Where stories about tree law are discussed, but no legal advice is given.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/danbury-orders-restoration-homeowner-wetlands-19551864.php

Figured you all would like this one.

My mom's neighbor hired a crew to take out some trees on his property while neither of them were home. They felled the trees on to my mom's property damaging several of hers. They then came on to her property and cut down the tress they damaged. The chopped up the trunks and left a tidy firewood stack of the neighbors trees flush with the clearly marked property line. They left a bunch of random log piles of my mom's trees in her yard and left the tops of all of the trees where they fell on her property. The neighbor had not been home yet when my mom called and seemed genuinely confused and apologetic but has yet to name names for the "crew." My mom called her arborist who has done her fire mitigation for 8 years. He was pissed and asked his former boss (was certified to asses damages before he retired) to come take a look. She's getting the sheriff out to make a report in case she decides to pursue it. It's mountain forest so I'm having a hard time guessing damages. Of her trees they cut down 1 mature quaking aspen 6" diameter trunk, 1 multi trunk/heavily branched alder which is rare in the area and at least 2 mature pine or spruce with like 12" diameter trunks. We're guessing the value of the trees alone is not that much but she is very upset about the trespassing and trashing her property. What's the best way to pursue this to keep roving tree butchers off her mountain?

Hi! Looking for some basic legal advice on if or how to start civil litigation.

The short of it is my neighbor from three doors down trespassed and damage my one and only
tree.  Police were called, they ordered him off my property and they told him he would be arrested if I had to call them again.

I guess I’m asking if I have grounds for civil litigation because of the damage he was able to do
before the police came. Getting money for my damaged tree would be nice, but what I’m really after is just making sure he doesn’t try anything again.  What other circumstances would be in my favor or in his?  We have a long history of him bullying me, me requesting he not and him ignoring me but no other police involvement until now.   I could write a 2000-word essay on it if you wanted, in addition to what I wrote below.

I realize I’ve poked a bear so now I think I need to go all in as much as I can but only if there is a
good chance I’ll win, or I give him more power.

 
Some history and more details… I live on a small street in Philadelphia. This guy is a typical bully.  He 'owns' the block and does has he pleases on private property if he can access it. He taped a list of HOA rules to my door before I even had my boxes unpacked. We don't have an HOA.  Generally, he's trying to maintain the street and flower boxes/planters as he wishes.  I.e. the 'correct' plants in the ‘correct’ locations, clearing leaves and occasionally clearing trash.   It appears harmless, but it’s really just his way to control everything.  Other
neighbors don’t like it either but have no balls to say anything to him, so he’s just been left to do as he wishes.

When I moved in, I asked him to please leave my property alone that I would handle it now. Stupidly I assumed he was doing it because the previous occupant gave him permission because they didn't want to be bothered.  He sort of complied, just enough to keep up appearances.  Nothing he continued to do was worth getting
involved further.  I just did my best to avoid him.

Until yesterday. 

We have a shared pathway behind our houses.  Pretty typical of Philadelphia.  In my deed it specifically says I own 1/2 of the “proposed pathway”.  The other half owned by the property owner on the other side. No easement, no right of way, nothing else is mentioned in the deed.  The homes were originally built without fences, the fences were added much, much later. Also pretty typical of Philadelphia, when gentrification happens, and homes are demolished to make way for new construction the new build goes right up to the property line and consumes whatever half of a shared path used to exist.

I have a Japanese maple tree in the corner of my backyard, it is about two stories tall at this point.  It hangs over the pathway but does not block it. People can freely walk under without ducking but could reach up and touch a branch if they wanted.  This neighbor who caused damage lives three houses to the south, the tree in no way hangs over on his property and will never grow big enough to ever even come close to hanging over his property. 

This day he decided he was going to cut all the branches off that he could reach from the tallest ladder that he had. I was standing at my patio door drinking my coffee, listening and watching the birds as he popped up over my fence and started to hack branches. I went outside and asked him to stop, he didn’t so I called 911.

