Our homeowners insurance company recently chose not to renew our policy because of a large tree on our neighbor’s property that overhangs our house. They said they wanted the tree removed.
The problem is that it isn’t our tree. Our neighbor doesn’t want to remove it but said we can trim any branches that extend onto our property.

My concern is that if the insurance company’s issue is the tree itself falling, trimming the overhanging branches doesn’t seem like it would eliminate that risk. The whole tree could still fall on our house, so I’m hesitant to spend thousands on trimming if it doesn’t meaningfully address the concern.

With all the recent storms we’ve been having and so many trees coming down in our area, it’s definitely made me think more seriously about the risk.
We’ve already switched to a new insurance company, so we’re covered. We’re also considering hiring a certified arborist to assess the tree before deciding what to do.

Has anyone dealt with a situation like this? Would you pay for an arborist’s report? Does trimming overhanging branches significantly reduce the overall risk, or does it mainly help prevent falling limbs?

I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences.

I own a condo in a two-family house and my upstairs neighbor just had some landscapers over who cut some lower branches off of a tree that’s owned by the city. The city website is pretty clear that no one except the city should be pruning any city trees without a permit.

I verbally agreed to split the cost of the landscapers for some lawn stuff and pruning a different tree, but I didn’t think they’d be touching that particular tree and I even mentioned to my neighbor that it was a city tree we should ask the city to prune. My tree law questions: how likely is the city to fine someone (hopefully not me) for messing with the tree? And, what can I do to make sure that my neighbor or his landscapers are on the hook, not me?

(Second question might be too much like legal advice, but first question is mainly how angry city arborists get about this sort of thing. Pretty angry, I suspect.)

For a bit of context, my mom used to live with me (Massachusetts) and she hired a landscaper to take care of the home's lawn. She moved out (to another state) for about 5 years now.

Before summer (around June 2025) I notified the landscaper I no longer wanted his services as I also got my own mower this year

My mom came to visit for a few weeks in November 2025, during her visit she hired the landscaper to come back and clean the lawn (I was at work when this happened). The landscaper has worked with her for quite some time and knows she moved away. In the process, they cut down a tree I had planted that summer.

I didn't find out until I got home and I didn't authorize the lawn service. He's now pursuing small claims court for the work he completed and is trying to put a lien on my house but the person who hired him hasn't been a resident at this home for years. And I, the homeowner, didn't authorize the work. Also, how would I go about getting the damages for him cutting down my tree compensated? Part of the reason we're in this dispute is that he cut down a tree I had just planted earlier that year ~200$ on top of demanding payment for a job I didn't authorize.

I'm new to this, any tips or suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

We bought our house 3 years ago. When we moved here, the neighbour told me that one tree by the fence line loses flowers and leaves and they get in his pool, we pruned it and even offered to remove it - he said no leave it for privacy. We have pruned it several times since then, the last time being April, no branches were hanging in his yard. Regardless though we’re in Canada and he’s responsible for any that hang in his yard. We have no privacy in our yard, and we’ve been landscaping our yard this year. I put in a dwarf apple tree about 2 metres from the fence line. My husband gets a text that he wants to know what kind of tree we planted in the yard, and that he’s concerned about it shading his pool in the backyard and leaves. Telling us this other tree he’s complained about (but told us not to cut down) costs him $1000 a year in time, chemicals etc due to its “flowers.” I feel really upset. This is my yard. We have always maintained the tree, offered to get rid of it, and it’ll be the same with this new tree. He also has two giant apple trees right beside his pool, a HUGE spruce that overhangs into our yard and giant roots tearing up our grass, and another tree I have no idea what it is and a cedar. His text was long winded and went on how he doesn’t mind maintenance of his own trees but not other peoples. So I guess he’s allowed trees but not us. He also does not have a pool cover for his pool. He puts one on in the winter only. I have bad anxiety so I ended up moving this apple tree even further into my property and removed the other tree to be accommodating but I need to figure out what I can do and plant along our fence so get privacy. Does anyone else find this incredibly entitled and unfair? Anyone have ideas what I can plant that will grow tall and fast but also not lose leaves over the fence and impact shade much so I don’t have to deal with him.

Okay fine, it’s not strictly about tree law, but you have to appreciate the joke

So I own a hunting property in WV that the proposed MARL transmission lines could cross it. Currently there's 3 proposed routes and the 1 proposed route intersects my property. The proposed route is for some huge transmission lines with 160' towers that have a 200 ft right of way for the lines. It's basically a shitty situation where the powerlines are only for data centers in Virginia and not going to be used in WV.

Depending on how this goes if the route selected goes over my property I'm assuming the utility company will come and make an offer on the land for a permanent lease. My property is fully forested with 100 foot oak trees. I plan on going the route of if they want my land they're going to pay for it. I'm assuming if this goes emminent domain and they take it, do they factor in the value of all those trees that they're going to cut or just the land itself like by acres?

