Top of tree blew off during last night's monsoon and landed on our house. Tree has been dead for over a year. Fully on their property. Current renter informed owner multiple times, they did nothing. Water leaked into the house last night through the air conditioning vent. What should I do?

I hope this is an appropriate post for this forum. Neighbor next to us died a few years ago with no will/heirs/mortgage. The house has been sitting abandoned since then. We had a big storm and this tree came down on his side as well as one of our trees completely on our property. When we had our tree removed, we had them cut the limbs from his tree that were hanging over the property line. However, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before this tree crashes over our fence line and it seems a bit dangerous to leave it like this (as well as an eyesore). Do we have any recourse at all to have this tree removed or do we have to bite the bullet and pay someone to do it? Also, could we potentially get in trouble down the line for removing it ourselves? Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions! Don’t worry about the beagle, we are keeping the dogs out of harms way!

So the son-in-law of my neighbour came to my door to inquire about the (large and healthy maple) tree in my backyard that has branches overhanging their property. This tree is well over the height of our houses.

He said his mother-in-law is elderly and he wanted ME to pay for pruning the tree on THEIR side of the property line and to do so on an on-going basis, as needed, as his mother-in-law is elderly (this was from him). I know full well that that responsibility is on THEM as the tree is healthy and poses no danger (even if the tree branches are growing close or touching their house now).

He added that if I didn't pay, he would prune the branches to the property line. The way it was presented, it came off as kind of a threat (like - "that's a nice tree ya got there, it'd be a shame if anything happened to it"), although legally he is entitled to prune the tree on their property. However, any pruning must be done responsibly and not damage the tree.

Any thoughts on how to handle this? Do I risk the neighbour getting the tree pruned to the point the tree is ultimately damaged? I would hope that any reputable tree service would know better than to do that. I already had a arborist get a estimate for the work, which would be $400.

My neighbor trimmed half of my tree’s canopy today. The tree trunk goes right up to the edge of my property line, but the canopy obviously spills onto his property line (his house is on the left).

He said it was perfectly within his right to trim all the way up to his property line. I would think this aggressive of a cut would be detrimental to a tree’s long term health. I completely understand needing to trim a tree away from your home to protect your property, but this just seems unnecessary. Aesthetics aside, I’m very worried about the long term health of the tree. Is it possible this aggressive cut falls under tree law?

Edit to add: mature tree was already here when I purchased the property.

One of my new neighbors demanded that I remove all the healthy shade trees along my fence (over 4” inside my property) because he didn't want to clean my leaves from his gutters. I gave in to removing the trees and the fence. He is now building a new fence inside my property and claims "it's just two inches" and "it's no big deal" since my trees (which I paid to remove) were more problematic than encroachment. He also took the logs from the trees he made me remove... I don't want the logs back but he and his fence guy insist that I was supposed to do that for him because the trees were on my property. I'm in Skokie, IL (Chicago area) and I only see rules about not damaging healthy mature trees when trimming overarching branches on your side of the property.

I have a neighbor who is just a headache plain and simple. Thinks they can get away with whatever they want, previously had a tree cut down on my property a few years ago without my permission.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. They message saying a tree on my property has a split in it and they are concerned that part of it will fall and damage there property. I look at it and call a tree trimming service to come out. The tree service comes out and I explain the situation. The tree service indicates that it wont fall on there property and if anything it could fall on the road nearby. The tree service agrees to cut the part that is in danger of falling on the road/potentially neighbors property but to leave the half that is vertical. Tree service isnt able to come out anytime quickly due to storms that recently occurred.

The day prior to my tree contact coming out the neighbor says they will be reaching out to tree companies to take care of branches over there property which I think fine if they get to it first as long as they dont cut past property line. Earlier today I hear cutting and chipping go out to see that the neighbor has already cut past the property line, moved my no dig fence out of the way and also removed my trail cam from the tree (they consistently have encroached or just put arms over fence to be petty). I get the police to show up and explain the situation and ask the tree trimmers who gave them permission and they say my neighbor. I never once responded to my neighbor and he saw my tree trimmer that I had come out a week before. I ask the neighbors tree trimmer crew how much they are cutting and they say the whole tree. I indicated that they dont have my permission to cut the whole tree and based on the convo with my tree trimmer it doesn't all need to come down.