He continued to hack branches, I sprayed him in the face with my hose in an attempt to protect my property and slow him down.  He still was able to do a lot of damage, and as you could guess he wasn’t being careful. At this point he just wanted to do damage so he tore branches and cracked quite a large branch that might kill 1/3 of the tree.  When he did that, he got verbally excited about how now it was going to die, I might have that on video.  I haven’t had an arborist out to review the damage yet, but I plan to. 

Even after the police told him he was wrong and to leave me alone, he argued so much with them they asked if he was a lawyer, he’s not.  The police told me I can ask for an order of protection, which I’ve been considering for a while, I was just waiting to accumulate evidence that was more than just “my neighbor blew dirt in my open windows with his leaf blower even after I told him it was happening and asked him to stop doing it”. 

This whole escalation is apparently because there was bird poop on his patio when he got back from vacation.  He hates birds.  We live on a tree lined street across from a pocket park that is full of trees. Birds like trees. The street is full of birdsong all day every day.  It’s lovely and the reason why I purchased my home.  The trees have existed longer than this man has owned his home.  This past year he’s also been trying to get the city to cut down all the trees on the street and in the park, this is how strongly he feels about trees, leaves and birds.

I do feed the birds on my back patio so they are in my space and in my tree more than they might be normally.  I am not violating any city ordinances; I checked before starting to feed them. 

He was away the entire month of June and was mad his patio got dirty in that time.  The first full day he was home after vacation, the 4th of July holiday, he attacked my tree out of revenge. The night before and that morning before he hacked branches, he was out with his hose using the jet setting to spray the birds that were
just sitting in the tree.  But they kept coming back even after he came back 5 or 6 times. The police called him out on this vendetta.  They laughed at him and backed me up when he was like, “oh, but she feeds them” like
that would give him permission to trespass. He had a gazillion excuses and each one the cops kept telling him no. They laughed at him when he said, "she sprayed me with the hose" like that mattered. I think I even told the 911 operator I was spraying him, and I know I told the cops right away, so they already knew. They were talking to me while he was hiding behind my house.

No one on my block has ever approached me about trimming my tree the entire 10 years I've lived here.  I have a tree service and they have been out to trim the tree, though not in the past few years, partly because no one has complained, and I want the tree to grow bigger and partly because this isn't the first time this
neighbor has attacked my tree, it's just the first time I've been home to catch him. I'm not trimming more after he's already hacked so much and risk shocking the tree. The tree is (was?) healthy and is not in danger of falling or loosing branches and causing damage to anyone's property.

I spoke to my backyard neighbor a few years after I moved in because the branches were already hanging
over his fence quite a bit.  He told me he likes sun; I said I would remember that and have the tree service trim the branches with that in mind and if he ever had any concerns to reach out. The branches the neighbor was
illegally hacking the most were on this backside and not hanging over into the neighbor’s property.  None of the branches he was attempting to remove were hanging over much further than the pathway.

Things I’m doing today, sending certified mail to my neighbors where the tree might grow over their fences, explaining what happened (I’m sure they’re all gossiping already) and telling them I have a tree service that I will pay for and asking them to communicate with me if they wish branches to be cut, otherwise I will assume they are fine with them as they are.  And I'm installing professional security cameras on the entire perimeter of my property.

Is it enough that he’s harmed my tree or do I need to wait for it to start to die?  Does the fact that the path is currently open as a shared space give him any legal right to cut branches off my tree without asking?  Does anyone care about trees or will it be dismissed as frivolous neighbor dispute?  I know people are always all over with stories of shitty neighbors and trees but has anyone ever fought and won?

My poor tree seems so bare today, so many of the lower branches are gone, I have no more privacy and
my home is exposed to so much more harsh sunlight. It's quite depressing.

Any advice is welcome please.
Thanks for reading my book! ;)

Like the title says, my neighbor planted a redwood tree about a year ago right on our fence line. I didn't notice at first because it was shorter than the fence, but now it's about 8' tall. My worry is what the roots will do to my concrete slab foundation in the future. Is there anything I can do legally to have him remove it? And if not, what could I do to protect my houses foundation?

