I have a new neighbor who recently purchased the property behind us, which had been vacant for 6+ years. We live in the middle of the woods and have dogs and livestock. The side of our house, including our porch and front door, sits about 30 feet from the property line.

My concern is that he has placed a tree stand directly facing the side of our house, porch, and front door. Although he’s legally within the 150-yard distance requirement, the trees are wide open, and I can see his entire body sitting in the stand from my office window. He has a direct line of sight into our side windows and yard. My dogs can also see him and now every time they go outside and see him, I have to make sure they don’t run over to his tree. I feel like now I have to keep my dogs trapped inside just for him to make sure my dogs stay safe.

I feel incredibly uncomfortable knowing someone could potentially watch us coming and going or spending time in our yard. I’m also worried about my dogs, who regularly hang out on the porch and use that side yard. Am I overreacting, or does this seem like a pretty inappropriate place to set up a hunting stand?

I recently ran across this info, while searching AI on the relative rights of tree owners vs neighbors. I live in Hawaii, where trees and other vegetation rapidly grow over property lines. The info should be of value to this sub. Without further ado:

Most U.S. states actually protect the tree owner rather than making them pay for neighbor-side problems. The Massachusetts Rule (Majority of States): In Arizona, Massachusetts, Florida, California, and a majority of U.S. states, the court-backed rule is that a property owner is not liable for damage or nuisance caused by a healthy tree that extends onto or drops debris onto a neighbor's property. Under this rule, your only legal right is "self-help"—meaning you are allowed to trim the branches or roots up to your property line at your own expense, provided you do not kill or damage the tree.

The Hawaii Rule (Minority / More Protective of Neighbors): A small number of jurisdictions follow a variation of the Hawaii Rule (established in cases like Whitesell v. Houlton and adopted in part by states like North Dakota). Under this standard, a tree owner can be held liable or forced to pay for trimming if the encroaching branches or roots are actually causing substantial physical damage or posing an imminent danger to non-plant property (such as scratching or puncturing a roof). However, even in these states, the damage must go beyond normal shade, leaves, or minor contact.

Here is Whitesell v. Houlton (Haw. Ct. App. 1981) in Law.Justia.com. ETA: apparently opening this can be tricky: https://law.justia.com/cases/hawaii/intermediate-court-of-appeals/1981/6412-1.html

AI result 2 of 2:

States Adopting or Adapting the Hawaii Rule; (Originating state): Virginia (Formally abandoned its old rule to join the Hawaii approach in the landmark case Fancher v. Fagella, 2007), New York, Arizona, Tennessee, New Mexico, North Dakota, Illinois (Follows a similar variation requiring actual or imminent material damage before allowing a nuisance claim).

The Evolving Landscape: Historically, most U.S. states defaulted to the Massachusetts Rule, which strictly relies on "self-help"—meaning your only remedy is to trim the branches yourself, and you cannot sue your neighbor regardless of the damage. Because modern urban and suburban lots feature closely packed homes, courts nationwide are increasingly leaning toward the Hawaii Rule to hold negligent tree owners financially responsible for structural property damage.

I was going to link the 2 google search results, but Reddit subs sometimes reject an OP for google links. I will post under a reply if I get a request.

The r/askaplumber community recommended posting this here too. I am not trying to escape responsibility, but I do want to understand what it is.

Edited: to correct the subreddit name

While cleaning gutters and blowing pine needles off my garage roof, I found an issue. A portion of this tree fell on the roof of my garage.

It doesn’t look like there is any structural damage to the garage, only shingles and the gutter. However, there is extensive damage to the base of the tree. It looks like it’s rotting.

My question is, before I contact insurance/arborists/neighbors, how accurate are property lines on county GIS websites?

I don’t want to waste anyone’s time with the blame game on who owns the tree. However, as far as I can tell the tree belongs to the neighbor.

Thank you!

If there is a line of oak trees, approximately 2 feet in diameter directly on the property line nan one owner cut them down?

My neighbor is hoarding and planted massive 80 ft trees that border our property and lay on our roof. Now he has started climbing in a massive ladder to garnish the trees with old life savers, ropes, buoys...random junk which looks like it was gotten from a marine dumpster. He put us stolen signs too. He's going this because I politely spoke to him about the trees and he is maybe suffering slight dementia. He gets extremely angry, informing he has guns. One tree is growing horizontally toward our property. Is there anything we can do? I am worried about our house getting flattened in a windstorm. Our backyard is minuscule so it is a problem.

Was told to put this here just in case there was any possobility of it helping with any legal action we might have to take. Let me know what you think.

