What options do I have when my neighbor will not trim the limps of his trees that now extend over my roof?

Question

Six months ago, I politely asked my neighbor to please have his 3 Live Oak trees trimmed that are 8-10 ft away from the side of my house (on the other side of his 10 ft. fence). The limps were extending over his fence into our yard space at that time and are now hanging over our roof. The grass will not grow on our side yard and the tree roots are now causing foundation problems with our house. Our previous neighbor of 3 years ago always kept the trees trimed, but nothing has been trimmed since they sold the house.. The neighbor said he would get an estimate from a tree service and a few weeks later we saw a tree service truck parked out front, but nothing has been trimed 6 months later.

Answer 1

Send your neighbor a certified letter explaining your problem. Keep a copy for yourself. Give them a time limit, say 2-4 weeks, to have the work done. If it is not done within that time , have it done yourself and send them a copy of the bill. If they do not pay you for the work that was done, take them to small claims court. You can't lose. Just be sure to take pictures of the trees and the danger that they are to your home before you have them cut.

Answer 2

I suggest that you write a polite letter to him telling him about the previous practice.The letter also should say that you are willing to have the tree trimmed and the bill sent to him.Touch it up as if you are the nicest neighbor in the vicinity.Make sure that you give a time frame.That letter is useful for 2 reasons (1) it will show any interested party including the court,if necessary that you are not an unreasonable neighbor and (2) put him on notice that the state of affairs cannot remain the same any longer.If there is no response have the tree trimmed at your end as it is your legal right, send him the bill,if he doesn't pay try the small claims court.The problem may be solved without resorting to my advice viz the courts! Good Luck.

Answer 3

You can trim the tree in a staright line directly up from the property line and there is nouthing your neighbor can say to prevent you from doing this.

We had a limb trimmed from a neighbors tree a few years ago I remember that we split the cost and we both paid half only because the limb was touching both of our roofs and needed to be trimmed.

You should call and get your own estimate, talk to your neighbor and offer to pay half which I think would be fair.

The guy probably got the estimate and it was a few hundred dollars and since the tree is not bothering him, he figured why should he foot the bill himself.

If it was me, I wouldn't ask the neighbor to cut his tree at his expense, I think it just sets you up for a bad situation. I would have asked for his permission to cut it, and I would have paid for the tree company 100% out of my pocket.

You might be able to take him to court, but you got to live next to the guy for many more years to come why have bad blood over a few hundred dollars.

Answer 4

Call a lawyer. Your neighbor sounds like a prick. You could offer to split the cost with him (to be neighborly) and that might help get it done. If not, you can just pay to have the work done yourself. After all, it's your yard that is affected. The main thing is that you can't trim the tree back to the point where it would threaten the life of the tree as the tree itself belongs to your neighbor. Try to be nice and persistent. If it doesn't work, you may be in for a long, ugly seige with the as*hole from next door.

Answer 5

Trees over your roof will cause roof to rot... mine did. No tree limbs should ever be over your roof. Anything ,tree limbs or roots in your yard you may cut. Take photos first as evidence if ever needed.
Time is of the essence. I would cut my losses and do it myself rather than wait an argue and have more expense to the value of my property.
Always keep line of communication open with neighbor if possible. Tell him you have located someone that can do it for a reasonable price and show him written bid for the job.
You could ask does he want to split bill ?
Find someone as affordable as possible and remember the worker is on your property and could become your liability.

Personally I would stay in control of what happens in my yard even if I paid for it. Maintaining your real estate value is the most important thing,
It might be cheaper for you to keep limbs and roots cut yourself than end up in court and or with damaged house.
.

Answer 6

Explain to the jerk that the second they fall on your roof and cause damage, that HE WILL be liable for ALL damages! Send him a certified letter if nothing else and keep a copy of it. (For when you end up in court.) Or if you have a lawyer, have him send the letter. We've been having major problems here in the Midwest with ice-storms, and it is no laughing matter that this sort of thing has caused SO much damage. If you don't mind, cut them yourself...you have every right to do so~then throw all the brush over the fence;) The foundation problem/damage would really be a chunk of change! And the roots grow to the width equal to the the canopy of the tree~~~O.K..I'm out of ideas now!LOL
Good Luck!!

Answer 7

Hello, if you live in the city, you should contact your City Government office and ask for the Zoning/Planning Department and find out what the city ordinance is regarding such matters. They may have an ordinance which requires property owners to be legally responsible for a property owner's trees, and if the branches are extending over another's property, that they maintain the tree and crop the branches, especially in your situation where they are growing over your roof, which could cause damage from a storm. Find out if you would be in your legal rights to cut the limbs yourself.

Assuming this is the case and that is what the ordinance mandates, you should approach your neighbor in a letter and mail the letter certified with return receipt. Enclose a copy of the ordinance which specificially states the clause regarding this matter, and ask your neighbor to please comply with your request as the branches pose a danger to your roof (simply hinderance of grass growth does not seem like a plausible reason enough). Make a copy of both letter and ordinance before mailing. Be sure and sign and date the letter.

You will receive back in the mail proof of your mailing this letter.
Now, you have legal proof that you attempted to ask your neighbor in a civil way to please comply with the city ordinance. If your neighbor does not respond or comply, your next step would be to file a petition with the city court, which requires a nominal filing fee of around $25.00 (varies with each city). In your petition, your cause of action would be that your neighbor refused to comply with the law and is thus endangering the roof of your home, and you would petition (ask) the court to enforce the ordinance and that the judge order your neighbor to comply.

If this fails, your next step would be to hire an attorney to represent you, which could become costly, but you could ask the judge to award you court costs and attorneys fees.

Or, if allowed by city law, cut the limbs yourself.

You may end up with a ticked off neighbor but with the law on your side, it may be easier to just skip the letter, pursuing the legal route and once you find out what the laws are, just chop off the limbs.

Then if your neighbor gets ticked off, let HIM go to the city to find out the laws, only to discover that you were in your perfect right to alter his tree since it was stretching beyond the property line and endangering your roof.

I hope this helps.

Answer 8

You are within your rights to have the limbs that extend into your property trimmed. If you want to be a nice guy you may consider telling him that you would like to do it and would he mind. If he is a nice guy he will offer to pay at least half of it. However, either way, you can do what you want with it. Good luck, I had the exact same problem. My neighbor said "I really appreciate your informing me that you are going to do that & I want to pay part of it". I had it done, but I wound up paying for it all. Oh well, it was worth it.

Answer 9

A property owner has every legal right to trim tree limbs and roots up to the point where they cross the property line. You need not ask the neighbor for permission but it would be a courtesy to do so.

Their insurance is not responsible for damage to your property unless you can prove they knew there was a problem and negligently did not take care of it.

Answer 10

In most jurisdictions, if the trees are old and well established, the owner of the property on which they are rooted may not be legally responsible for such growth. That happened to me. There is no trespass involved if I had nothing to do with the tree's natural growth. If I planted 'hateful' trees on the property boundry to irritate my neighbour, then I could be responsible.
Check with your municipal regulations concerning trees.
I invited my neighbour to cut off any limbs hanging over our fence if he wanted to (he never did!!).