That is the short answer. The longer answer is worth reading, because the single most common and most expensive mistake homeowners make is assuming that a rule they read about, or that a neighbour told them about, applies to their block.
What law actually controls tree removal in Sydney?
Tree removal on private land in Sydney is regulated through a two-layer system.
The first layer is state planning policy. Clearing of vegetation in non-rural areas of New South Wales, where that clearing is not part of a development application, is regulated by Chapter 2 of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021. Chapter 2 applies across all zones in local government areas in Greater Sydney. It replaced the earlier Vegetation in Non-Rural Areas policy from 2017 when forty-five planning policies were consolidated in March 2022.
The second layer is your council. The state policy does not itself list which trees are protected. It hands that job to councils, which declare the protected vegetation in their development control plan, or DCP. Your council’s DCP is the document that says which trees on your property you can touch and which you cannot.
This is why there is no single answer to “do I need approval in Sydney”. There are more than thirty councils across Greater Sydney and each one has written its own controls.
Which council are you actually in?
This sounds like a trivial question and it is not.
Suburb names and council boundaries in Sydney do not line up neatly. Several suburbs sit across two local government areas, and Epping is a well-known example, with parts of the suburb falling under different councils. Amalgamations in 2016 also merged a number of councils, so the council you dealt with a decade ago may not be the council you deal with now.
The consequence is that a homeowner can read the correct rules for the wrong council in perfect good faith. Two properties on opposite sides of the same street can be governed by different exemption lists.
The reliable check is your rates notice, or the NSW Planning Portal property search, which returns the council along with the planning controls that apply to the lot. It is worth doing before you read anything else, because everything after it depends on the answer.
What about the tree on the footpath?
Street trees and trees in parks and reserves are council assets, and they are a completely separate process. You cannot prune, remove or otherwise touch them, and neither can a contractor you engage.
If a council tree is causing a problem, the pathway is a service request to the council, which will send its own tree officer to assess it. Councils generally will not remove a healthy street tree because it drops leaves, blocks a view or shades a solar panel, but they do act on structural defects, footpath damage and clearance issues.
Where a council tree’s roots are affecting your property, an arborist’s report documenting the damage strengthens the request considerably.
Permit or development application: which pathway applies?
There are two different approval routes and people frequently start down the wrong one.
A tree permit applies when the work stands alone. You want a tree taken out because it is too close to the house, or dropping limbs, or lifting a driveway, and there is no building work involved. You apply to council, a council officer usually inspects, and council either grants a permit with conditions or refuses it.
A development application applies when the tree work is part of something else. If you are building, extending, subdividing or doing anything that needs development consent, the tree work is assessed inside that application rather than separately. Councils also require a development application in some standalone situations, commonly where the tree is a heritage item or sits in a heritage conservation area, where large stands of vegetation are involved, or where the land carries riparian or biodiversity controls.
Getting this wrong costs weeks. A permit application lodged for work that actually needs development consent will be returned, and you start again.
Which trees are protected?
Councils define protected vegetation differently. Some use a size trigger, such as a minimum height or trunk measurement. Others declare all vegetation protected and then set out a list of exemptions. Some do both, and vary the approach by zone.
Because of that, size alone is not a reliable guide. It is common to see articles and even tree companies publishing a single Sydney-wide threshold. When we checked one North Shore council’s current controls against those published summaries this month, the size threshold being widely repeated did not appear in the council’s current tree and vegetation part at all. Anyone relying on it would have been working from controls that had already changed.
What is consistent across councils is the definition of harm. Approval is not only about felling. Councils typically treat all of the following as work requiring consent:
- Removing, cutting down or transplanting a tree
- Lopping, or reducing the height of a tree
- Pruning branches or roots beyond a stated size
- Ringbarking or damaging the bark, including attaching things to the trunk with invasive fixings or climbing with spikes
- Poisoning, drilling, or allowing contaminants such as oil, paint or cement slurry to reach the root zone
- Compacting, excavating, trenching or stockpiling within the root zone
- Severing roots above a stated diameter
That last group catches people during renovations. Trenching for a new pipe or pouring a slab inside a tree’s root zone can be an offence even though nothing was cut down.
What can you usually do without approval?
Exemptions vary, but the categories below appear in many Sydney councils’ controls in some form. Treat this as a guide to what to look for in your own council’s DCP, not as permission.
Branches directly over the roof. Several councils allow removal of branches that directly overhang the roof of a house or commercial building, pruned back to the nearest branch junction or collar. Where this exemption exists it is usually limited to the main building, with detached garages, carports and sheds excluded.
Trees very close to the dwelling. Some councils exempt vegetation within a set distance of an existing dwelling, measured from the centre of the trunk to the external wall. Where the exemption exists it commonly excludes verandahs, decks, carports and detached structures.
Minor pruning. Many councils allow pruning of branches and roots under a stated diameter, on the condition that the work follows the Australian Standard for pruning of amenity trees, AS 4373-2007.
Dead wood. Removing completely dead branches from a living tree is often exempt.
Listed weed and pest species. Most councils publish a list of species that can be removed without approval, typically covering priority weeds and problem exotics. In many parts of Sydney this list includes species like privet, cotoneaster, camphor laurel and the cocos palm, though the lists differ and the exemption usually does not apply on heritage land.
Powerline clearance. Removal of branches within a short distance of the electrical service line to a property is commonly exempt under electricity supply legislation. This is about the service line to your house, not the network conductors overhead, and work near live network lines is a different matter entirely that requires specific accreditation.
