Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Use definition

What does Use mean? In legal practice, Use describes any act of dealing with information, materials, works, data or technology. It is usually a contractual umbrella term capturing a broad range of actions, commonly including to distribute, disclose, store, use, analyse, copy, reproduce, extract, modify or adapt, whether in whole or in part. Use is not generally fixed by statute; its scope turns on the wording of the relevant agreement and context. That said, it intersects with specific legal regimes. In intellectual property, “use” of a trade mark in the course of trade (UK Trade Marks Act 1994; Irish Trade Marks Act 1996) and the...

Encroaching Tree Roots: Private Nuisance Liability, Foreseeability, Causation, Practicable Measures, Reasonable Response, Remedies and Highway Trees

Published by a LexisNexis Property Disputes expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note examines harm caused by tree roots, covering the neighbourly duty, issues of Foreseeability and causation, practicable steps to avoid or reduce damage, and available remedies.

Liability

The leading authority on property damage from intruding tree roots is DeLaware Mansions v Westminster City Council. The House of Lords held that responsibility is assessed by applying nuisance principles: reasonableness between neighbours—both literal and figurative—and reasonable foreseeability. The court stressed that attaching the label ‘nuisance’ or ‘negligence’ is of little significance; the common law instead concentrates on working out the fair and just content, and incidents, of a neighbour’s duty, rather than fixing a label and inferring the scope of the duty from it.

In practice, liability turns on these questions:

What obligations exist between neighbours in relation to trees?
Did the tree’s roots cause damage to the adjoining property?
Was that harm reasonably to be anticipated?
Were practicable measures available to minimise or prevent the damage?
Was the response to the damage itself reasonable?

Duty between

...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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