Based in NC USA. My fiance owns our house. Unfortunately we're a low income family of 4 and are unable to afford to cut down a tree in our back yard that is very clearly dying. I can add pictures tomorrow once it's light outside again but there's a hole through the bottom of the trunk. It still manages to grow leaves but it's very obvious that it won't last much longer the owners of this house previously (my fiances great grandparents before they died, then her grandfather sold to us after their death) put cable around the trunks, (splits into 2) I'm not even sure how many years ago now, that are cutting into the tree as well. The problem is this tree is so close to the neighbors behind us it's not even funny. Their house is practically backed up to the property line and the tree sits just inside our fence on the property line.

We can't afford the several thousand out of pocket to take down the tree when we are paycheck to paycheck with no money left over at the end of the month. This tree is one bad storm away from taking out their house. An elderly couple lives there and from talking with their adult son the tree is right above their bedroom. Is there somewhere to get financial assistance to help remove it since its so dangerous to everyone? Does homeowners insurance help with this before it becomes an issue or does it only help pay after the fact. I was told by family not to call because they could drop us once we tell them about it if we can't afford to get it cut in a timely manner.

My mother still lives in the house I grew up in. Houses in the neighborhood are on 1.5 to 2 acre lots so there is decent separation between houses. Driveway next door has one house near the street and three more on an access way going back away from the road. Based on the old markers (pipe driven into the ground) we know that my mother's property ends about four feet from this driveway. Of course, there is now a dying tree in this strip of land. It looks like it belongs to her but it doesn't.

I have a limited idea of who owns the driveway and this strip of land. I don't think the neighbors have a clue. If I was to believe Zillow, the two houses all the way in the back own the driveway, split down the middle - meaning one of them owns the problem tree. The closer two houses must have easements to use the driveway. Compounding my problem is one of the property line markers was removed when AT&T did some digging about 15 years ago.

We really only know the neighbor right next door who doesn't seem to own the tree.

I'm afraid the tree is going to fall over in a heavy storm and their neighbors are going to look at us. My mother said that 40 years ago they were in a similar situation with another tree. Because a small part of it was over the line my dad convinced everyone to split the cost 5 ways.

Thoughts?

We have 1200' long driveway that is 10' from our lot line with our southern neighbor. Our neighbor has about 15 trees that have died over the past three years that are near enough to fall across our driveway.

These dead trees have been increasingly dropping branches, some quite large, during storms, 3 trees have fallen across our drive over the past 6 months that I've had to cut up (avg maybe 8-10" diameter trunk so doable) and 2 of the 3 have damaged other trees (his and ours) when they've fallen.

Given prevailing winds there's a good probability of most of the others falling across our drive when they do come down.

Does he have a legal responsibility to have the dead trees removed? Or not really and it will continue to be my responsibility to remove them when they fall across our drive or damage our trees?

Thanks all.

Lot line is 10' to the right of our driveway.

Notes ----

Our lot is heavily treed (we've left the 900x100' portion between our house and road natural wooded). Our neighbors lot is heavily treed for the northern portion within about 80' of our lot line and then manicured along the southern ≈90'.

Some neighbor context: Some years ago our arborist wanted to remove a large Mulberry that was hanging over our yard and driveway. The trunk grew from our neighbors side of the lot line but only about the lower 6' of the trunk was on our neighbors lot with the remaining trunk and canopy fully on our side. It obviously made sense to cut the trunk at its base and grind the stump out vs leaving a 6' trunk.

I told our neighbor what the arborist wanted to do and asked if that was OK. He said that sounded fine. Later he pitched a hissy fit about it and said we should have given him several days notice to think about it. He wouldn't speak to us for the next two years. He's actually a quite nice guy but seems to have issues with regard to property lines. :-)

What would you recommend that I do? Neighbors tree is a live oak that grew into a V shape early on. Now it is a large tree where the lower part of the tree is hanging over our property line. Two arborists (private business not county/government) have advised me that we should be concerned about it. As it grows and adds rings the concern is that it is getting pushed down until it will eventually break, causing house damage . I spent over $1500 two years ago cutting limbs in an effort to unload some of the weight. Arborists are unwilling to chop it at the property line since it may kill the tree. I tried talking to the neighbor about removal since it is a danger and he wants to do it but is no hurry. We have hurricanes here so I want it much sooner than he does. What can I do to prompt him to take care of it?

