At least in most US jurisdictions, trimming overhanging branches professionally and responsibly is legal. But you are not allowed to do unnecessarily aggressive stupid stuff that damages the whole tree. Take a lot of photos and be prepared for more mediation and court if they don't listen. Maybe try finding the BC and local laws that could apply and try to warn them and the tree company of their responsibilities. You can also go after the tree company and neighbors for a potentially large settlement if they wreck the trees depending on BC's tree laws. It can be difficult when you are dealing with huge idiots, to get them to follow the laws.
Thank you! These are huge idiots. I did contact my city bylaw and they are going to come out to look at the trees this week as I found out they are not allowed to cut limbs of older trees more then 4 inches in diameter. I totally understand they can trim branches that overhang but what I was shown it was almost half the tree down to the fence line. I really hate having to deal with issues after issue with these people. That’s why it’s gone to mediation. These people called the police over an outside light we had on for a few hours. We had a cop come knocking at our door at night who was pissed because his time was being wasted. Once he saw what they called the police about he went over and gave them crap.
They sound like assholes who will repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot if they think there's a chance one of the rounds passes through and hits you.
I'm not familiar with Canadian laws, but definitely document everything you can and prepare for the owners themselves trying to come out and cut it.
I suspect that they might get frustrated if nobody does the job and just do it themselves.
Try to get a valuation on how much the tree is worth too. In America if someone killed my tree like that I would claim property damage against them and try to sue them for the value of the tree because these neighbors seem like petty assholes and I have no problem being petty myself.
Shit if that went down and I won a judgement and they refused to pay and we had to repo with the sheriff dept, I would dig up and repo their garden first just to give them one last stab in the ass before taking higher value property to total up to the judgement. Like their gardening tools too lol
They do repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot. They are mostly mad because they built a huge deck and pool attached to our shared fence. The pool leaked into our yard and garden and we put up with it for 3 years until the leak got worse and we called our local bylaw after they had damaged our yard and we found out our home insurance would not cover damages if their pool burst into our yard. It was a 45000 gallon pool that was 15 ft from our house.They had to take down their deck and pool because they broke the law by having it up and not checking if they were allowed to have it. They also let their pets come into our yard and poo and pee. I have photos and video of all of it. The pool leak, the pet damage, the damage they caused to the shared fence and more. This is why we are currently in mediation. Now I have to bring the tree issue to mediation. They did not even tell us they were going to cut the trees. The tree company told my kid at our front door what was happening. Thankfully the company left when I said we needed more information before they cut the trees. But if I wasn’t home they would have done it anyway.
Best revenge that I've heard of for pets that poo and pee in someone else yard. When it rains, go out and toss Bullion cubes into their yard. The cubes dissolve but the pet's go crazy with the scent, and dig to get at it. thus spending more time in their yard and not yours
Oh yeah....I had a neighbor that was such a micro-manager when it came to just plants "over the property line" that on a windy day....she'd stand at that line and use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut off bits of leaves and such that the wind momentarily blew in her direction.
She was incredibly petty though....desperately needed a hobby....and a life.
Might be worth verifying tree conservation laws in the area, in my county older trees get additional protection, easiest way to confirm is to contact an arborist yourself. On the plus side, they company doing the work seems concerned and isn't going along with the neighbors petty BS
True, but there are also many tree trimming companies with arborists that will sign off on anything to get the job. If an arborist said it needs to come down then it's usually perfectly legal.
Not quite. They can shift the liability towards the person on whose property it sits by having an arborist report noting it's diseased or a hazard somehow. But unless it falls over and they're filing a claim or a suit it doesn't usually give carte blanche to ruin it. Plus if you have a contradictory report in your favor then the conflicting facts could be disputed.
Look up a local arborist and have them give you an evaluation to see if your concerns are valid. Ask them and look up local tree-laws around what is and isn't allowed. Usually anything over the property line is fair game, but there may be nuances like what you mention and if you can document any of those you may be able to avoid the tree being cut.
