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Topic
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I am on the Executive Committee of my residential Strata Plan which includes a number of townhouses whose courtyards are situated along the edge of our property.
A number of our neighbour’s trees frequently drop overhanging branches and leaves into the courtyards of these townhouses. Some of these branches are quite large and have the potential to injure residents and damage property.
We’ve had a few requests by residents for us to engage a tree lopper to trim overhanging tree branches. This is a significant cost which has not been included within the budget for this year.
At the last AGM, the Owners Corporation adopted Memorandum AG520000 relating to who is responsible for items within a strata scheme. Unfortunately, the memo appears vague as to our specific situation.
The only other thing I can relevantly identify is a note on our registered Strata Plan which says that “Except where covered, courtyards are limited in height to 5 metres above the upper surface of the ground floor concrete slab of their respective units immediately adjoining.” This appears to indicate that an individual Lot includes the airspace up to 5 metres from the floor of a townhouse courtyard. Would this therefore mean that anything above 5 metres be Common Property?
We would appreciate any comments or suggestions as to who should legally be responsible for trimming tree branches overhanging townhouse courtyards – (the individual Lot owner, or us as the Owners Corporation)?
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I am a little confused by the wording of your post, but assuming that the trees are on your Strata Plan, it matters not whether they’re on Common Property or on any part of a Lot, all growth above the strata limit (vertical) is the responsibility of the Owners Corporation.
Individual Lot Owners do have a responsibility to keep the height of any and all trees / shrubs on their Lot below the strata limit, so provided they’ve been planted since the Registration of the Plan as opposed to being existing trees that were left in place during the Development, you may be able to obtain a contribution towards trimming costs from the Lot Owners concerned – but that would of course be voluntary.
@Whale said:
I am a little confused by the wording of your post, but assuming that the trees are on your Strata Plan, it matters not whether they’re on Common Property or on any part of a Lot, all growth above the strata limit (vertical) is the responsibility of the Owners Corporation.Individual Lot Owners do have a responsibility to keep the height of any and all trees / shrubs on their Lot below the strata limit, so provided they’ve been planted since the Registration of the Plan as opposed to being existing trees that were left in place during the Development, you may be able to obtain a contribution towards trimming costs from the Lot Owners concerned – but that would of course be voluntary.
Whale, the way I read Jeff.f’s post is that the trees with falling (or potentially falling) branches are in adjoining properties to the strata development.
If it were me I would approach the local council tree person and submit that the trees are dangerous and people using their courtyards could be injured or killed by falling branches.
The council should send out their tree inspector and if he or she agrees that the trees are dangerous, then a letter should be sent to the owner/s of the trees asking them to either trim them or cut them down.
I know because when I had a house and garden one of my trees was overhanging a neighbours garden and I had to lop several very large branches. An arborist charged me almost $2,000 to do the job in suburban Sydney.
Hopefully your neighbours will pay the cost for you and the other strata owners.
All the best.
@jeff.f said:
Thanks so much for the comments. To clarify, the trees with overhanging trees are neither planted on Common Property or within an individual Lot. They’re on a neighbour’s property – technically it would be their responsibility to trim overhanging tree branches.However, on the basis that our neighbour(s) won’t pay for that cost – whose responsibility would it be (the Owners Corporation, or the individual Lot owner)?
jeff.f
I still recommend that you go to the local Council first because it is your neighbours who ‘own’ the trees. You can ask the tree inspector to come out and look at the trees and they may have a cost. (I think it cost me $20 to submit the form when I was arguing that another tree on my property was safe.)
Even if an approach by you, or your E.C. to them has not been successful with the neighbours, the local Council will make sure that the work is done safely.
If you know that Council has sent the neighbours a letter to comply, keep following up if you are not approached by a tree lopping company within a few weeks.
Just be sure that they are not ‘cowboys’ without any insurance or real knowledge of lopping trees safely.
Owners should not have to pay to have it done when it is not on your property.
In a sense of good neighbourliness, you could offer to pay half, or a portion if you think your neighbours are not able to afford the work. I suspect it would be your cost then.
It is very simple. The tree-limbs overhanging the common property are the responsibility of the OC as they exist in your air-space (irrespective of whether the trees are growing on a neighbour’s grounds).
Therefore, if you wish to remove those limbs in your airspace, you may do so at your expense and offer to return the limbs to the neighbour as these are the property of your neighbour. You may not throw the limbs over the fence.
Ensure that there is no preservation order on the trees – either because of significant value or simple council tree preservation rules – or you could be fined if you lop branches. If your actions kill the tree you will be liable. I would recommend reading the Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006 (https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/sessionalview/sessional/act/2006-126.pdf)