Two warnings apply to every exemption. First, exemptions usually do not apply on land that is a heritage item or inside a heritage conservation area. Second, they generally do not apply to threatened ecological communities or to native vegetation on land shown on the Biodiversity Values Map, which is checked through the state’s mapping tool rather than assumed.
Dead, dying and dangerous: the exemption people get wrong
Almost every council exempts trees that are dead, dying, or posing an imminent risk to life or property. It sounds like the simple case. It is the one that most often ends in a fine.
The reason is that the exemption is usually conditional. Many councils word it so that the removal is exempt only once council has been notified and has confirmed it is satisfied the tree is dead, dying or hazardous. In other words the exemption removes the need for a full permit, not the need to speak to council. Remove first and explain afterwards, and the burden of proof sits with you.
Councils also apply a stricter definition of “dead” than most people expect. A tree with no leaves in winter is not a dead tree. Councils generally look for a tree where biological function has ceased entirely, with visible evidence in the trunk, root plate and canopy.
Councils may also require an arborist’s report before accepting that a tree is structurally unsound, particularly where the tree is significant. That report is the practical route through this exemption, and it also protects you if the removal is questioned later.
There is one more reason to be careful here. The NSW Government put forward proposals in 2025 to tighten exemptions for dead, dying and dangerous vegetation and to increase penalties for illegal clearing, in response to councils reporting the current exemption being used as a loophole. Those proposals were still being worked through at the time of writing. Anyone relying on this exemption should check the current position rather than a older article.
What about bushfire-prone land?
The 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Scheme, administered by the NSW Rural Fire Service, allows landowners in designated entitlement areas to clear trees within ten metres of a home and other vegetation such as shrubs within fifty metres, without council approval. It is a real entitlement and it operates independently of your council’s tree controls.
It is also narrower than most people assume. It applies only inside a mapped entitlement area, only in relation to buildings containing habitable rooms, and only on your own land. It does not override protections for threatened species. The RFS provides an online tool to check whether a specific parcel is inside the entitlement area, and it is worth keeping a copy of that search result as a record of the rules that applied on the day.
If your property is not in the entitlement area, the normal council pathway applies.
What happens if you remove a tree without approval?
Contravening the vegetation provisions is an offence. Councils can issue penalty notices, and some issue them per tree rather than per incident. Councils can also impose replacement planting conditions, and in some cases illegal clearing affects what you are later allowed to build on the land.
The 2025 reform proposals would strengthen this further, including additional enforcement powers for councils and conditions requiring replacement of cleared vegetation.
The practical risk is broader than the fine. Unapproved removal surfaces during conveyancing, during a later development application, and in disputes with neighbours. It is a problem that stays with the property.
What does the application process involve?
The detail varies by council, but the shape is consistent.
The application is made by the owner of the land on which the trunk sits, or by an authorised agent with written proof of that authority. You cannot apply for a tree on someone else’s land.
Councils typically want a completed form, a site plan showing the tree’s position, photographs, the species, and your reasons. Where the tree is significant or the claim is that it is hazardous, an arborist’s report is commonly required. A fee usually applies and it is generally not refundable if the application is refused.
A council officer, often a council arborist, will normally inspect. Councils publish their own assessment timeframes and fees, and both change, so check the current figures on your council’s website at the time you apply rather than relying on a figure from an article.
If approval is granted, expect conditions. The most common are a requirement that the work be carried out by a suitably qualified arborist, that pruning follow AS 4373-2007, and that replacement planting be undertaken. Replacement conditions can specify the number of trees, the species, the size of stock and where they must be planted, and some councils aim for a net gain in canopy at maturity rather than a like-for-like replacement. Approvals also carry an expiry date.
If the application is refused, the reasons are given, and there is usually a review pathway. A refusal that turns on evidence rather than on policy can often be addressed with a properly prepared report.
How an arborist helps before you apply
Most of the value sits before the application, not after it.
A qualified arborist attending the site can confirm which council the property sits in, identify the species, check whether the tree falls inside an exemption in that council’s current controls, check the biodiversity and heritage mapping, and tell you honestly whether an application is likely to succeed. If a report is needed, they prepare it in the form the council expects, with the tree’s health, structure, useful life expectancy and the justification for removal set out properly.
Where a tree can be retained with pruning rather than removed, that is usually the faster and cheaper outcome as well as the one council will approve.
Sydney Tree Company can assess the tree and handle the paperwork
Sydney Tree Company provides tree removal, pruning, tree health inspection, stump grinding and arborist advice across the Sydney metropolitan area and regional Sydney, including Hornsby, Epping, Concord, Chatswood, Canterbury, Castle Hill, Lane Cove, Leichhardt, Liverpool, Marrickville, Pymble, North Sydney, Ryde and St Ives. We also assist with council tree preservation paperwork.
If you have a tree you are unsure about, the quickest way forward is an assessment on site.
Call 0431 732 265 to arrange a free quote and an on-site assessment.
*Sources: State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021, Chapter 2 (Vegetation in Non-Rural Areas); NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure guidance on vegetation in non-rural areas; NSW Government Explanation of Intended Effect, Changes to deter illegal tree and vegetation clearing (2025); NSW Rural Fire Service, 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Code of Practice; AS 4373-2007 Pruning of amenity trees. Council requirements vary and change. Confirm the current controls for your property with your council before any work starts.*