You scare me David!
Ron Howe
Principal Tree Officer
Mole Valley District Council
Tel. 01306 879 286
Website -www.molevalley.gov.uk
Please take a look at the new 2012 Tree Protection Regulations and guidance
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/2127685.pdf
at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/605/contents/made
-----Original Message-----
From: David Lofthouse [mailto:David.Lofthouse@xxxxxxx.gov.uk]
Sent: 24 April 2012 18:18
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: CAVAT
For your delectation.
'here is a brief summary of how we've been using CAVAT to secure
compensation from firms who have damaged our trees.
Back in 2007 I was called out to deal with a tree that a Skip Lorry had
destroyed. I managed to gather information on what happened and sent a bill
to the skip company.
I charged them for all remedial tree surgery, costs to supply, plant and
maintain (for three years) replacement trees, and 20% on top for admin. I
explained that if they did not pay this bill, and the matter went to court, I
reserved the right to claim the full CAVAT value of the tree (£15,000 ish).
Nevertheless, they refused to pay, and there were a few letters back and
forth, but I built a strong case by getting witness statements from
residents, builders, etc,
Eventually legal were involved from a non payment perspective, and I was able
to convince them to stand their ground. At the point where solicitors were
being employed the skip firm caved in and paid.
Since then we have used the same tactic to claim funds from people who've
damaged our trees and we have evidence of them doing so.
To summarise some of our cases -
- We've claimed approx £1500 from xxx (name of Mega supermarket
chain redacted - so much for the crap lawyer theory) following a delivery van
knocking over a tree: similar situations with xxxx ( name of a different maga
supermarket chain redacted - even poorer view of the crap lawyer theory
taking shape) and xxxx (name of yet another different mega supermarket chain
redacted - finally dissing the crap lawyer theory entirely) over the last few
years.
- In numerous (around ten) cases where van drivers have hit branches
and caused damage, we've claimed either the costs of remedial works or a few
hundred pounds to fund new trees, or both
- We received over £3000 from a construction firm who sawed off one
branch from a street tree adjacent to their development,
- We took a thousand pounds from a company that cut down a sapling
on the street to allow a long vehicle to access their site.
- We took over £9000 from a firm that undertook unauthorised work to
a council tree adjacent to the work site, specifically for the loss of CAVAT
value
- We took over £7000 from xxxx (redacted) after a street tree was
knocked down by a lorry
- We've taken over a thousand pounds from a scaffolding firm who
hacked down a tree in a council house garden they were working in for housing
- We also took a building firm to court for non payment of approx
£1000 bill we sent them for hacking off all the overhanging branches over
their property, leaving the tree in need of further surgery and in our view
dangerous, and we won. The judge ( crap judge ?)agreed that their actions had
gone beyond any common law rights and awarded us victory, the bill has been
paid.
When we include amounts that we've agreed beforehand with people for tree
removals in relation to new build constructions (in addition to Section 106
monies) we actually banked close to £30,000 last year using CAVAT valuations
as the basis.
I find that it's all about how you approach each case (legendary kahunas
help!), most often using CAVAT values as the threat, the stick behind a
'carrot' claim of fees for remedial works and new trees where applicable.
I have negotiated some of these in various ways, for example, with those two
claims for £7000 + £9000, the claims were initially higher, but as they took
a long time to reach a conclusion, as a good will gesture I agreed to remove
our administration fees (20%) explaining that I could not do any more than
that.
This would have shown a court that we approach the situation in good faith
and made every effort to resolve the matter prior to court proceedings.
I talked to the firms from the point of view that there's nothing more I can
do, it's out of my hands, I'm doing my best to help them etc but if they
don't pay 'now' then legal proceedings will be initiated in the next few
days.
The most important element in these matters is how we conduct ourselves when
dealing with those who have damaged our trees; authoritative, understanding,
confident and resolute. For example, We understand that it may have been an
accident, but someone is going to have to pay for the remedial work,
replacements trees etc.
I would be very happy to discuss this further and to advise anyone who needs
it on how we've made things happen here. We've been lucky that I managed to
convince our financial and legal teams to back me up when I started issuing
invoices in this way, and we now have a pretty strong working relationship,
and seek advice from our legal team where necessary.'
I understand the officers in question are happy to provide more detail as
above but I shall seek their agreement before passing on onerous queries on
this.
Dave Lofthouse
Dip. Arb. (RFS) M.Arbor.A.
Arboricultural Manager
Greenspaces
London Borough of Merton
13th Floor Civic Centre London Rd , SM4 5DX
0208 545 3659/0790 1510 496
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