Tree disputes - Helpful materials

Legislation

• Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006

• Dividing Fences Act 1991

• Limitation Act 1969

• Land and Environment Court Act 1979

• Land and Environment Court Rules 2007

• Civil Procedure Act 2005

• Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005

Court materials

• Practice Note – Class 2 Tree Applications (PDF, 245.3 KB)
• Usual directions on the preliminary hearing for tree applications (DOC, 59.0 KB)
• Supplementary directions for an order to prevent injury to any person (DOC, 32.5 KB)
• Court forms
• Court fees
• Court Lists

Information materials

• Trees Act - Understanding the law (DOC, 1004.0 KB)
• Service of Documents – a Guide for Self-Represented Litigants (PDF, 83.9 KB)
• Guide to subpoenas (PDF, 93.2 KB)
• Enforcement of orders made under the Trees Act
• Annotated Trees Act (PDF, 607.8 KB)

Reference materials

• ​Review of the Trees (Disputes between Neighbours) Act 2006. (PDF, 288.0 KB)
  
• Following consideration of the review, the Parliament amended the Trees Act in May 2010 by passing the Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Amendment Act 2010. (PDF, 311.7 KB)
  

Land and Environment Court judgments

The Court publishes its decisions, including on applications under the Trees Act, on the NSW Caselaw website

Case Studies

The Court has also provided a collection of many of the Trees Act decisions, grouped in five categories, to assist understanding of how the Court has reached its conclusions on various types of applications.  Each of the decisions reflects the facts and circumstances of the application.  Each new application will be determined on the facts and circumstances of that application. The five categories available are:

• Decisions involving applications under Part 2 – Damage to property or injury to persons
• Decisions involving applications under Part 2A – High hedges
• Trees Act decisions by local government area and sorted by year
• Tree Dispute Principles published by the Court
• Guidance decisions about the Trees Act and the Court's jurisdiction.
• Enforcement of Court Orders in Tree dispute cases (see below:)

Enforcement of Court Orders in Tree dispute cases

General information concerning enforcement of Court Orders in Tree dispute cases can be found here.

In Tri Huu Pham v Emile Papaioannou [2019] NSWLEC 180 (Moore J), a neighbour who failed to obey orders to prune a hedge under Part 2A of the Trees Act (Pham v Papaioannou [2011] NSWLEC 1044) was convicted, fined $500 and ordered to pay $47,126 in costs.