Lawyer explains your legal rights to cut neighbour's tree branches in your garden

Almost every garden in the UK has at least one tree, and some are more than a century old. It's no wonder, then, that disputes around trees are one of the most common sources of neighbour rows in this country.

Most of us get on great with our neighbours, but sometimes a small disagreement can snowball into a giant legal battle, especially when your neighbour's tree starts overhanging your garden, blocking your light or covering your garden with leaves, acorns or bird droppings.

That's why law firms have advice dedicated to helping people navigate domestic disputes specifically around trees and tree legislation (yes, there really is tree legislation).

Law firm Shensmith has advice just for neighbours warring over an old oak, or maybe a fir, poplar or pine tree.

Shensmith explains that if a tree is causing a nuisance in your garden, such as from creeping tree roots, or overhanging branches blocking light, you do have rights to tackle it without running into legal issues but there's a certain way you should go about it in order to avoid running into more trouble.

The firm says that trees could be subject to a Tree Preservation Order, which makes it a criminal offence to chop it down. A tree could also contain an active bird's nest, which Mr Price says it would be illegal to destroy.

Assuming those don't apply, you do have rights to cut the tree branches yourself.

The firm's barrister John Price explains: "It is a right of a landowner to cut back any roots or branches of a neighbour's tree that encroach onto their land, and this can be done without the tree owner's permission. However, there are numerous considerations that must be borne in mind before one takes this course of action.

"Firstly, if the pruning that you undertake destabilises or kills the tree, you may be liable for damaging it; it would therefore be highly advisable to consult a suitably qualified arboriculturist before performing work of this kind.

"Secondly, the root or branch material that you cut still, in the eyes of the law, belongs to the tree owner. While it may ostensibly sound silly or unrealistic, you must nevertheless offer to return any cuttings to the owner to avoid allegations of theft. Disputes of this kind can become gratuitously acrimonious and it would be most unfortunate to find yourself prone to such allegations. If they do not want the material back (which, in all likelihood, they will not), you will be responsible for disposing of it; you cannot simply discard the material over the neighbour's boundary.

"This is why fostering cooperative, friendly communications with your neighbour, where at all possible, is so useful, because it may be that, on discovering that their trees overhang your property, your neighbour will be perfectly willing to cut the overhanging branches down and dispose of them himself, thereby obviating the need to commence litigation and endure the irreversible cooling of neighbourly relations that usually results.

"Thirdly, you must ensure that the tree you are cutting does not have a tree preservation order upon it. If there is, consent from the council will be required before such work is commenced. You must also make sure that there are no nesting birds in the plant you are planning to work upon."