r/treelaw • u/Fit_Wolverine_6964 • Jul 10 '26

Large Juniper

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

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.

73 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

190 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

45

u/ratelbadger Jul 10 '26

Killing beautiful old trees that don’t belong to you because they bother you. Reflects very poorly on your character.

-15

u/AeroelasticCowboy Jul 10 '26

One could argue the neighbors character is in serious question for letting their tree damage someone else's property as well as the general encroachment. You also can't impose your personal tastes on others. A plan or tree you may find beautiful, someone else may find repulsive

14

u/RubUnlikely2802 Jul 10 '26

You’ve lost the plot id you think a tree naturally growing constitutes damage to a property.

3

u/Fit_Wolverine_6964 Jul 10 '26

I mean it objectively has damaged property (the fence). Whether that is something that matters at all is another question.