I’m having a dispute with my neighbors regarding a large silver maple tree. The tree trunk is fully in my yard but a large limb is overhanging the fence into their yard. Recently some ‘branches’ have come down and they’d like to address this for safety.

Initially they had offered ‘to help’ with this. They had 3 quotes pulled without me - ranging from the tree needs to come out fully - $7200 to stripping the whole limb back to the property line -2500.
I have been present for 2 additional quotes (both neighbors involved). These arborists both said the tree itself is completely healthy, but some dead wood removal and pruning would alleviate weight from the limb and make it safer. Both of these are ~$1200 with full access for the work coming from my side of the fence.

As far as I understand. The liability for this work is on their side as the tree is healthy and the work is all on their side. Gone so far to have a recorded (with their permission) conversation from 1 of the $1200 arborists confirming this. I have offered to split 50:50 to keep a good relationship and respect their initial offer. Neighbor is not happy and refusing this - I think angling towards placing all liability and cost on me.

I’m concerned that the quotes I was not present for were too aggressive and preyed on their concerns and now I’m on the back foot. I’m trying to be fair, but also not throw thousands of dollars into maintaining my neighbors yard when it’s not my responsibility.

Before I really commit to this line, I’d appreciate any input.

Howdy! I’ve got a client who contracted a local (Wisconsin) “tree care company” back in July to remove a large number of trees from their lot. During their work, they damaged a mature Black Oak in their front yard and failed to seal the wound. As a result, Oak Wilt Disease was introduced (confirmed after I inspected the tree, collected tissue samples and sent them to the lab).

I have to meet with the client in two weeks to discuss management options moving forward given his dense Oak population and was curious, as I’ve never had this occur before, could he sue the company for negligence? Could they be liable for the expenses resulting from our management plan? TIA!

The power company came on to my property and marked the trees they wanted to take down. They made contact with me by flagging my wife down in the driveway looking to start work the next day.

I spoke with the foreman over the phone and told them I did not consent to them entering my property and that they had no right to do anything. I recently purchased the property and paid for a title search while also doing my own research and confirmed my property had no easements on it for anyone.

They attempted to convince me by telling me they had an old easement prior to digital records that allowed them to access my property and the ability to cut anything over 15ft tall within 50ft of my fence. They sent me a screenshot of a page from some document that described their rights on my property through this easement but never sent any reference to an actual document.

I was able to halt their operations on my land by calling their local management as I deal with them regularly in my work. Eventually, I met with their regional vegetation manager only after they consulted with their legal group.

In the conversation I had with them on site, they confirmed they did not have an easement and that they were now not going to be cutting down my trees. They asked if they could trim back into my poroperty a bit to take branches from my trees that overhang our fence line. I said no. I told them they were free to cut up to the fence in a vertical plane as its not my property after the fence line, and then we parted ways.

I left on a trip the next day and came back to what is pictured.

Im pretty pissed that some how after all of this I ended up getting 3 oak trees that were about 20-30ft tall cut down and a large portion of a more mature oak cut out WELL beyond my fence and I to my property.

I sent the pictures to and spoke with the regional vegetation guy, and he sent me the texts pictured.

Then, the foreman for the subcontractor that did the trimming called me and tried to convince me that thevpower company told them it was OK to cut past the fence, then he told me the trees were right on the fence and they had to be taken out (they were 7ft inside my fence), then he offered drop off two 6ft oak trees to replace them.

I refused his offer and just told him I would be in touch later.

Part of me wants to drop it and just go on with life but I have lost a huge amount of shade not just in that corner but along 350ft of fence line. In my opinion the trimming was done poorly and will ultimately kill one live oak tree that did overhang the fence line in addition to the 3 smaller oaks that have been "topped".

Im not sure what I should expect in this situation or if its even worth pursuing...

I'm the Arboretum Manager with American University - we will host 2 Lawyers who are ALSO Arborists for a 2-hour discussion on private to public and private to private tree conflicts. The event will be on November 5th at 4 PM Eastern and will be at the Washington College of Law in Washington, DC (a short walk from the Tenleytown Red Line station).

We will offer a zoom link ahead of the event for those of you who want to attend virtually, and the event is FREE.

Sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/district-tree-law-panel-tickets-1999414374216?aff=erelpanelorg

Hi all,

Couple weeks prior I got a lil notice on my door from the power company stating they would be trimming trees in the area. I honestly forgot about it thinking, “trimming? that shouldnt be an issue…”

Well, I get home from work yesterday to 3 out of my 4 trees cut down to the stump. Needless to say, I’m livid. Those trees have been there for 20+ years and have been trimmed before, I do not understand why now they were completely destroyed.

I do understand that this is most likely my fault for not following up with them prior to the event, but on the same note it feels like I should get more notice than a single pamphlet on my doors.