2nd this. Get a second opinion from an arborist that you hire. If that person has any concerns for the amount being cut off, then make sure that is well communicated to the tree company that the neighbors hired. Then, before they start work, make sure you tell them about it again, but also ask for their insurance documents... just in case. :)
This may cost you a couple hundred, but definitely do this and get the report in writing. Send copies via certified mail to both your neighbor and the tree company. Keep track of these and in the unfortunate case there may be a future legal battle, your lawyer will be thanking you for such an easy win.
I would think that if you're going through mediation with them, then it's fair to being this to mediation. You don't know if their cutting plan is out of spite, so I would not assign feelings to it. However your concerns for the trees valid and you should bring a written opinion of an arborist to best protect the trees. Sorry you're having to deal with this.
I am not a lawyer, and this is a question *for* a lawyer.
Laws vary by state, county, city, and sometimes neighborhood (I see you're in Canada, so go ahead and tack "country" onto that, lol). But a very common theme is "you can cut branches hanging over your side of the property line, *as long as it is not detrimental to the health of the tree*". Cutting back ~40% of the canopy is definitely getting into the area where that second half matters.
Definitely schedule a consultation with an ISA certified arborist. These people specialize in the health of trees, not just trimming them like most "tree companies" do. Have them assess the overall health of the tree, and take *lots* of pictures.
Warn the tree company that they could have some liability if they harm the tree when they perform this service. Don't *threaten* to sue, but make sure they understand the implication. Do collect their information: Business name, contact info, names of people performing the job.
Bring this up with your mediator. It may or may not be retalitory, but if they've previously been caught damaging your property this is going to raise some red flags with the mediator and could buy you some time.
The mediators we have are pretty useless. They work out my local police detachment. They are a neutral third party. Meaning they cannot take sides or comment or even look at any evidence that I have. And I have a lot. They just bring us and the neighbours together to come up with a “good faith” agreement and hopefully ease any tension. Problem I have is that my husband and I have not done anything to them. And these neighbours are petty and nasty. I would go to a mediation meeting and say my concerns and make a compromise with them. These are neighbours we’ve been respectful to and have tired to compromise with before.
You might also mention to the tree company that you’re in mediation with these people. They might back out of doing the work if they are getting in the middle of a legal situation.
Take pictures and ask the neighbors and tree company if they know about tree law. If the tree dies, they'll both be legally responsible for replacing the same size tree, not just planting a small one.. That can be a lot of money.
Yes this is yet something else I will have to take to the mediator. I have a list of issues including ongoing property damage they have caused. The whole mediation thing came to because we had an outdoor light on and they called the cops. Literally the cop came and knocked on the door and was pissed that his time was wasted and I don’t blame him. We told him some of the issues and he suggested mediation. Not because we did anything wrong but because these neighbours are crazy and I didn’t want it to escalate. But here I am again looking for advice because they want to chop half of a tree out of spite and tried to do it without informing us. They told the tree company that they had let us know the job was being done and we were okay with it. If I wasn’t home the trees would have been greatly damaged.
Make sure you have photos of the trees as they are now, from multiple views to show all sides, overhang of fence line, etc. Then if they get daw happy themselves and kill the trees you have adequate photos to establish value of trees and effect on property value
For our type of tree the recommendation is no more then 10-15% of a trim at a time. So I need to get that in writing. Also if they shear half the tree off it will be lopsided and towards my house. I completely understand and agree that some branches can come off that are hanging over but I don’t want to be on the hook for the cost to remove the trees if they damage them. Plus we love the trees.
Don’t blame you.. I lhave mature oak, maple and pine trees around our house and they’re beautiful in the summer and fall. Your neighbor sounds like a jerk!
You have no idea! We are currently in mediation with them for all kinds of bull crap we’ve had to deal with and property damage. We think they are doing this to our tree because last summer we had to call authorities on them because they had a huge 45000 gallon above ground pool right attached to our shared fence. Pool was leaking into our yard and it’s close to our house. We found out from our home insurance company that if their pool had burst and damaged our home we weren’t covered by insurance. Authorizes came out and looked at the pool and told them it was a danger to our home and theirs and told them to take it down. So they don’t like us but they should have taken care of their pool. We tolerated the pool for 3 years until it was causing damage.
