If a neighbour's tree has a Tree Preservation Order, you cannot cut overhanging branches back to your boundary without the local planning authority's written consent — even though common law would otherwise let you. The TPO overrides the self-help right, and cutting without consent is a criminal offence carrying fines of up to £20,000.
Overhanging branches are one of the most common neighbour disputes, and the rules feel counter-intuitive. Ordinarily you have a clear right to trim vegetation that crosses your boundary. But a Tree Preservation Order changes everything, and getting it wrong can leave you with a criminal record and a substantial fine. Here is exactly where the line falls, what you can still do, and how to get sensible pruning approved.
The common-law right — and how a TPO suspends it
Under common law you may cut back branches (and roots) that encroach over your boundary, back to the boundary line but no further. Three limits apply even before any TPO enters the picture:
- You may not enter your neighbour's land to do the work without their permission.
- You must cut only to the boundary, not into your neighbour's side — over-cutting is trespass to the tree.
- The removed material still belongs to the tree owner, so you should offer the arisings back rather than dump or keep them.
That right survives when a tree is protected — but you cannot exercise it without consent. A TPO, made under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the 2012 Regulations, prohibits cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting and wilful damage or destruction of the protected tree without the LPA's written consent. "Lopping" and "topping" cover exactly the pruning you would do to an overhanging branch, and "uprooting" and "wilful damage" cover root cutting. The Order does not carve out the parts of the tree that happen to hang over your land — the whole tree is protected, wherever its branches reach.
So the sequence is simple to state: the right to cut still exists, but it is suspended until the LPA says yes.
What you must do before cutting
- Check the tree's status. Confirm whether a TPO applies, or whether the tree sits in a conservation area — a separate regime with its own six-week notice rule (see TPOs vs conservation area trees). Our guide on how to check for a TPO explains how.
- Apply for consent. Submit a works application to the LPA describing exactly what you want to cut and why. There is no application fee, the authority decides within 8 weeks, and any consent is generally valid for 2 years. See how to get consent to prune a TPO tree.
- Keep to the boundary and to the consent. Even with consent, you may only cut what was approved and only up to the boundary line. Over-cutting can still be an offence, and it can still be trespass.
A worked example
Say a neighbour's protected lime overhangs your patio and drops sticky honeydew all summer. You want to reduce the overhang by two metres. You cannot simply hire a tree surgeon and cut. The correct route is: confirm the TPO on the register, submit a works application describing a 2 m lateral reduction to the boundary line, retaining the tree's form, and wait for the decision. A well-drawn, proportionate application like this — reduction rather than removal, respecting the tree's shape — is usually approved, sometimes with a condition that cuts are made to appropriate growth points. Turn up unannounced with a chainsaw instead, and a butchered lime is a prosecution waiting to happen.
Roots and structural damage — a special warning
Root cutting is where overhanging-branch disputes turn genuinely serious. Severing roots from a protected tree can destabilise it or cause its death, and destroying a TPO tree — even indirectly through root damage — attracts the most severe penalties, including the unlimited Crown Court fine (see TPO fines and penalties).
If you are excavating, laying a driveway, building an extension or trenching for services near a protected tree, you are very likely working within its root protection area — a zone whose radius is calculated as 12 times the trunk's stem diameter measured at 1.5 m. You need arboricultural input and LPA consent before you dig, not after, and development of this kind usually requires a proper tree survey for planning with an approved method statement. A no-dig or hand-dig approach can often keep the tree and the project both alive — but only if it is designed in advance.
The narrow "danger" exemption
If an overhanging branch presents a genuine, immediate danger, urgent works to remove that danger are exempt from consent. But the bar is deliberately high: it means real, imminent risk of harm — a fractured limb over a footpath, say — not a branch that is merely a nuisance, blocks light or drops leaves. The 2012 Regulations tightened the old "dead, dying or dangerous" wording to "dead" plus urgent danger works only, so a branch that is simply inconvenient does not qualify.
If you do rely on this exemption, protect yourself: notify the LPA, photograph the hazard first, cut only the minimum necessary to remove the danger, and keep records. The burden is on you to justify that the works were genuinely urgent — an after-the-fact "it looked risky" rarely survives scrutiny.
Nuisance, light and leaves
Homeowners often assume a tree that blocks light or drops debris can be cut regardless. It cannot, if it is protected. Falling leaves, shading, blocked satellite signal and honeydew are generally not "nuisance" in the legal sense, and none of them override a TPO. If the tree genuinely causes actionable damage — for example, subsidence linked to its roots — that is a civil matter to raise with the owner and, potentially, sound grounds for a consent application. But it is never a licence to cut first and explain later.
Requirements are set locally — check your own council
Whether a given tree is protected, and how a works application is judged, is a local decision. It is your local planning authority that makes TPOs, designates conservation areas, keeps the register and decides consent applications — and councils differ widely in TPO density, in how much of the borough is a conservation area, and in how a tree officer weighs a pruning request in practice. A branch you could freely cut in one district may belong to a protected tree in the next. Validation checklists and tree-officer expectations for any related development work vary the same way, so always confirm the position with your authority rather than assuming.
PlanWatch tracks live tree-related planning activity — works to protected trees, TPO applications and conservation-area notices — council by council, so you can see the local picture before you act. Compare how it looks across Manchester, Lambeth and Nottingham, then check your own area from the tree-surveys hub.
The safe path
Talk to your neighbour, confirm the tree's status, and apply for consent before touching anything. A short, evidenced, proportionate application usually gets sensible pruning approved within the eight-week window — and it keeps you firmly on the right side of the criminal law.
For the wider framework, see our main guide to Tree Preservation Orders.
This guidance is England-centric. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland operate parallel but distinct regimes. It is general information, not legal advice — check your own local planning authority before relying on it.