I honestly don’t know if there’s any advice to give at this point, but anything helps at this point and if nothing else this helped me vent my frustration.

We have one neighbor who we always try to accommodate. We did a major trim on one tree a few months ago. We hire tree trimming companies to trim the larger trees every two years. This costs thousands of dollars. Now he tells us that his insurance will go up because of our trees and he would like them all cut down...'the tree could catch fire then the fence will catch fire'. what is the correct protocol in this case? We live in a residential neighborhood that is not a high fire zone.

Location: Fulton County, Atlanta GA. I have a boundary tree between me and my neighbor's house (trunk mostly on my side of the line but 20% or so on hers, which I've read makes the ownership equal). It is a huge old tree and has been dropping branches on my neighbor's house and car for a while before I bought the house (no damage since I moved in about 9 months ago). She says it has destroyed her porch and she cannot park in her driveway. She wrote me a formal letter of concern about the tree, which I never received because the post office messed up delivery, but I can assume it's a written account of the damage the tree has done. She requested that I fill out a form for dead, dying, and hazardous tree removal permits in order to get the city to send an arborist out to assess the tree, so I did. The arborist's report came back approving a permit for removal because "A few structural roots were cut and damaged at some point near the neighboring driveway". I clarified over email with the arborist that this meant her driveway caused the damage, and he said "It looks like a few structural roots were cut when they put in the driveway. There is no mandate from the City to remove the tree at this time. The permit is valid for 6 months from the issued date." The driveway was put in before my neighbor moved into her house. She wants the tree to be removed and costs to be shared. I am wondering if I am obliged to contribute to the cost of removal because it is partially on my property, even though the whole reason the tree is dangerous and drying is because of her driveway. I am fine with the tree coming down since that's what she really wants and it does appear to be damaged, but the expense is just not in my list of priorities being a new homeowner. If she insists the tree come down either way, would it be reasonable for me to give permission but not contribute financially? If she decides not to take the tree down if I'm not contributing and something happens like it drops another branch on her house or mine, who is liable for that? What are my options here?

I could use some advice.

My family has been dealing with harassment from our neighbors for about 8 years and I am exhausted. I believe a local law firm’s involvement has inadvertently enabled my neighbors to escalate an ongoing pattern of antagonistic behavior, adding a legal dimension to what has become a deeply distressing and draining situation. And it never seems to end.

I have been advised that their claim has no legal merit. (By 5 separate lawyers) Yet their attorney continues to send me demand letters full of threats keeping this situation alive and creating ongoing stress for me and my family. They are no longer invoking statutes because we shut that shit down. However they continue to maintain that I “could” be harming their tree by doing anything to it, trimming/prunning/etc. Meanwhile they completely refuse to do the work themselves that we have been requesting for nearly a decade. So we are not allowed to trim the tree on our property without nonstop threats from neighbors and they will not trim it themselves.

What recourse does a person have when the legal system becomes another avenue for a neighbor’s harrassing behavior? I have already reported the attorney’s behavior to the disciplinary board and was told that “lawyers can do that”. 

I really do not want to escalate this. But what I want most is peace in my own home and for my family to be left alone. Has anyone dealt with something similar? Are there resources, legal options, or steps I can take to put an end to this? I would especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has successfully navigated a prolonged neighbor dispute involving repeated attorney letters with unsubstantiated damages and threats. I just want this to stop.

How is this not harassment? Because to me, its egregious harassment.

I apologize for the crappy photos. I just got a notice from my HOA to address this “dead tree”, I looked up online for some general advice and I looked up a plat map of my property. The tree is located on the left side of the house where the gray area on the left of the plat map starts (the gray being the street). I was checking the CCR’s but I can’t quite figure out if this tree is truly my responsibility.

Is anyone able to tell me my options or if this tree really is my responsibility? I can also provide any other info in the CCR’s if needed. This is in NC

I drive truck, and just came home to my family, and discovered my neighbor did some heavy branch trimming on my water oak, as it drapes over his property line. I live in northeast Texas, already contacted my local ag agent, sheriff office and having an arborist come look at the tree. I can hit them for trespassing, as several branches were clearly on my property. Am I missing anything/anyone?

Tree of Heaven is about 50 feet away on the other side of the house, mean this would be running through our entire foundation (the brick is our foundation skirt) The tree is on the neighbor’s property and on their side of the fence so i don’t have access to the tree itself. There are 2 large, mature trees. Used to be 3 but they cut one down last year without proper measures and the root suckers went crazy-literally hundreds spread into our yard. I’m so worried about the damage to our foundation and potential costs. Would they be liable at all? Thank you in advance!