Who Is Responsible for Tree Maintenance in a Rental?

Last Updated: October 30, 2026

Table of Contents

• Landlord and Tenant Garden Maintenance Responsibilities Explained
  • Routine garden upkeep tenants usually handle
  • Major tree work landlords usually arrange
• Tree Pruning for Rental Properties: Who Decides and Who Pays
  • The decision framework: safety, structure, and amenity
  • Who pays when the request is borderline
  • How state and territory rules change the answer
  • What to put in the lease
• Rental Property Tree Safety: Hazards, Inspections and Emergency Response
  • A practical inspection schedule
  • What to look for: hazard signs and what they mean
  • Emergency response: what to do when a tree comes down
  • Documenting condition for the file
• Removing a Tree Without Approval: Permissions, Damage and Compensation
• Writing a Rental Property Garden Maintenance Agreement That Works
• Booking Your Next Tree Inspection or Maintenance Visit
• Frequently Asked Questions

Landlord and Tenant Garden Maintenance Responsibilities Explained

Who looks after the trees on a rental property? In most Australian tenancies, the answer splits in two: the tenant handles routine garden care, and the landlord is responsible for major tree work.

Tree maintenance for rental properties depends heavily on the tenancy agreement and the residential tenancy law that governs it. Trees sit in the grey zone between the landlord’s duty to keep the property in good repair and the tenant’s duty to keep the premises reasonably clean and tidy, which is why a written agreement matters so much.

Routine garden upkeep tenants usually handle

Tenants typically take on the everyday work that keeps a garden looking cared for. This is the ordinary upkeep that most tenancy arrangements expect from the occupant:

• Watering, mowing, edging and weeding
• Raking leaves and clearing fallen debris from paths
• Trimming hedges and small shrubs to a height that does not block walkways

Routine upkeep is low-risk and low-cost. Problems start when a tenant is asked to do work beyond that scope, such as cutting into a mature tree or clearing a stump, because those tasks need training, equipment and insurance.

Major tree work landlords usually arrange

Major tree work is the landlord’s job in most cases. That includes pruning large limbs, lopping, removing a tree, grinding a stump, and assessing whether a tree is structurally unsafe. Landlords are generally expected to arrange these jobs through a qualified arborist.

Here is a summary of how responsibilities for rental property trees typically divide:

Tree Pruning for Rental Properties: Who Decides and Who Pays

Pruning is the fault line in most tree disputes because it sits between cosmetic upkeep and genuine safety work. A tenant may want a tree trimmed to let in light or reduce leaf litter; a landlord may see no reason to spend money on a tree that is not causing damage. The disagreement is rarely about the tree, it is about who holds the decision and who carries the cost.

The decision framework: safety, structure, and amenity

A workable rule is to sort every pruning request into one of three buckets before anyone picks up a saw:

• Safety work, dead limbs, cracked unions, branches over a path, roof or powerline, or a tree that has started to lean. The landlord generally decides and pays, because the duty to keep the property in good repair and safe usually sits with them under residential tenancy law.
• Structural work, reducing a canopy, removing a large limb, or correcting a tree that has outgrown its space. The landlord decides, usually after a qualified arborist has assessed the tree, and pays.
• Amenity work, trimming a hedge to a set height, tidying small shrubs, or removing low suckers. This is routine upkeep and normally falls to the tenant under the tenancy agreement.

Anything that requires a chainsaw above head height, a ladder, or working near powerlines is not routine upkeep, regardless of what the lease says. Those tasks need training, equipment and public liability cover, and a tenant who attempts them risks injury and damage to the property.

Who pays when the request is borderline

Costs follow the same logic as the decision. Landlords generally pay for pruning that protects the property, keeps it safe, or restores it to the condition it was in at the start of the tenancy.

Where a tenant asks for pruning that goes beyond the agreement, for example, removing a healthy tree to improve a view, it is reasonable for the landlord to ask who will bear the cost before any work begins.

How state and territory rules change the answer

Residential tenancy law varies between jurisdictions, so the exact wording of the landlord’s repair duty and the tenant’s upkeep duty should be checked against the law that applies to the property.

What does change by jurisdiction is the permit regime. Many councils regulate pruning and removal through local planning or vegetation controls, and some trees may be protected regardless of who owns the land.

