Building supervision orders tree removal – does it have the authority to do so?

When an authority imposes an obligation without a legal basis, a business can find itself facing real risk of sanctions. This is precisely what happened to our client, who was ordered to remove a tree from a property listed in the heritage register.

Although the heritage conservation officer had previously refused to grant the company permission to remove the tree from its property, the building supervision authority, following an inspection of existing structures, issued an order to remove it. Our intervention eliminated that decision from the legal order and protected the company from the potential consequences.

The building supervision authority took the view that a tree growing on a heritage-listed property posed a threat to human health and life. It argued that the sloped terrain affected the tree’s stability, justifying the need for removal. It consequently imposed on the company an obligation to remove the tree under Article 66 of the Construction Law.

The problem was that the company had already applied for permission to remove the tree, and the regional heritage conservation officer had refused. Despite this, the building supervision authority ordered an action that, under the applicable regulations, requires the consent of an entirely different authority.

After the deadline for lodging an appeal had passed, the company turned to us for assistance. Following a legal analysis, we prepared an application for a declaration of invalidity of the decision, addressed to the Regional Building Supervision Inspector.

We argued, first and foremost, that the building supervision authority has no competence to impose obligations concerning trees. Its powers are limited to intervening in the fabric of a structure, not in natural elements present on a given property. This analysis demonstrated that the decision had been issued without a legal basis.

We also emphasised that executing the decision would itself constitute a breach of the law. Removing a tree from a heritage-listed site without the consent of the conservation officer is an act subject to an administrative financial penalty. The authority had therefore ordered an action that would itself be sanctionable. Under the applicable regulations, this constitutes a further ground for declaring an administrative decision invalid.

Our arguments ultimately led to the elimination of the flawed decision from the legal order. The company avoided the risk of a penalty and the obligation to carry out an unlawful action imposed by the building supervision authority.