Trees causing damage to your building
Advice on to what you should do if you consider that a tree is causing damage to your house or building.
Subsidence is downward movement of buildings and walls that can occur for a number of reasons. Most cases happen when clay soil beneath foundations dries and shrinks causing the building or structure to move.
Trees and other significant vegetation can worsen the effects of subsidence because they extract moisture through their roots. This can cause one part of a building to move while the rest does not. This difference can cause a building to crack. However, other factors such as drainage and poor build quality can also cause subsidence.
What to do if you suspect subsidence
Contact the company that you have building insurance cover with. They will make contact with the council and any other relevant parties to ascertain whether there is a legitimate claim. The insurer is responsible for producing detailed reports to corroborate the claim. For legal reasons we cannot comment on any claim made against the council. Please direct any suspected claims to your Insurer and not the Council. The Tree Service will not have any direct contact the claimant.
Islington Council are signed up to a specific subsidence protocol for dealing with tree root claims called the Joint Mitigation Protocol (JMP). This aims to improve the way and speed that subsidence claims are dealt with by councils and insurers.