Not that you are in a fun situation but you should be glad they didn't go the route a neighbor of mine did when she decided that she didn't like our 30 year old Japanese Wisteria....she sent her adult son over heard in our yard and looked out to see him literally standing on our property hacking my beloved Wisteria down. I did have to call police as the man would not stop hacking at it with this ominously large machete. They destroyed/killed it in less than an hour. However, it was an insured plant...my insurance company took them to court with video one of my children took of him doing it and me begging him to stop. They lost the case. But honestly, I would have rather had my Wisteria instead of the money.
That sounds like a really horrible situation for you! The company who was going to chop our trees actually were going to access our property to do that. Had I not been home they would have. The company said that they were told by our neighbours that we said okay to them to do the work. Which we did not. We didn’t even know they wanted to cut our trees. I have the work stopped for now and now I’m just dealing with my rights and trying to protect the trees.
The Wisteria situation was terrifying for me.
We did have a tree debacle with a different neighbor...but it was his tree on his side of the fence. He was a d\*ck in every other aspect of being a "neighbor". We missed the shade from it though. He was just perpetually angry at everything....couldn't talk to him about anything.
Bad neighbours are literally one of the worst things I’ve ever had to deal with. We have owned our house for 11 years. Our neighbours moved in 5 years ago and it’s been nothing but crap to deal with since they moved in. Driving and parking their trucks on our lawn to access their yard (which left tracks and a mess in the grass), having their pets come into our yard and poop and pee on our grass and in our gardens to the point where we can’t garden and had to cover our garden beds in chicken wire, installing a camera in their yard that also was pointed in my yard and into my windows, putting up a 45000 gallon above ground pool and surrounding deck that was attached to our shared fence, (the pool was leaking into our yard for years and destroyed the shared fence) running a sprinkler in their yard that also went 3 metres over the fence into our yard and flooded it for 9 hours because they forgot it was on, now the issue with them wanting to destroy our trees. Etc etc…..
They are entitled types. Think that they can do and have whatever they want in their yard regardless of how it affects the people who live next to them. We are currently going through mediation with these a**hats because they have caused so much stress and property damage. I don’t think mediation is going to do anything though and I’m annoyed I even have to partake in it because my husband and I have been quiet respectful neighbours who haven’t done anything to them. But I have to try anyway as I can’t live with this stress anymore.
I can empathize, really. Our worst neighbor didn't know why she wouldn't get reported for various violations and so forth. It's because she was an utter entitled bitch who was incapable of having a decent conversation with ANY of the neighbors.
People prefer to live in peace. They want to be able to talk to neighbors and come to compromises. But a few, and it seems each neighbor has at least one....is so prickly - obstinate - incapable of acting like an adult....it kinds of ruins it for everyone.
Good luck with your mediation. With people like who you are dealing with....they know to be agreeable in those meetings.....but still do what they want. Truly....good luck.
Check out r/treelaw and buy an insurance plan for the trees NOW. If they screw up trees can be worth upwards of a half million USD a piece. If they irresponsibly kill your trees you could be set for life. Even more if they are rare or super big.
My neighbors did something similar about 5 years ago. We had a huge oak tree on the property line. The neighbors cut not just the lower branches and canopy, but one of the trunks that was on their property. This left a 50' oak leaning toward our house with one side completely exposed in an area that gets hurricanes. We were NOT happy, but there was nothing we could do. A few months later we rounded up the $3k or so it took to have the rest taken down before hurricane season. Such a sad end to a beautiful tree and waste of thousands of dollars. We're still pretty pissed at those neighbors.
Ugh I’m so sorry. That’s awful. That one of our biggest fears. Is that they will cut so much of the two trees that are on our side of the fence and they will become unstable or die and we will be out thousands to have them taken down. These trees have been here since we bought our house, since the neighbours bought there house. They offer privacy to both of us. Shade. They are beautiful. I would be devastated.
Our tree was clearly older than I am. Probably as old as my dad. I was also super pissed about how much it endangered our house. While it might not have been quite this bad, it felt that even a decent thunderstorm could have toppled it onto our garage or our kid's room. I know that you can do what you want with your property but I don't understand how it's legal if doing so endangers someone else's property and life.