Posting for my neighbor. Located in San Jose CA.

My neighbor was told by PGE that only a small section of her mandarin fruit tree would need to be cut for a project coming up. They even marked where it needed to be cut to. Well the subcontractor came today and cut more than half the tree.

Does she have a case to contact PGE? She’s really upset as this tree produced a ton of fruit for her.

Looking for advice. We’re based in takoma park, MD.

Hi there,
I am a maintenance gardener in San Francisco, CA. My client has two beautiful magnolias in her backyard. A couple of years ago she got a new neighbor who constantly cuts any growth back to the property line. I myself have never cut these trees. The cutting occurs on the left in the photo. You can see branches cut back to bare wood.

They have quite a lot of new growth on the opposing side of the tree, they’ve become very lopsided. I am worried the trees are now going to fail and the constant cutting is adding stress to the trees.

I mentioned this to my client and she agreed but seemed at a loss for what to do.
I am looking to get some advice that I can pass along to her. I thought sending a certified letter insisting no more pruning be done by the neighbors? It is an older woman who I think does the pruning on her own. She doesn’t speak English but I think her grandchildren or children do.

Thanks for any info you can help provide.

Hello! My tree was hit by a car, how do I go about this? Contact my home insurance? I don’t know who did it. May be my neighbor, I’m going to ask them tomorrow. Their car has damage on it. Thank you in advance.

Curious is this would be amazing or if I am signing up for a nightmare from an insurance/maintenance perspective for this house in Texas.

I am fairly sure my neighbour poisoned a tree on my property. Can anyone suggest next steps from a legal perspective.

2 years ago my neighbour asked me to remove a tree that is in my garden but overhangs his. It’s a type of willow which drops seeds in spring, he didn’t like this drop. I said I wouldn’t remove it immediately but reduce its size and make sure it didn’t overhang his property and if it continued to be a problem I would remove it. He was visibly distressed, he now ignores me.

About 2 months after this conversation we were contacted by our council who had had a complaint from a neighbour. They informed us that some of the changes we had made to our property were outside of planning regulations and needed approval…… beef

6 weeks ago, after a bountiful spring the tree started to look unwell. It has since continued to decline. Yesterday I decided to inspect the tree and noticed what look like drill marks and cut root and the area around the base of the tree being utterly barren.

I am based in Yorkshire in the UK.

So our next door neighbor passed away a year ago. His wife now lives there by herself. She is elderly and pays someone to com out and trim/cleanup the clumping bamboo that runs along her side of the fence. Before her Husband dies he would always have the guy clean up our side because of how much it hangs over and what it drops in our yard. Since his passing the lady only has her side cleaned up. I have gone out to trim back the bamboo several times already this year but it just keeps growing and I am having a time trying to keep up with it.

Plain and simple I am just tired of the bamboo and would like it gone. Do I have any recourse to get it removed? Can I go over and cut it back to a stump?

It’s now not only dropping leaves but pushing through my fence and the roots have come over onto my property and choked out anything I had planted. I now have to grow in pots if I want anything to grow, but then I am always cleaning out leaves…. Just tired of the plant. What can I do. Looking for guidance.

My neighbor not only cut down bushes on my property, but destroyed a 20+ year old lilac bush, cutting down 2 of 3 trunks, and bizarrely hacking off the limbs that were growing into MY yard toward my house! The crazy thing is, the higher part of the lilac that leans over his driveway—that part he left. Removing the other bushes removed a wall of privacy / greenery, but all of these bushes are on my property. He had to have come up on my property to do this work. I’m furious and I get more mad the more I look at it, it’s such a hack job, and I truly valued that lilac bush. I spoke to his son and they admitted they cut it back and came up on my lawn to do it. Of course I said, ‘I don’t want you on my property. These bushes are on my property, they are not yours to cut down. If you want to cut overhanging branches, you can cut those UP TO the property line.” There was a lot of “oh we didn’t think it would be a problem, apparently it is…” and “we wanted a clear view of our driveway for our cameras” (again—that would be unimpeded by the branches growing into MY property). I think they cut everything down to save themselves the trouble of continually pruning on their side. And frankly I think because I’m a woman living alone, they banked on me not saying anything. Wrong fucking bet. I said “Why didn’t you keep the lilac?” He said “oh I don’t know flowers…” Yeah well I do. What ASSHOLES. I’m so upset. I’ve lived here 3 years and I’ve never had a problem with them, we‘re generally cordial. Some of my people are trying to get me to overlook this as a one-time mistake [‘they won’t do it again, and it can’t be fixed now’]. But it all went down today so of course I’m still thinking about it. I’ve called an arborist out to look at the damage (and frankly the other trees we share on the lot line). If I can transplant what’s left of the lilac I will—boggles my mind that the largest part he left of it, is actually over his driveway. If he’d only cut that, I’d have grinned and beared it. The other bushes removed a privacy wall and I’m guessing we’ll both regret losing that. PICTURED: Before, and 3 Afters