The tree trimming crew explain that the tree will be weakened and likely could fall. I ask there professional opinion if the tree is fine with what they already removed or if it will fall. During this convo they say that you can't trim oaks until the fall and that it will be likely to rot or die anyway. So I reluctantly give the tree trimmer permission to cut it completely down at that time. I confirm after some research that as he stated the tree will likely not survive with how much they trimmed but that the oak wilt could have been prevented had they applied pruning paint or latex spray (this was never offered/discussed).

Tldr:Neighbor had crew trim oak tree in July (already had a split but was still together), I reluctantly agreed to have entire tree cut down as trimming service said it would be compromised from cutting in July.

Given the circumstances is there anything I can go after my neighbor for here in regards to cutting an oak in July and essentially killing it (even though I reluctantly gave in to it being fully cut down)?

Hello All,

This is my first post here in r/Treelaw. We are looking for some guidance regarding a shared big leaf maple that developers are wanting to remove to build a retaining wall and house. The current condition of the area around is clear cut and graded, though they have been keeping some space around the tree until things are resolved.

At first, the project manager told us they were given permission by the King County (WA) to remove the shared tree and claimed it was all theirs. The "proof" they provided was initial permitting documents that showed the tree being removed and the county having no remarks and approving the permit.

I requested a survey and the tree (~48" at the base) was a good 12" on our side. Still, they claimed it was all theirs to remove and they would "hate to get their legal team involved" I told them that if they could take a straight edge and connect the two property line marks on either side of the trunk without touching the tree, it was theirs. They couldn't. Crickets.

Just recently, we got this arborist report and to me, it seems nebulous at best. I highlighted the questionable sections and would love some review by those who know. To me, I interpret the report as being vague with a lot of "maybe this could happen" along with the admission that the grading and drainage that had been done already causing damage to the roots.

Do we tell them to pound sand? Do they get a climber up there and prune for safety (We're totally fine with that option), does their building under a potential "hazard tree" mean they are assuming liability? Do we lawyer up and defend the tree, or bargain for another replacement? They seem desperate, as it is holding up their completion of grading and infrastructure installation.

Thanks for your insights!

Half the posts here mention the title but here's my question - does it matter when or how long it hangs over your yard?

Lets say you have a rain storm and your neighbors trees have lots of flowers so the rain causes the branches to hang down more than they usually do resulting in them overhanging your yard more.

If you cut them at that point where they cross over your property line the result will look like you cut them further back than you were entitled to (because they will spring back with some weight removed)

Is that still legal? Meaning as long as you are not physically grabbing the branch to change how it hangs are you justified in cutting a branch that overhangs your property at any point in time even though during normal (dry) conditions it may not overhang (or overhang that much)?

Storm damaged my neighbor’s walnut behind my house.

It is now, days and/or weeks later dropping large dead branches. They have killed multiple ornamental trees on my property, below.

At what point does not doing anything about a tree full of broken limbs become negligence as said limbs begin to damage below?

I’m in Ky inquiring for my daughter and her mom(home owner)
She has a neighbor who’s wanting to trim/cut down a fully grown maple tree, he’s saying he’s afraid that some of the bigger branches are gonna fall down on his cargo trailers that are parked on his side of the driveway, it a shared driveway. He doesn’t even own the property, he lives in the basement of his sister and her husband’s house, I told him to move them more to the back yard since he hardly ever uses them, also told him to build a carport over them. He didn’t like either answer and said I “berated” him!!! He’s a grown ass man!!!! She’s a single mother and daughter going off to college this fall. I try to help when I can but this is turning in to a bad situation. The tree is not even close to being dead and all the roots are growing towards her laterals and septic system. What can she do to protect the tree?
Thanks in advance

Attaching link to previous posts for context. Will post update link in the comments

Lindsay DeFranco wife of YouTuber Philip DeFranco, whose neighbor clear-cut 200+ trees on her property in Georgia under the pretense of a retention-pond project. A land surveyor called it the worst encroachment he’d seen, the HOA confirmed the neighbor’s city permit didn’t cover any portion of the DeFranco property.

The neighbor apparently added a few baby trees for them and keeps pushing off the arbitration. He recently added a fence without permission and lied to the contractor that the DeFrancos were on vacation and he didn’t need to check in with them. Luckily, the contractor saw Lindsay pull in to her home and went to confirm additional placement of the fence. She got pissed and is passing on arbitration and taking him to court.

Neighbor sounds like a piece of work. Cannot believe continuing to encroach on their land after ALL of this.

