Grady v St Vincent & anor [2014] NSWLEC 1202

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Grady v St Vincent & anor [2014] NSWLEC 1202 Hearing dates: 1 October 2014 Decision date: 01 October 2014 Jurisdiction: Class 2 Before: Fakes C Decision: Application dismissed Catchwords: TREES [NEIGHBOURS] Potential damage to property and risk of injury; Hedge - sunlight and views Legislation Cited: Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006 Cases Cited: Barker v Kryiakides [2007] NSWLEC 292 Robson v Leischke [2008] NSWLEC 152; (2008) LGERA 280 Smith & Hannaford v Zhang & Zhou [2011] NSWLEC 29 Tooth v McCombie [2011] NSWLEC 1004 Yang v Scerri [2007] NSWLEC 592 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Mr F P Grady (Applicant) Mr G St Vincent and Ms P St Vincent (Respondents) Representation: Applicant: Mr F P Grady (Litigant in person) Respondents: Mr T McGrath (Solicitor) Respondents: Johnson & Sendall File Number(s): 20458 of 2014

Judgment This decision was given as an extemporaneous decision. It has been revised and edited prior to publication. 1COMMISSIONER: The applicant has resided on his Goulburn property since 1962. The respondents purchased their home about 17 years ago. About 10 years ago the respondents planted a number of trees along their rear southern boundary, close to the dividing fence between the parties' properties. Apart from these trees, a number of others pre-existed their purchase of the property and other trees were planted at other times. 2The applicant has applied under both s 7 Part 2 and s 14B Part 2A of the Trees (Disputes Between Neighbours) Act 2006 (the Trees Act) for orders seeking the pruning of a number of the respondents' trees to a height of between 0.5 and 1.0m above the fence and their subsequent maintenance at that height. 3The applicant thinks it wrong that anyone can plant trees that overhang someone else's property. In an effort to resolve the matter, the respondents have had a number of trees in their backyard severely pruned.