Boundary trees, shared ownership and planning

Boundary tree ownership is decided by where the trunk stands at ground level, not by where the branches reach or where the roots run. A tree growing entirely on your neighbour's side is theirs, however far it overhangs your garden. A tree whose trunk straddles the line is owned in common, and neither of you can lawfully remove it without the other's agreement.

Everything else follows from that. The right to cut back, the need for consent, who pays for damage and what you can safely show on a planning drawing all start with the ownership question.

Who owns a tree near a boundary

Ownership follows the land the tree grew from. Look at the trunk where it meets the ground and check it against the title plan and the physical boundary features.

Title plans are indicative rather than precise, and a red line on a Land Registry plan is drawn at a scale where its thickness covers the width of a mature trunk. Where the exact position matters, the evidence that helps is a measured survey, older conveyance plans, and photographs showing the boundary structure over time.

Two situations cause most of the confusion.

A tree planted deliberately in a hedge line that has since been removed. The hedge is gone, the ownership convention it carried is gone with it, and the tree stands alone in an argument.

A tree whose trunk has grown across the line over decades. Ownership is judged on the position when the tree first grew there, though in practice a trunk sitting visibly across the boundary is treated as jointly owned.

Joint ownership is more restrictive than people expect. Neither owner may fell a jointly owned tree, and neither may carry out works that damage the other's interest in it.

The right to cut back overhanging branches

Where a neighbour's tree overhangs your garden, the common law gives you a right of abatement. You may cut back branches, and roots, to the boundary line.

Four limits apply to that right.

You may only cut back to the boundary, not beyond it, and you may not lean over and take more because the shape looks better.

You may not enter your neighbour's land to do the work without permission. Doing so is trespass, and it is the point at which a manageable disagreement becomes a legal one.

The cuttings, and any fruit on them, remain the property of the tree owner. Offer them back. Tipping branches over the fence is a poor idea and throwing them away without asking is technically wrongful.

And you must not cause the tree to die or become unstable. Severing major roots on one side can do exactly that, and a claim may follow if it does.

Before cutting roots on any mature tree near a building, take advice from an arboriculturist. Root severance affects stability and can also affect the ground beneath your own foundations.

What protection changes

Protection overrides all of this.

Where the tree is covered by a Tree Preservation Order, or stands in a conservation area, the common law right of abatement does not permit you to cut it. You need the council's consent for works to a protected tree, or you must serve the six week notice that applies to trees in a conservation area, and that is true whether the tree is yours or your neighbour's.

Cutting a protected tree without consent is an offence, and the person who carries out the work is liable, whatever they believed about ownership.

Check before you touch anything. The council's Tree Preservation Order register and its conservation area map are both public, and a phone call to the tree officer takes ten minutes.

The exemptions for dead trees and for work urgently necessary to remove an immediate risk of serious harm still apply, with their notice requirements. They are narrower than most people assume, and the burden of showing that an exemption applied falls on whoever did the work.

Applying for works to a neighbour's protected tree

You do not have to own a tree to apply for consent to work on it.

An application for works to a protected tree can be made by anyone with an interest, and a neighbour affected by the tree qualifies. What you must do is notify the owner, and the application will ask you to confirm that you have.

That is not a way to have a neighbour's tree removed against their wishes. The council decides on amenity grounds, the owner will be consulted, and consent to fell a healthy protected tree is rarely given on the basis of a neighbour's inconvenience. What it does provide is a route to a formal decision when a conversation has stalled.

A proportionate crown reduction, properly specified in arboricultural terms, is far more likely to be granted than a felling request. Describe the work as a qualified contractor would, with a plan and photographs.

High hedges are a different regime altogether

A line of evergreens is not a tree problem and it is not dealt with by the planning system in the same way.

Part 8 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 lets you complain to the council about a high hedge that is made up of a line of two or more evergreen or semi-evergreen trees or shrubs, rises more than two metres above ground level, and acts as a barrier to light or access.

Three things to know before you start.

The council charges a fee, and it varies between authorities.

You must show that you have tried to resolve the matter with the hedge owner first. Councils reject complaints where no attempt has been made.

A single tree, however large, is not a high hedge. Deciduous hedges are outside the regime too.

Where a complaint succeeds, the council issues a remedial notice specifying what must be done and by when, and there is a right of appeal.

Damage, roots and claims between neighbours

Claims between neighbours over trees are civil matters and they sit outside the planning system entirely.

Subsidence caused by root activity is the most common. A claim usually requires the affected owner to show that the damage was caused by the tree, that it was reasonably foreseeable, and that the tree owner failed to act after being put on notice. Insurers pursue these claims routinely and the evidence involved is technical.

Damage caused by a falling branch or a failed tree turns on whether the owner took reasonable care, which usually means whether there was any inspection regime appropriate to the tree and its position.

Leaves, fruit, honeydew and shade rarely support a claim at all. They are the everyday consequence of living near trees.

Where preservation work on your own tree can only be done from a neighbour's land, the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992 allows an application to the court for an access order, and the Act expressly covers cutting back, felling or replacing a tree that is damaged, diseased, dangerous or insecurely rooted.

Keeping the dispute out of your planning application

A planning application is a poor venue for a boundary argument, and case officers have no jurisdiction over ownership.

Three practical rules keep the two apart.

Survey the neighbour's trees. A Tree Survey prepared to BS 5837:2012 covers trees on adjoining land whose root protection areas extend into your site, and a survey that ignores them will be sent back.

Design within what you can lawfully do. Do not show a layout that depends on removing or heavily pruning a tree you do not own and cannot get consent for. Officers spot it, and the application stalls while you find out that the neighbour objects.

Say what you are doing about the constraint. A short paragraph in the Planning Statement explaining how foundations, levels and drainage avoid the root protection area answers the question before the tree officer asks it.

You can browse all 66 PlanScope report types to see which documents a project near a boundary tree is likely to need, or enter your postcode to check the constraints on your property.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it, and take proper advice on any dispute with a neighbour. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.