Overhanging branches and the right of abatement

You can cut branches that hang over your boundary. That right comes from the common law, not from any permission your neighbour gives you, and it has been settled for well over a century. What people get wrong about overhanging branches neighbour law is everything after that first sentence: how far you may cut, what happens to the cuttings, and what changes when the tree is protected.

Get one of those wrong and a minor irritation becomes a claim or a prosecution.

Where the right comes from

Encroaching branches and roots are treated as a nuisance, and the law allows you to abate a nuisance yourself rather than going to court. The House of Lords confirmed in the 1890s that a landowner may cut back overhanging branches without giving notice to the tree's owner, provided the work is done from their own land.

So there is no application to make and no consent to seek, on an ordinary unprotected tree. There is also no obligation on your neighbour to do anything, because the right is yours to exercise or not.

One caution about the framing. Abatement is a remedy for the encroachment, not a general licence to reshape a tree you dislike. The further the work goes beyond removing what crosses the line, the weaker your position becomes if there is an argument later.

How far you may cut

Back to the boundary. Not beyond it, and not in a way that involves reaching or leaning across.

That sounds simple and is awkward in practice. A branch that crosses the line at three metres and grows back over at six needs cutting at the line at both heights. An honest arboriculturist will tell you that a clean cut at the boundary is often the wrong cut for the tree, because it can leave a stub that decays or trigger dense regrowth that returns the problem in two seasons.

Take care with the work itself. If cutting causes the tree to die, become unstable or fail later, the owner may have a claim against you, and the fact that you were entitled to cut does not protect you from having done it badly. On anything large, employ a competent arboriculturist working to recognised pruning practice, and keep the specification and photographs.

Do not cut into the main stem, do not remove more of the crown than the encroachment requires, and stop if the work starts to look like a reduction rather than a boundary trim. The wording that councils accept for tree work is worth borrowing even for unprotected trees, and specifying crown works councils will accept covers how that is set out.

Who owns the branches and the fruit

The cuttings belong to the tree's owner. So does the fruit on them, whichever side of the fence it was hanging over.

In strict terms you should offer the material back rather than keep it or dispose of it. In practice most neighbours are content for you to take the arisings away, and a short note asking beforehand settles it. What you should not do is throw the cuttings back over the fence. That is not returning the owner's property in any useful sense, and depositing material on someone else's land without agreement is its own problem.

The fruit point catches people every autumn. Apples overhanging your garden are not yours to pick, although few people have ever been sued over a windfall.

When the tree is protected

This is where abatement stops being straightforward. A Tree Preservation Order, or the automatic protection that applies to trees in a conservation area, is a separate statutory control, and your common law right does not override it.

There is a narrow exemption in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 for works necessary to prevent or abate a nuisance. It is narrower than it sounds. The courts have read nuisance there as meaning a legal nuisance that could be sued on, not mere inconvenience, and the burden of proving it sits on the person who did the cutting, after the event, when the evidence has been chipped.

So the practical advice for a protected tree is the opposite of the advice for an ordinary one. Apply for consent to the council, or serve the required notice for a tree in a conservation area, and wait. The application is free, and a refusal can be appealed. Cutting first and arguing nuisance afterwards risks prosecution, and the penalties for damaging a protected tree are not trivial.

Check before you start. Councils hold a register of Tree Preservation Orders and will confirm conservation area status, and a five minute call avoids the whole problem.

Roots, subsidence and structural damage

The right of abatement covers encroaching roots as well as branches, and the same limits apply. In practice severing roots is far riskier, because roots provide stability as well as water, and cutting a structural root close to the stem can leave a tree liable to fail.

Where roots are causing actual damage, the issue is different. Claims about subsidence linked to a neighbouring tree turn on evidence: the soil type, the tree species and distance, the pattern of movement, monitoring over a full seasonal cycle and the exclusion of other causes. A structural engineer and an arboriculturist both have a part in that, and insurers usually lead it.

If you are the tree owner, the position reverses. Knowing that your tree is damaging a neighbour's property and doing nothing is where liability tends to attach, so respond to a letter rather than ignoring it. A tree survey by a qualified arboriculturist gives both sides something factual to work from.

Access onto neighbouring land

You have no general right to go onto your neighbour's land to do the work, even work you are entitled to do. Entering without permission is trespass, and so is leaning over the boundary with a pole saw.

Most of the time a polite request solves it, particularly when you are doing work that benefits both parties. Where access is refused and the work cannot be done from your side, there is a statutory route for obtaining access for preservation works to your own property, but it is a court application and it is disproportionate for routine pruning.

Where the trees straddle a boundary or their ownership is unclear, sort that out first. Boundary trees and shared ownership covers what happens when a tree grows on the line itself, which is a different legal position from an overhanging branch.

Settling it before it escalates

Almost every one of these disputes costs less to resolve with a conversation than with a solicitor.

Write to your neighbour first, saying what you propose to cut, when, and who will do it, and offering the arisings back. That letter does three useful things: it gives them the chance to object before the saw comes out, it records that you acted reasonably, and it very often produces an agreement to share the cost of a proper job rather than a boundary trim.

Where the problem is an evergreen hedge over two metres rather than a single tree, there is a separate statutory complaint procedure to the council under the high hedges legislation. It carries a fee and requires you to show you have tried to resolve matters yourself first, so the letter is the starting point there too.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Where a tree is protected, consent from the council is required before works begin. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.

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