff on it,but not a tpo its a real pita ergo -def not with a tpo esp if we couldnt extend -sorry. i would go thru the papework and get it trimmed tho

If the tree really isn't anything special, you could try lodging an appeal against the refusal of your planning permission. The Inspector would have to consider whether the tree was worthy of retention, and could over-rule the Council. Was this the only reason given for refusal? TPOs should only be put on trees with 'public' amenity value - can it be seen from the road? I would be careful about carrying out any works to it without consent - if the Council is picky, very hefty fines can be imposed.

I most certainly would never buy a house with any trees in its garden or

anywhere near the property they would just uproot the foundations of the house as they have in a neighbours property as well as looking unsightly.and causing a mess leaf dropping .

Developers seem to chop down trees with TPOs and pay the paltry fine and then build their development and sell for mega bucks...