Responsibility of a Tree Owner

A tree owner has a duty under the Occupiers Liability Acts to take reasonable steps to ensure visitors or trespassers on their land are safe.

Avoid this happening to you.

In practice this means that if a tree fails and causes damage to a person or property then the tree owner may be liable. The chances of making a claim, however, would usually depend on whether the owner had been negligent; for example, if the tree was obviously unsafe through damage or disease, and they failed to act to prevent the incident occurring.

The tree owner or manager has a ‘common law’ duty of care to:

‘take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which they can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure their neighbour’

Therefore if you own trees it is sensible to have them regularly inspected by a competent arboriculturist.

If you are unsure on how to do this, we can help you, by providing a site visit and inspection of your tree(s).

Our experienced surveyors have the experience and knowledge to identify a defect that may not be visible, and recommend a suitable management plan, which could save you the suffering of a tree failure and damage to a property - or worse!!

Please contact us by clicking the link below and one of our team will get right back to you…