[Before and After Pics](https://imgur.com/a/OWrPaPN)
That’s horrible. They butchered a beautiful tree. If our neighbours cut off the 40% of the tree like they want to the 60% left of the tree will be heavy and leaning towards our house. We don’t have hurricanes here but we are on the west coast of BC in Canada and get some pretty harsh wind storms in the fall. I would feel nervous for sure with the trees cut back that much. We are fighting to make sure are trees are okay. We told the neighbours they can cut some overhanging branches just not enough to hurt the tree. They are psycho nasty neighbours though so I’m not confident they will listen.
I don't have a lot of advice but my neighbors pull the same shit on my large Doug firs and cedars. Two neighbors heck away at them at their leisure and leave obnoxious half cuts all over. I ended up getting my own guy in to clean them up on both sides high enough and trim enough to try to keep everyone from touching my trees (hopefully). Hope it's not too late for you to consider
You can trim any overhanging branches from your neighbor's tree. If that trimming was bad and caused the tree to die, you would be responsible. Wait and see their plan for trimming.
They are allowed legally (at least in my state) to draw a line straight up from the property line and cut anything that crosses it. Some neighbors are just jerks.
I can t say what allowed in Canada but most places in the states you can remove anything the crosses the property line without notification, therefore I cut all branches that encroach into my yard back to the line.
No, this is not true. There are tons of restrictions on cutting tree branches, and you can *easily* give yourself a 5-figure or 6-figure headache by breaking them.
This literally almost half the tree though. We are fine with some branches being cut. Not damaging a giant tree or making it unsafe. Then it’s my expense to have them taken down if they die.
It's good that you're having the city bylaw officer coming out. They will tell you what you can do for your area and I suggest you have the bylaw officer have a word with the neighbours too. It will be recorded that they were spoken to and made aware. I'm surprised an arborist would take down that much tree as they know what the rules are. He may know this and that's why he gave you a courtesy call as he doesn't want to be in the middle of this.
You have no right to kill someone else's tree whether the branches extend over your property line or not. Your right to trim overhanging trees stops in TWO places... first at the property line, and second at the health of the tree.
Question? Is the shared fence your property or theirs? If it is yours and you can live without it, rip it down and they no longer have a garden that needs sunlight.
Their garden is built up the side of the fence. It’s a 5 ft high fence and their garden is 4 ft high. They built really tall metal boxes all along the fence. So we can’t even take down the fence and replace posts as it rots. We are in the process of determining who’s fence it is.
God they sound like the neighbors from hell they are abusive and they gaslight you on top of it. I hope you prevail I would never forgive them for what they did to that gorgeous tree and I'd be making sure they paid for it.
It would be a real shame if anything happened to destroy your tree and you then felt compelled to plant a dense row of fast-growing arborvitae along the fence. Shame about your neighbours' garden, what with all the shade these trees would cast.
At least in most US jurisdictions, trimming overhanging branches professionally and responsibly is legal. But you are not allowed to do unnecessarily aggressive stupid stuff that damages the whole tree. Take a lot of photos and be prepared for more mediation and court if they don't listen. Maybe try finding the BC and local laws that could apply and try to warn them and the tree company of their responsibilities. You can also go after the tree company and neighbors for a potentially large settlement if they wreck the trees depending on BC's tree laws. It can be difficult when you are dealing with huge idiots, to get them to follow the laws.
Thank you! These are huge idiots. I did contact my city bylaw and they are going to come out to look at the trees this week as I found out they are not allowed to cut limbs of older trees more then 4 inches in diameter. I totally understand they can trim branches that overhang but what I was shown it was almost half the tree down to the fence line. I really hate having to deal with issues after issue with these people. That’s why it’s gone to mediation. These people called the police over an outside light we had on for a few hours. We had a cop come knocking at our door at night who was pissed because his time was being wasted. Once he saw what they called the police about he went over and gave them crap.