South Africa.

Today our next door neighbor cut down our tree without letting us know and then dumped the debris/shrubs right on the yard of our opposite neighbor.

1. The tree was big, not sure of the type and it wasn't benching over to their yard.
2. The tree wasn't in our house, it was on our yard outside the fence. (it was on the pavement)
3. The tree wasn't a danger to their yard as it was a bit far from the start of their yard.
4. We did clean the leaves from their yard when it got too messy.
5. The opposite neighbor is frustrated and is demanding we clean the debris/shrubs although we didn't dump them there.

What can I do about this situation? Any help would be appreciated even if it's not from South Africa.

My neighbor has a tree that is about a foot from our fence line. The tree has over hanging branches that go over onto my side. He's decided to cut these over hanging branches from the trunk of the tree and toss them over onto my property.

I've tossed them back over and then the next day there's a white flag that says "land survey" on my side of the fence along with some more cut branches.

My question is. Who is responsible for these branches after he has cut them?

This is a situation where I am vaguely related to the party. It's my sister's father in law, but for the sake of the story I'll call him FIL.

FIL has a cabin in a "fancy" mountain town. Apparently he didn't like how one of his neighbors trees was blocking his view. While the neighbors weren't home. He convinced a few grown children and another neighbor to help him chop down this tree "In the woods". Many feet beyond the property line (don't have specific details) they cut it up and removed the trunk.

I heard it was estimated to be close to a 48"/ 4 foot diameter stump.so maybe 150yr old pine?

They seemed to think they got away with it until the neighbors came knocking a few days later asking if they felled the tree.

I don't know any details beyond this.

I'm curious how big of a lawsuit they may face. I know this r/treelaw exists for a reason. I'm betting it cost 25-50k. My dad thinks it will be closer to 200k. I'm curious if any of the people involved could be held liable?

I guess my question is if the neighbor presses charges/sue, what are your bets on monetary results?

UPDATE: This is in Idaho

Of course, the condo association claims the crew that mows the lawn took it on their own initiative to bring extra tools to take down and haul away three 25' trees in half sunken nursery pots and then douse the stumps and adjacent plantings in herbicide.

"We'll make sure they know not to do that again."

The landscapers, for their part, have never done tree work before or since. They don't maintain private gardens. They don't clear or even trim back the overgrowth of bittersweet that is taking over the public space. They were given the task specifically, had to bring extra equipment to cut down and haul away the trees.

The blame game response suggests that there isn't much chance of getting any sort of resolution - or even acknowledgement and apology - without a fight.

So I'm trying to scope out what anyone on this path might encounter along the way, where there would be resistance, and what the best possible outcome is - and a feel for how likely it is to get that result. Walk me through how one would approach a situation like this, hypothetically or based on past experience.

I get that every situation is different, that a lawyer would need to get involved, yadda yadsa. I'm not looking for specific promises. I just want some sort of idea of what sort of can of worms we'd be opening if it was pursued, to have something to go on to determine if it's better to roll over and take the hit without complaint rather than stir the pot. What resistance and pushback can be expected? What sort of hurdles and headaches? Is it worth it?

Spoiler

Maryland resident here. I’m ok with the trees being damaged IF they fully remove them, one looks half broken and sad. The damaged power lines however, not sure what to do. Lights flickered a bit and it seems ok now, but the line looks like it changed position. No further issues I notice so far. What would you say, do, demand them to do, etc in a reasonable, yet effective manner? I don’t want to take advantage or be taken advantage of. They are coming tomorrow to finish their work which I don’t think should pose a problem near power lines. They are licensed- I looked them up. I know stuff happens. Thanks!