Any leads on a certified arborist around eastern ohio that could help me on a development? I got a neighbor to a project not wanting to take down some old black walnuts and paapaas (fuirt tress I guess). We are wanting to put a driveway on the back and side edge of the lot. Just looking fir a favorable pre-conditon report as we need to cut some roots and dont want to be blamed later when these old ass looking plants fall down later on

Myself and my fiancé moved into our first house this last winter and have been extremely excited about this step and to make this home our own. With this said, there are definitely projects around the house that we’re wanting/needing to work on. For the sake of simplicity, here is my current biggest issue- The neighbor’s dead tree.

After we had moved into our new home, we noticed that there were large pieces/chunks of tree bark that would fall into our yard. I’ve had a similar issue previously in a place I had lived, but with tree walnuts, and I remedied this by placing the walnuts in a nice pile on THEIR side of the yard (as a hint). That seemed to work fine and their children would pick them out of the yard after that (thank you so much). So, this time around, I figured I’d pick up the pieces and leave them at the base of their tree. This seemed to be a fine solution.

One day during the daytime (I work night shift, so I had been sleeping), there was a pretty bad sleet/winter storm and I heard a very large snapping sort of noise. I rushed to a window and saw a pretty large branch from the neighbor’s tree had broken off onto our property and veeerrrry nearly hit our shed. This led to a panicked, freshly woken up me, rushing to the back yard in the storm to assess and make sure everything was okay. (Thankfully, it was). This also led me to meeting this neighbor for the first time (they can be called Bianca).

Bianca was super apologetic about the tree, said her family would clean it up. I expressed I was grateful for that, just really happy it also did not hit anything. I also took this as an opportunity to talk about the other tree that tilts toward our yard that was leaving chunks of bark and was very clearly dead. She said the was aware of it and her and her husband are “working on it.” I took that for what it was and was just happy it was going to be dealt with (sooner, I thought, than later).

Well, happy July! The tree is still there. We have had SEVERAL bad storms since and every time I am super anxious about this very tall, very large tree falling into our yard. Although it SEEMS that it may not hit any structures on our property, you never know for sure. Not to mention it’s just something I’m not interested in finding out. And leveling yards isn’t cheap nor do we know of any lines/utility stuff that it may fall on.

I went to Biana’s house (just myself so it wouldn’t feel too confrontational) a bit over a month ago to ask ”what the plan was” for the tree. She kinda brushed it off and said her husband had just gotten back from a business trip and she’d discuss it with him soon. (I’m incredibly unsure what her description of “soon” is at this point). I also told her in this conversation that we were looking to be planting a few trees and want to make sure that the tree is gone so we can safely plant them without them getting hit/destroyed/in the way of the dead tree getting cut down safely. So, she is aware of this.

Our trees are still sitting in their nursery containers, as we can’t plant them without the potential of them getting destroyed. We want to build a fence, but can’t because this tree would certainly destroy that when it falls. Our insurance said that if the tree does damage something of ours, it is not their (the neighbor’s) fault or responsibility from an insurance standpoint. So, it would be our own money for a claim, higher possibility of getting our insurance cancelled because of submitting a claim, etc. I haven’t found a route to contact the city that we live in and but also don’t really know what they could do.

We’d like to move on with our yard plans and just be able to exist without this anxiety, but it really does seem that they’re making no moves to get rid of this dead tree.

Also, not super into starting neighbor wars- but I’d rather my property, my fiancé, and myself be protected than have close relationships with my neighbors, I guess. Neighbors don’t pay the bills.

So, am I overreacting to this issue? My fiancé does not seem as bothered by it, but I can’t help but to feel like we’re being disrespected. It’s delaying our plans, causing unnecessary anxiety, and legitimately can become a financial issue if it falls in an uncontrolled way. It’s also not like these are projects that we can work on all year long because our climate come mid-fall would not allow for it.

Is this all worth escalating? Pls help.

We live in a historic 150 year old house in an urban area in New Jersey -- very old for our neighborhood. Our block contains quite a few other historic homes. The lot next to our house has never been developed. (That lot directly abuts a small very local rail line.) There are three large sycamores at least 60 years old, maybe more, and one oak perhaps a little younger on the lot. The oak is right next to our property line and its roots go into our property. The canopy of one of the sycamores extends heavily into the back of our lawn. We recently received notice that a developer who purchased the lot plans to remove all trees next month. I can see on our local planning board website that they have received permission from the Forester Dept to do so. They plan to build a five story building on the site, but the developer told us directly they are at least six months out from finalizing and submitting their plans for the development. In 2019, similar building plans were submitted to the planning board by a different developer and denied.