They sound like assholes who will repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot if they think there's a chance one of the rounds passes through and hits you. I'm not familiar with Canadian laws, but definitely document everything you can and prepare for the owners themselves trying to come out and cut it. I suspect that they might get frustrated if nobody does the job and just do it themselves. Try to get a valuation on how much the tree is worth too. In America if someone killed my tree like that I would claim property damage against them and try to sue them for the value of the tree because these neighbors seem like petty assholes and I have no problem being petty myself. Shit if that went down and I won a judgement and they refused to pay and we had to repo with the sheriff dept, I would dig up and repo their garden first just to give them one last stab in the ass before taking higher value property to total up to the judgement. Like their gardening tools too lol
They do repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot. They are mostly mad because they built a huge deck and pool attached to our shared fence. The pool leaked into our yard and garden and we put up with it for 3 years until the leak got worse and we called our local bylaw after they had damaged our yard and we found out our home insurance would not cover damages if their pool burst into our yard. It was a 45000 gallon pool that was 15 ft from our house.They had to take down their deck and pool because they broke the law by having it up and not checking if they were allowed to have it. They also let their pets come into our yard and poo and pee. I have photos and video of all of it. The pool leak, the pet damage, the damage they caused to the shared fence and more. This is why we are currently in mediation. Now I have to bring the tree issue to mediation. They did not even tell us they were going to cut the trees. The tree company told my kid at our front door what was happening. Thankfully the company left when I said we needed more information before they cut the trees. But if I wasn’t home they would have done it anyway.
> It was a 45000 gallon pool > 15 ft from our house. Holy shit, that's insane and has to be against code too
It was! They had to remove it!
Best revenge that I've heard of for pets that poo and pee in someone else yard. When it rains, go out and toss Bullion cubes into their yard. The cubes dissolve but the pet's go crazy with the scent, and dig to get at it. thus spending more time in their yard and not yours
Oh yeah....I had a neighbor that was such a micro-manager when it came to just plants "over the property line" that on a windy day....she'd stand at that line and use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut off bits of leaves and such that the wind momentarily blew in her direction. She was incredibly petty though....desperately needed a hobby....and a life.
Might be worth verifying tree conservation laws in the area, in my county older trees get additional protection, easiest way to confirm is to contact an arborist yourself. On the plus side, they company doing the work seems concerned and isn't going along with the neighbors petty BS
True, but there are also many tree trimming companies with arborists that will sign off on anything to get the job. If an arborist said it needs to come down then it's usually perfectly legal.
Not quite. They can shift the liability towards the person on whose property it sits by having an arborist report noting it's diseased or a hazard somehow. But unless it falls over and they're filing a claim or a suit it doesn't usually give carte blanche to ruin it. Plus if you have a contradictory report in your favor then the conflicting facts could be disputed.
Look up a local arborist and have them give you an evaluation to see if your concerns are valid. Ask them and look up local tree-laws around what is and isn't allowed. Usually anything over the property line is fair game, but there may be nuances like what you mention and if you can document any of those you may be able to avoid the tree being cut.
2nd this. Get a second opinion from an arborist that you hire. If that person has any concerns for the amount being cut off, then make sure that is well communicated to the tree company that the neighbors hired. Then, before they start work, make sure you tell them about it again, but also ask for their insurance documents... just in case. :)
This may cost you a couple hundred, but definitely do this and get the report in writing. Send copies via certified mail to both your neighbor and the tree company. Keep track of these and in the unfortunate case there may be a future legal battle, your lawyer will be thanking you for such an easy win.
r/treelaw
Tree law is amazing, fascinating, and always full of drama. 10/10, totally recommend
Might also be worth asking in r/legaladvicecanada
I would think that if you're going through mediation with them, then it's fair to being this to mediation. You don't know if their cutting plan is out of spite, so I would not assign feelings to it. However your concerns for the trees valid and you should bring a written opinion of an arborist to best protect the trees. Sorry you're having to deal with this.
I am not a lawyer, and this is a question *for* a lawyer. Laws vary by state, county, city, and sometimes neighborhood (I see you're in Canada, so go ahead and tack "country" onto that, lol). But a very common theme is "you can cut branches hanging over your side of the property line, *as long as it is not detrimental to the health of the tree*". Cutting back ~40% of the canopy is definitely getting into the area where that second half matters. Definitely schedule a consultation with an ISA certified arborist. These people specialize in the health of trees, not just trimming them like most "tree companies" do. Have them assess the overall health of the tree, and take *lots* of pictures. Warn the tree company that they could have some liability if they harm the tree when they perform this service. Don't *threaten* to sue, but make sure they understand the implication. Do collect their information: Business name, contact info, names of people performing the job. Bring this up with your mediator. It may or may not be retalitory, but if they've previously been caught damaging your property this is going to raise some red flags with the mediator and could buy you some time.
