Strata & Statutory Compliance
Trees come with legal obligations: a duty of care to everyone they could affect, criminal liability for unauthorised work on protected trees, and wildlife law that doesn't care about your programme. We keep organisations, block managers, and landlords on the right side of all of it, with the paperwork to prove it.
Documented & Auditable
What We Do
Statutory tree compliance is the ongoing work of meeting the legal obligations that come with owning or managing land with trees: the duty of care owed to occupiers and passers-by, consent regimes for protected trees, wildlife legislation, and the record-keeping that proves each was met. Silver Tree Services provides compliance-led tree management for organisations, block and strata management companies, landlords, and freeholders across Gloucestershire and surrounding counties, combining inspection, consents, works, and documentation in one accountable contract.
For block and strata managers in particular, trees on communal land are a classic orphaned risk: every leaseholder benefits from them, nobody owns the obligation, and the management company carries the liability. We take that obligation on as a managed service.
The legal framework, briefly
- Duty of care. Under the Occupiers' Liability Acts 1957 and 1984 and common law negligence, the party in control of land is liable for foreseeable harm from its trees. A documented inspection regime is the accepted evidence of reasonable care.
- Tree Preservation Orders. Working on a TPO-protected tree without local planning authority consent is a criminal offence, with fines of up to £20,000 per tree. Consent applications typically take up to eight weeks to decide.
- Conservation areas. Most work to trees in a conservation area requires six weeks' written notice to the authority before starting, even without a TPO.
- Felling licences. Felling beyond small volumes can require a licence from the Forestry Commission, a frequently missed obligation on estates and larger sites.
- Wildlife law. Disturbing an active bird's nest is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (main season 1 March to 31 August), and bats and their roosts are protected year-round. Both constrain when and how tree work can happen.
- Planning conditions. Trees retained under a planning permission carry their own protection and obligations, often for years after the development completes.
How it works
What the service looks like.
Step One
Baseline
We survey your tree stock and check the protection status of every significant tree with the local planning authority, producing a register of what you have and what law applies to it. See tree surveys and reports for the survey detail.
Step Two
Inspection cycle
A proportionate, diarised regime: full surveys at set intervals, walkover inspections between, and post-storm checks, each documented under our ISO 9001 system.
Step Three
Consents handled
TPO applications, conservation area notices, and felling licence applications prepared and submitted on your behalf, with works programmed to follow consent.
Step Four
Works delivered
Recommendations carried out by our own NPTC-qualified arboriculture teams to BS3998:2010, with nesting and wildlife constraints built into the programme, RAMS on every job, and completion records filed against the register.
Step Five
The audit trail
Inspections, decisions, consents, and works in one documented history. If an incident ever happens, or an insurer, auditor, or tribunal asks, the evidence exists.
Who this is for
Block and estate management companies, residents’ management companies, housing providers, landlords and freeholders, schools and campuses, healthcare estates, and any organisation that holds land with trees and would struggle to show, today, when those trees were last competently inspected. It pairs naturally with grounds maintenance and estate management contracts, where the same visits feed the same records.
Why choose Silver Tree Services
Silver Tree Services has traded for over 20 years from Shurdington, Cheltenham, with 30+ qualified staff across seven specialist teams, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification, ARB Approved Contractor status, and SMAS SSIP accreditation. Crews are NPTC-certificated with IPAF and CSCS where work requires it, RAMS are produced per site, DBS-checked operatives are available for sensitive settings, and public and employers’ liability insurance covers every job. The client list, NHS, Gloucestershire Police, Stroud District Council, Savills, the Church of England, is the vetting evidence.
Areas we cover
Across Gloucestershire and surrounding counties, and nationwide for portfolio clients.
Frequently Asked Questions About Tree Compliance
Frequently asked.
Who is legally responsible for trees on communal or managed land?
The party in control of the land, which for blocks of flats and managed developments is usually the management company or freeholder rather than individual leaseholders. Under the Occupiers’ Liability Acts and common law negligence, that party is liable for foreseeable harm the trees cause, and a documented, competent inspection regime is the accepted evidence of reasonable care. Silver Tree Services runs that regime as a managed service for block managers, landlords, and organisations across Gloucestershire and beyond.
What happens if work is done on a TPO tree without consent?
It’s a criminal offence, prosecuted by the local planning authority, with fines of up to £20,000 per tree in the magistrates’ court and unlimited fines for the most serious cases, and the landowner can be liable even where a contractor did the cutting. Silver Tree Services checks protection status with the authority before specifying any work, prepares and submits the consent application where one is needed, and only programmes works once consent is in place.
Do conservation areas restrict tree work even without a TPO?
Yes. In a conservation area, most work to trees above a small size requires six weeks’ written notice to the local planning authority before it starts, giving the authority time to decide whether to protect the tree with a TPO. Carrying out the work without notice is an offence. Silver Tree Services handles conservation area notifications as part of its compliance service, and large parts of Gloucestershire’s towns, including much of Cheltenham and the Cotswold settlements, sit within conservation areas.
How often do our trees need to be inspected to meet our duty of care?
There’s no statutory interval; the standard is what’s reasonable and proportionate for the site. In practice that usually means a full condition survey every three to five years, interim walkovers, and checks after major storms, with higher-use areas inspected more often. What matters legally is that the regime is competent, diarised, and documented. Silver Tree Services sets the interval in the baseline report and then runs the diary, so compliance doesn’t depend on anyone remembering.
Can tree work go ahead during bird nesting season?
Sometimes, but it’s constrained. Disturbing an active nest is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the main season runs 1 March to 31 August, so Silver Tree Services programmes major works for autumn and winter where possible and pre-checks trees and hedges before any in-season work. Bats are protected year-round, and trees with roost potential are assessed before works. Building these constraints into the annual programme avoids both offences and stoppages.
What records will we actually hold at the end of this?
A complete audit trail: the tree register with protection status, dated inspection reports with photographs, risk assessments, copies of TPO consents and conservation area notices, RAMS for each works package, and completion records mapped back to each recommendation. Everything is produced under Silver Tree Services’ ISO 9001 quality management system, so the format is consistent and the history is retrievable years later, which is exactly what insurers, auditors, and courts ask for.
Ready When You Are
On the right side of the law. Provably.
Tell us about your sites and we’ll propose a baseline survey, an inspection cycle, and a price for taking the whole obligation off your desk.
Or call · 01242 472560