Where TPOs surface in a transaction
Tree Preservation Orders are local land charges, so the official search of the local land charges register discloses them, and conservation area status is disclosed by the local authority search too. As councils' registers migrate to HM Land Registry, where the search is made varies by area, but what it reveals does not.
What the search result gives you is the existence of an order. It does not tell you which trees on the plot are covered, how, or what the council has allowed in the past. For that you need the order itself, with its plan, and the council's planning history for the address.
Why clients want an answer before the searches
For most buyers, a TPO is a note on the file. For some it changes the purchase: a planned extension near a protected oak, a drive through a group order, a garden they intend to clear. Those clients are better served knowing at offer stage than when the search result arrives.
An early indication, from the council's published TPO data or a direct question to its tree officer, lets the client adjust an offer or their plans before costs are committed. It supplements the official search. It never replaces it.
Enquiries worth raising where trees matter
Where the search or the client's plans flag protected trees, a short set of pre-contract enquiries usually settles the position:
- A copy of the order and its plan, identifying the trees covered and the type of order (individual, group, area or woodland).
- Any applications for works to protected trees, with decisions and any conditions.
- Any unauthorised works, replanting notices or enforcement action. A duty to replant runs with the land.
- Whether any tree is subject to a condition on a planning permission for the property.
The council's planning register answers most of the history, and the seller's answers fill the gaps.
Advising the client in plain terms
Clients mostly want to know three things: which trees, what they can do to them, and whether it affects their plans. Useful points to put in writing:
- The order passes to them on completion, with its consent requirements.
- Routine, sensible management is normally consented, but removing a healthy protected tree for convenience is unlikely to be.
- Trees stay the owner's responsibility to maintain. A TPO does not transfer that duty to the council.
- A conservation area protects most other sizeable trees too, through the six-week notice procedure.
For any large tree close to the building, it is worth suggesting an arborist's inspection alongside the survey. Protection and condition are separate questions.
The limits of published TPO data
Online TPO maps, including this one, are built from data councils choose to publish, and coverage is uneven. Some councils publish nothing nationally. A blank online result is therefore not evidence that no order exists. The official search and the council remain the authority.
That is also the right framing for any early check you share with a client: an indication of what the published data shows, dated, with its sources and gaps stated plainly.
A branded summary for the client file
TPO Checker Pro produces a dated report for any English address covering TPOs, conservation areas, Article 4 directions and listed buildings within 150 m, under your firm's logo and contact details. It is not an official search and carries no legal standing, but as an early, plain-English summary for the client, and a record of what was known at instruction, it saves a round of explanation.
Search a postcode for published TPO zones nearby.
