Property damage caused by trees

If a tree on public/council-owned land has caused significant damage to your property, you can submit a property damage claim. Significant damage may be as a result of fallen trees or branches, or damage caused by tree roots (directly or indirectly).

We can only become involved with alleged tree related property damage when it has been substantiated with an eligible claim. It is the claimant's responsibility to investigate and substantiate the cause of damage to any private property. We will only undertake works on council owned land and assets.

How to submit a claim

Subsidence or heave

If the tree is the suspected cause of subsidence or heave, you will need to supply a structural engineers/building surveyors report, along with the original reports carried out before you purchased the property.

Contact your building insurance company who will liaise with our claims department on your behalf and will commission any necessary reports or investigation.

• All investigation should be undertaken before making a claim.
• We will not investigate damage caused by trees on privately-owned land.
• Not all claims are eligible for compensation.

Root damage to your property

If you believe the roots from a council owned tree have caused significant damage to your driveway, garden boundary wall, foundations or drains, you will need to substantiate this with evidence of tree roots close to the property. This should include:

• a wide view photo of the area taken in daylight and the damage you think has been caused by the trees.
• a photo of the tree roots close to the property. You must remove any paving flags and show the roots at your property and further back, showing the location of the exposed roots in relation to the house, wall or drains.
• how many trees, if any, that you have on your land.

Submit a claim

Once you have gathered the required evidence, you can submit a damage claim and upload your evidence as part of the process.

What happens next?

Your case will be reviewed by our specialist claims handling team, who will contact you within 21 days of receiving your claim.  The team will then have 90 days to investigate the claim. The 90 days will start once we have received all the information requested. The claims handling team will determine if a case is eligible for compensation. This is decided on a case-by-case basis.

If the claim is successful, you must commission all the remedial work and claim back the value from the council - you may not be eligible if work has already started before notifying the council and submitting a claim.