What to put in the lease

The cleanest way to avoid a pruning dispute is to name the split in the tenancy agreement. A short schedule listing the trees and hedges on the property, the routine tasks the tenant handles, and the categories of work the landlord will arrange through a qualified arborist removes most of the guesswork. Review it at each renewal and whenever the garden changes significantly.

Rental Property Tree Safety: Hazards, Inspections and Emergency Response

Tree safety is an area of rental property maintenance where a delay can turn a repair bill into an injury claim. Most failures give warning signs weeks or months before a limb drops, which is why a simple inspection routine is worth more than a reactive call after a storm.

A practical inspection schedule

A workable schedule for a rental property looks like this:

• Once a year, ideally in late winter or early spring, a walk-around of every tree on the block, checking trunk, unions, canopy and root zone. This is the main inspection and the one to document.
• After any severe storm or high-wind event, a visual check for hanging limbs, split unions, lifted roots and debris against the building.
• At each tenancy change, a condition check with dated photographs, so the incoming and outgoing tenant both have a baseline.

A qualified arborist is generally the right person to carry out the annual inspection on any tree large enough to hit a dwelling, path or powerline. Smaller ornamental trees can usually be checked by the landlord or property manager.

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What to look for: hazard signs and what they mean

A useful inspection looks for a short list of signs, each of which points to a specific failure mode:

• Dead or hanging branches, the most common cause of sudden limb drop, often after drought or storm damage.
• Cracks, cavities or split unions, structural weakness where two limbs meet; a common failure point on older eucalypts.
• Fungal growth at the base or on the trunk, often a sign of root or heartwood decay, which reduces the tree’s ability to hold itself up.

Tenants can help by reporting any of these signs early. A short note in the lease explaining what to look for and who to contact turns the tenant into an extra set of eyes without asking them to make safety decisions.

Emergency response: what to do when a tree comes down

If a tree falls or a large limb comes down, the priority order is safety, then containment, then repair:

1. Move people and pets clear of the tree and any hanging limbs.
2. Keep away from powerlines. If a tree is touching or near a powerline, do not approach it. Contact the electricity distributor for the area, they handle line clearance, not the landlord or the arborist (Legislation, policies and areas).
3. Contact the landlord or property manager immediately, with photographs if it is safe to take them.
4. Arrange emergency make-safe work through a qualified arborist before any permanent repair or removal is planned.
5. Document everything, dated photographs, correspondence, and the arborist’s written assessment, for the insurance claim and any later dispute.

Documenting condition for the file

A dated photo log of each significant tree, taken at the annual inspection and at each tenancy change, is the single most useful safety record a landlord can keep. It shows the tree’s condition over time, supports any insurance claim, and gives both parties a clear reference point if a tenant later reports a hazard or removes a tree without approval.

Removing a Tree Without Approval: Permissions, Damage and Compensation

Removing a tree without approval is one of the costliest mistakes a tenant can make.

Many councils also regulate tree removal through local planning or vegetation controls, and some trees are protected regardless of who owns the land.

If a tenant removes or seriously damages a tree without permission, the landlord may seek compensation for the loss, including replacement and removal costs.

Writing a Rental Property Garden Maintenance Agreement That Works

A written rental property garden maintenance agreement removes most of the guesswork. It should set out, in plain language, which tasks the tenant handles, which the landlord arranges, how faults are reported, and who pays for what.

A useful agreement covers:

• A list of routine tasks the tenant is responsible for, and how often
• The categories of major work the landlord will arrange through a qualified arborist
• A process for reporting hazards, with response times

Agreements should be reviewed when the tenancy renews and whenever a property’s garden changes significantly. Keeping a signed copy and dated photographs on file gives both parties a clear reference point.

Booking Your Next Tree Inspection or Maintenance Visit

If you are a landlord or property manager with trees that need attention, the simplest next step is a professional inspection. A qualified arborist can identify hazards, recommend pruning or removal where needed, and give you a clear written record for your files. Book a tree inspection or maintenance visit through Trees Hedge and Stump Removal, and if a tree needs major work, you can get the process for removing a large tree in Melbourne explained before deciding how to proceed.

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