Golden v Li [2021] NSWLEC 1751

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Golden v Li [2021] NSWLEC 1751 Hearing dates: 2 December 2021 Date of orders: 2 December 2021 Decision date: 02 December 2021 Jurisdiction: Class 2 Before: Galwey AC Decision: The Court orders: (1) The application is refused. Catchwords: TREES (DISPUTES BETWEEN NEIGHBOURS) – Pt 2 application – damage to tennis court and retaining wall – debris falling from tree – application refused Legislation Cited: Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006, Pt 2, ss 7, 9, 10, 12 Cases Cited: Barker v Kyriakides [2007] NSWLEC 292 Smith & Hannaford v Zhang & Zhou [2011] NSWLEC 29 Yang v Scerri [2007] NSWLEC 592 Texts Cited: Ku-ring-gai Development Control Plan 2021 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Patrick Golden (Applicant) Bin Li (First Respondent) Jing Zhang (Second Respondent) Representation: Counsel: P Golden (Litigant in Person) (Applicant) G Kwong (Solicitor) (Respondents)

Solicitors: Ma & Company Solicitors (Respondents) File Number(s): 2021/261515 Publication restriction: No

Judgment

This decision was given as an extemporaneous decision. It has been revised and edited prior to publication.

Background to the application 1. A tennis court covers most of the land between the side boundaries in the rear part of a Turramurra property belonging to Patrick Golden ('the applicant'). Along its south-western side, the tennis court reaches the side boundary shared with Mr Golden's neighbours, Bin Li and Jing Zhang ('the respondents'). On the respondents' property, a Queensland Brush Box (Lophostemon confertus) ('the tree') is approximately 4 metres from this common boundary. A low retaining wall, apparently on or close to the common boundary, supports the slightly-higher land on the respondents' property. 2. Mr Golden has applied to the Court pursuant to s 7 (Pt 2) of the Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006 ('the Trees Act'), seeking orders for the respondents to remove the tree or, failing that, for overhanging branches to be pruned back to the boundary. Mr Golden alleges that tree roots are damaging the retaining wall, and debris is damaging the tennis court.