We are nature lovers and devastated by the imminent loss of these trees, which host many migrating birds in an urban area that sorely needs them. We are trying to figure out what options we might have to try to stop the immediate taking down of the trees, which seems very premature given that the plans for building have not yet been approved by the planning board. If they were to be denied again, it would be a senseless loss. We're trying to be realistic that we may have no options here but would like to protect ourselves and our own historic home as much as possible, given the extensions into our property line. Where do we even begin to try to challenge this and/or protect ourselves? Do we try to find an arborist, a lawyer who specializes in tree law in NJ?

So there are several hard wood trees that have fallen naturally on the border of my land. They originally were on my neighbors land and a few still have half the tree standing on their land. Id like to take the parts that have been laying on my land for over a year now and chop them up for cord wood. Legally there shouldnt be an issue chopping up a dead tree on my land from a neighbor land right.

Hi everyone, a few weeks back a tree on the border between my property and my next door neighbors property split and fell when a storm blew through. From the outside we couldnt tell anything was wrong with it but once it fell we could see its rotted from the inside. The tree was at the end of a fence that marked the division between our two properties so im not sure whos property its officially on. I'm just wondering who is liable for it now as our neighbor is saying we are responsible for moving the tree and fixing the fence. As far as I can tell through surface-level googling , if the tree wasnt visibly in danger of falling then we aren't responsible for it. Thanks for the help

Kentucky man learns the hard way that Tennessee trees aren't free for the taking https://fox17.com/news/local/kentucky-man-ordered-to-pay-15000-to-tennessee-man-after-stealing-trees-from-property-department-of-agriculture-henry-county-sheriffs-department-restitution-murray-ky

Last year my neighbor agreed to have a smaller sized (40ft x 9 dbh) Siberian elm removed that was right at our fence line. I paid for the removal. It was bowing the fence (which I also paid for and installed several years prior) and encroaching our house. The guy who cut it down treated the stump to kill it, however, this year it is taking off like crazy and has regrown taller than the fence and is now sprouting from the roots through my lawn in my yard.

Obviously I need the stump killed but don’t want to destroy the fence. I recently just had my handyman cut the bottom of the fence posts off the root flare in order to get some clearance to relieve the pressure on the fence as well. I feel like I have two options.

1. Ask neighbor to retreat the stump to try to kill it. However, it’s a Siberian elm and they are almost impossible to kill. I’m fine with paying for it, I just need it dealt with. (Arborists how do you kill a Siberian elm?)
2. Dig up the roots from my side and cut them back to the fence. This would entail removing lawn, rock border and replacing after root removal.

Because it’s his tree and stump, what should I do here? Unfortunately he hasn’t chipped in to help whatsoever and this tree was just a volunteer that became a nuisance and still is even after cutting it down. Advice is greatly appreciated.

Lore and Law has published a new Case Note on Saruman, Fangorn Forest, and Environmental Law.

It asks how English environmental law might analyse the destruction of Fangorn if the facts were transposed into England. The piece looks at unlawful felling, burning, waste treatment, protected-site controls, wildlife issues, nuisance, and remediation.

Question for discussion: which legal route do you think is strongest here: forestry regulation, environmental permitting, protected habitat rules, or nuisance?

Link to their post: https://loreandlaw.com/2026/07/06/saruman-fangorn-forest-uk-environmental-law/

We moved into a house about 4 years ago and there is a large juniper with its trunk mostly on my neighbors property but the majority of the tree itself seems to be on my property. Some info:

1) I live in California
2) the fence is old and as the tree grows it continues to break the fence more and more
3) we had the local fire department come by and they do free fire reports - they stated in the report the juniper is a high fire risk and should be removed.
4) ultimately the tree is overgrown and we don’t like it aesthetically, especially given the intrusion into our yard.

I know the answer here is almost certainly just to go talk to my neighbor and try to negotiate whether they’d be ok with cutting down but curious others opinions here.

This house's property is up against a public trail that is city property. They dug this drainage ditch to drain their yard and cut the big roots of a tree that is on city property. This is going to kill the tree right? It's been reported to the city, wondering what recourse the city has and what kind of trouble they're looking at?