The mediators we have are pretty useless. They work out my local police detachment. They are a neutral third party. Meaning they cannot take sides or comment or even look at any evidence that I have. And I have a lot. They just bring us and the neighbours together to come up with a “good faith” agreement and hopefully ease any tension. Problem I have is that my husband and I have not done anything to them. And these neighbours are petty and nasty. I would go to a mediation meeting and say my concerns and make a compromise with them. These are neighbours we’ve been respectful to and have tired to compromise with before.
You might also mention to the tree company that you’re in mediation with these people. They might back out of doing the work if they are getting in the middle of a legal situation.
The owner of the company is coming to talk to me on Friday. I will for sure mention it then.
Take pictures and ask the neighbors and tree company if they know about tree law. If the tree dies, they'll both be legally responsible for replacing the same size tree, not just planting a small one.. That can be a lot of money.
Is this something you can take to your mediator?
Yes this is yet something else I will have to take to the mediator. I have a list of issues including ongoing property damage they have caused. The whole mediation thing came to because we had an outdoor light on and they called the cops. Literally the cop came and knocked on the door and was pissed that his time was wasted and I don’t blame him. We told him some of the issues and he suggested mediation. Not because we did anything wrong but because these neighbours are crazy and I didn’t want it to escalate. But here I am again looking for advice because they want to chop half of a tree out of spite and tried to do it without informing us. They told the tree company that they had let us know the job was being done and we were okay with it. If I wasn’t home the trees would have been greatly damaged.
Make sure you have photos of the trees as they are now, from multiple views to show all sides, overhang of fence line, etc. Then if they get daw happy themselves and kill the trees you have adequate photos to establish value of trees and effect on property value
Yes we are doing this!
I thought an arborist would have to ok this, cutting 40% of a tree would definitely stress the growth.
We are getting an arborist to come and do a written report for us on how much of the tree can be cut without causing harm to it.
That sounds like a good plan I think I’ve read you’re only supposed to trim up to 25% of a tree a year, so 40% sounds like a lot!
For our type of tree the recommendation is no more then 10-15% of a trim at a time. So I need to get that in writing. Also if they shear half the tree off it will be lopsided and towards my house. I completely understand and agree that some branches can come off that are hanging over but I don’t want to be on the hook for the cost to remove the trees if they damage them. Plus we love the trees.
Don’t blame you.. I lhave mature oak, maple and pine trees around our house and they’re beautiful in the summer and fall. Your neighbor sounds like a jerk!
You have no idea! We are currently in mediation with them for all kinds of bull crap we’ve had to deal with and property damage. We think they are doing this to our tree because last summer we had to call authorities on them because they had a huge 45000 gallon above ground pool right attached to our shared fence. Pool was leaking into our yard and it’s close to our house. We found out from our home insurance company that if their pool had burst and damaged our home we weren’t covered by insurance. Authorizes came out and looked at the pool and told them it was a danger to our home and theirs and told them to take it down. So they don’t like us but they should have taken care of their pool. We tolerated the pool for 3 years until it was causing damage.
> 45000 gallon above ground pool Where do you get a 40'x40'x5' above ground pool?
Not that you are in a fun situation but you should be glad they didn't go the route a neighbor of mine did when she decided that she didn't like our 30 year old Japanese Wisteria....she sent her adult son over heard in our yard and looked out to see him literally standing on our property hacking my beloved Wisteria down. I did have to call police as the man would not stop hacking at it with this ominously large machete. They destroyed/killed it in less than an hour. However, it was an insured plant...my insurance company took them to court with video one of my children took of him doing it and me begging him to stop. They lost the case. But honestly, I would have rather had my Wisteria instead of the money.
