As from August 2nd 1999, new regulations have been made for Tree Preservation Orders - these are the Town & Country Planning (Trees) Regulation 1999) [p331]. These regulations only apply to Orders made after 2nd August 1999.  All Orders made before that date will continue to be administered under the old scheme; p331-336 will continue to apply. However, the new Orders do differ in some important details.  Most of these relate to the wording of the Model Order and procedures to be followed by a local authority when making an Order.  The changes which are relevant to Chapter 19 of Tree Root Damage to Buildings are:-

1. Compensation [p335]. The LPA will no longer be able to avoid paying compensation by making an Article 5 Certificate. Instead, there will be a general right to compensation for loss or damage consequent upon refusal of consent, subject to a number of exemptions and conditions.  In particular, the LPA will not be liable for any loss or damage which they could not reasonably have foreseen at the time they made their decision (i.e. it is important that the application should have stated that the trees are the cause of damage, or likely to cause damage, if one subsequently wishes to claim compensation for underpinning, monitoring etc.)  The claim must also be for more than £500, so as to prevent claims for minor loss or damage.
2. TPOs can be made on fruit trees.The exemption which previously applied to fruit trees will now only extend to pruning in accordance with good horticultural practice.

3. Appeals should be subject to tighter time limits for submission of representations, both by the appellant and LPA.  This should ensure that appeals are dealt with more rapidly in future.