Short answer: probably, if the public can get near them, but it's a lower bar than most people fear. Here's what it actually involves.
Here's the real question this comes down to: if something did happen, could you show you'd taken reasonable care? Serious tree failures are genuinely rare, figures cited by the Health and Safety Executive and the Forestry Commission put successful UK prosecutions for a tree-related death at only around seven over a 20-year period, but each of those cases turned on exactly that question. Not how dangerous the tree was, but whether the person responsible for it could point to any evidence they'd checked.
If you own or manage land that people, staff, tenants, pupils, the public, can get near, the law does put a duty on you. Most landowners who've never had a problem also have never actually documented anything, a comfortable position right up until it's tested. Here's what that duty actually is, and what meeting it looks like in practice.
Anyone who owns or controls land owes a duty of care to people who might reasonably be near it, under both civil and, in some circumstances, criminal law. Trees fall within that duty. The standard the courts apply is reasonableness, not perfection, and how much care is "reasonable" scales with the risk: a mature tree over a busy public footpath warrants closer attention than the same tree in a field few people visit.
This is set out in the National Tree Safety Group's "Common Sense Risk Management of Trees" (2nd edition, jointly developed with the Arboricultural Association, Forest Research and other sector bodies), the UK's recognised guidance on proportionate tree safety management. You can read NTSG's own guidance in full.
Two of NTSG's founding principles set the tone for the whole approach: trees provide a wide variety of benefits to society, and they are living organisms that naturally lose branches or fail. Managing risk doesn't mean managing it away entirely.
NTSG is direct about the risk of over-reacting: owners and managers of trees are often tempted to take an extremely cautious approach, and too often many trees end up being felled unnecessarily. Reasonable care is the standard, not the elimination of every risk.
Schools, care homes, councils, churches, housing associations and estates are the obvious cases, but it also applies at smaller scale, a homeowner with a tree overhanging a shared driveway or a public footpath has the same underlying duty, just proportionate to that much smaller risk.
A tree risk survey (also called a Visual Tree Assessment) is a visual inspection carried out from the ground, no climbing, no cutting. We look at the crown, trunk and root area for signs of decay, damage, disease or structural weakness, take into account the tree's species, condition and setting, and assess the likelihood and consequence of failure given who or what is nearby.
Site visit and ground-level inspection of each tree, time on site depends on whether it's a single tree or a larger site.
A written report recording condition, any defects found, and a clear recommendation, monitor, reduce or remove.
For a tree with specific issues, a recommended timescale for the next check, otherwise general guidance on keeping an eye on it going forward.
No. Frequency should match risk, a tree next to a school gate needs more regular attention than one in a quiet field. There's no single legal number, it's about proportionality.
NTSG's own guidance notes that courts have accepted proportionate, reasonable management carried out by landowners themselves, without requiring costly professional surveys. But that only holds if whoever checks actually knows what a defect looks like, a genuine visual assessment, not just someone glancing up while doing other work. A professional inspection isn't a strict legal requirement, but it's the clearest way to show that whoever checked knew what they were looking for.
That's genuinely common. But it does mean you have no record to point to if it's ever questioned, which is the harder position to defend. Starting now, rather than waiting, is the sensible move.
Whether you need a one-off survey for a single tree or ongoing cover across a school, care home, council estate or housing association, we scale the visit to your site and provide a clear written report every time.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. If you're facing a specific liability question, speak to a solicitor.
Whether it's a single tree or a whole site, tell us what you've got and we'll provide a proportionate survey and a clear written report.