Legality of cutting down an Oak Tree.

physichull

physichull

physichull

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To cut a long story short, I am going to be putting in an offer for my first house tomorrow but I have a question about trees!

In the back garden of the property there is an Oak tree which shades most of the lawn and back garden area. It isn't a huge tree, but its sizeable nonetheless.

The house is actually leasehold to the local council for about 967 years to come and what I need to know is, is it legal to just go ahead and chop down a tree in your own garden, or do you have to gain special permission to do so?
 
I did, they don't know. Is it a matter of ringing up the local council?

Its in the back garden, surrounded by other houses so I find it hard to imagine that the council would have put an order on it.
 
The tree will belong to the owner of the land.

As a leaseholder you don't own the land.

There are likely to be covenants in the lease regarding such issues.

You may, for example, be responsible for maintaining the tree but you may not be allowed to remove it.

You need legal advice regarding the terms of the lease, Tree Preservation Orders etc.
 
There are many in the area I am looking at which are. In fact, most of them have at least ~960 years left on the lease to the local council.

Its about £40 per annum, but I have heard that you can buy back the lease for about £500, but I'm not sure on that one.
 
Rotty said:
curious as to why a house would be leasehold ?
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It is pretty common where houses were purchased under RTB in the 90's and early 00's. Sell leasehold, with 999 yeah peppercorn leases and stick a load of covenants in the lease.

I think it was meant to be a way of the councils / housing associations keeping some sort of control over the owners keeping the neighbourhood looking tidy - Fencing, trees, hedges, walls, garden paths etc.
 
Maybe it would be better to just cut some lower branches off the tree to allow some more sun in. Trees take a long time to grow. I was living at this one house with a massive pine/fern and it was blocking the evening sun. So the aussie i was living with cut some bottom branches off the, too quite high up and this realy made a difference and we didn't lose the tree either. Best of both, sun and the tree. Everyone wins even the tree.
 
physichull said:
There are many in the area I am looking at which are. In fact, most of them have at least ~960 years left on the lease to the local council.

Its about £40 per annum, but I have heard that you can buy back the lease for about £500, but I'm not sure on that one.
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Leasehold Enfranchisement is what you're getting at.

You need to have had the lease for for 2 years.

As well as the sum for the lease you can end up paying legal and valuer's costs.

You need to check what review provisions there are in the lease regarding the ground rent, it's unlikely to be £40 per annum forever.

There may also be Service Charges.

You really need legal advice on the whole thing.
 
I don't think there are service charges, given that it isn't a flat, its just a detached house. I'm also not sure of the benefit of buying back the lease anyway as it is unlikely we would extend.

I'll be honest, I don't really have much of a clue when it comes to leases, but what I do know is that a really long lease term is much better than one that is of the order of 5-10 years and owned by an independant freeholder (i.e. not the council, so they are unlikely going to demand that I tear down my house!).
 
BDEE said:
It is pretty common where houses were purchased under RTB in the 90's and early 00's. Sell leasehold, with 999 yeah peppercorn leases and stick a load of covenants in the lease.

I think it was meant to be a way of the councils / housing associations keeping some sort of control over the owners keeping the neighbourhood looking tidy - Fencing, trees, hedges, walls, garden paths etc.
Click to expand...

Sort of yeah, I think it was more to do with having general control of the land on which the house stood. I'm not altogether sure though.
 
Why not save yourself the hassle and just live with it? In the sun you'll be glad of the shade. If it's not sunny... well then you don't really care about it anyway.
 
If you do end up chopping the Oak down, Try and build something with the wood or make sure some one gets it who can make use of it.. Beautiful trees and such a shame.. :(
 
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