Flat-Living.co.uk help & advice


We appreciate that the leak had to be made safe and the gas supply restored. But do gas companies really have the right to bypass planning consent, ignore aesthetic considerations, and possibly reduce the value of our property? Even to put us in the position where the Conservation Section of the local Planning Department may ask us to relocate the pipes at our expense? Can you suggest, please, any possible redress? Have there been any other instances of this?


A: There have been many occasions over the years when gas companies have refused to reconnect to internal gas pipes, insisted on the external location of gas meters and then individual pipe from each meter to each flat. Indeed, there are many blocks with other cables pipes and wires on the outside, often introduced when communal supplies have been replaced with individual supplies. It is a widespread problem. Some blocks of flats accept external pipes and conduits and


nothing further develops. Other blocks take great exception to this multiplicity of individual external surfaces (individual satellite dishes are possibly the most notorious) and great difficulties are created. Most leases provide that the individual supply pipe or cable


is part of the demise as it supplies only that individual flat. Few leases provide that the lessee (or anybody else working for the lessee) can unilaterally put the pipe on the outside of the building where it is technically trespassing. That is often the route by which managing agents or landlords oblige individual lessees to reroute external pipes, cables satellite dishes etc. Your complaint is against the gas company, but you


represent the directors of the RMC and not the individual lessee. It is each individual lessee who is in the contractual position of being able to take issue with the gas company, and the RMC is in the contractual position of being able to take action against the individual lessee. As no steps were taken at the time to stop them whilst the workmen were on site, you now have a situation of acceptance or rectification. It is probably unlikely that the gas company will willingly rectify what they have done. Situations like this often come down to managing peoples expectations: if you expect rectification, you are likely to have to engage in time effort and expense in pursuing remedial works or, arranging for the lessee to remedy the matter, quantify the cost, and attempt recovery action. A lawyer will tell you that neither party has a cast iron case (nobody has a cast iron case at law) and an assessment will have to be made of your chances of winning and the costs (both money and emotional) of fighting. A gambler will tell you that you have better odds in a bookmaker’s office where it is certain that you will not loose more than your stake before the race is run!


Q: The section on your website on “Trees” is extremely interesting, whereby you state that it is the owner of The Trees who is responsible for the maintenance, inspection of the trees.


Try as I may, over a period of days, including reading your article, I cannot find any actual legislation which states the liability and responsibility of these owners, and I would appreciate any advice and information.


A: If you plant a tree on your land, or one grows on your land, it is your tree and is as much within your ownership as is your garden or the rest of your site. If the tree grows beyond the boundary (either the roots under


ground or the branches over ground) then there are a whole series of court cases that establish that those parts of the tree are trespassing on your neighbour’s property. If they cause damage then your neighbour (or other person who suffers


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damage) is likely to try and recover financial damages from the tree owner. The many court decisions on that difficult point leave some uncertainty. For instance, when a court judgement finds that tree roots have caused subsidence damage to a neighbour’s building, before a court assesses whether damages are payable, it will often look to see if the neighbour served notice on the tree owner that the tree might cause damage, if the tree owner is someone (e.g. a surveyor/builder/architect) who ought to know that the tree might cause damage, or whether the tree owner does not have such specialised knowledge and genuinely had no idea that his tree might be causing trouble. These are all matters on which the court will need to make findings of fact, possible liability and, if there is found to be liability, damages. It is for that reason that tree owners should periodically


check their trees and maintain them appropriately according to their age, condition, proximity of buildings or other structures which may be damaged etc. Unusual problems include a tree that is growing on a boundary and it is difficult to tell whether the tree belongs to the owner on one side of the boundary or the other, or is on the party line and therefore something for which both owners have some responsibility. Problems sometimes arise when a neighbour decides to cut back overhanging branches (which he is entitled to do because they are trespassing) and returns those branches to the property of the tree owner. Problems sometimes arise because trees are allowed to grow to a height that cuts out light from a neighbour’s property, and sometimes a tree owner returns from holiday to find that his trees, on or near to his boundary, have mysteriously been cut down while he was away! The reliability and responsibility for trees is largely a matter


of common law and court case authorities rather than statutory law, but the general advice is please, do everything you can by agreement with your neighbour, and do everything you can to avoid litigation over trees.


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