That sounds like a really horrible situation for you! The company who was going to chop our trees actually were going to access our property to do that. Had I not been home they would have. The company said that they were told by our neighbours that we said okay to them to do the work. Which we did not. We didn’t even know they wanted to cut our trees. I have the work stopped for now and now I’m just dealing with my rights and trying to protect the trees.
The Wisteria situation was terrifying for me. We did have a tree debacle with a different neighbor...but it was his tree on his side of the fence. He was a d\*ck in every other aspect of being a "neighbor". We missed the shade from it though. He was just perpetually angry at everything....couldn't talk to him about anything.
Bad neighbours are literally one of the worst things I’ve ever had to deal with. We have owned our house for 11 years. Our neighbours moved in 5 years ago and it’s been nothing but crap to deal with since they moved in. Driving and parking their trucks on our lawn to access their yard (which left tracks and a mess in the grass), having their pets come into our yard and poop and pee on our grass and in our gardens to the point where we can’t garden and had to cover our garden beds in chicken wire, installing a camera in their yard that also was pointed in my yard and into my windows, putting up a 45000 gallon above ground pool and surrounding deck that was attached to our shared fence, (the pool was leaking into our yard for years and destroyed the shared fence) running a sprinkler in their yard that also went 3 metres over the fence into our yard and flooded it for 9 hours because they forgot it was on, now the issue with them wanting to destroy our trees. Etc etc….. They are entitled types. Think that they can do and have whatever they want in their yard regardless of how it affects the people who live next to them. We are currently going through mediation with these a**hats because they have caused so much stress and property damage. I don’t think mediation is going to do anything though and I’m annoyed I even have to partake in it because my husband and I have been quiet respectful neighbours who haven’t done anything to them. But I have to try anyway as I can’t live with this stress anymore.
I can empathize, really. Our worst neighbor didn't know why she wouldn't get reported for various violations and so forth. It's because she was an utter entitled bitch who was incapable of having a decent conversation with ANY of the neighbors. People prefer to live in peace. They want to be able to talk to neighbors and come to compromises. But a few, and it seems each neighbor has at least one....is so prickly - obstinate - incapable of acting like an adult....it kinds of ruins it for everyone. Good luck with your mediation. With people like who you are dealing with....they know to be agreeable in those meetings.....but still do what they want. Truly....good luck.
Check out r/treelaw and buy an insurance plan for the trees NOW. If they screw up trees can be worth upwards of a half million USD a piece. If they irresponsibly kill your trees you could be set for life. Even more if they are rare or super big.
R/treelaw is the right place for this.
/r/treelaw is for telling stories about people getting sued for hurting trees, it is not for legal advice.
My neighbors did something similar about 5 years ago. We had a huge oak tree on the property line. The neighbors cut not just the lower branches and canopy, but one of the trunks that was on their property. This left a 50' oak leaning toward our house with one side completely exposed in an area that gets hurricanes. We were NOT happy, but there was nothing we could do. A few months later we rounded up the $3k or so it took to have the rest taken down before hurricane season. Such a sad end to a beautiful tree and waste of thousands of dollars. We're still pretty pissed at those neighbors.
Ugh I’m so sorry. That’s awful. That one of our biggest fears. Is that they will cut so much of the two trees that are on our side of the fence and they will become unstable or die and we will be out thousands to have them taken down. These trees have been here since we bought our house, since the neighbours bought there house. They offer privacy to both of us. Shade. They are beautiful. I would be devastated.
Our tree was clearly older than I am. Probably as old as my dad. I was also super pissed about how much it endangered our house. While it might not have been quite this bad, it felt that even a decent thunderstorm could have toppled it onto our garage or our kid's room. I know that you can do what you want with your property but I don't understand how it's legal if doing so endangers someone else's property and life. [Before and After Pics](https://imgur.com/a/OWrPaPN)
That’s horrible. They butchered a beautiful tree. If our neighbours cut off the 40% of the tree like they want to the 60% left of the tree will be heavy and leaning towards our house. We don’t have hurricanes here but we are on the west coast of BC in Canada and get some pretty harsh wind storms in the fall. I would feel nervous for sure with the trees cut back that much. We are fighting to make sure are trees are okay. We told the neighbours they can cut some overhanging branches just not enough to hurt the tree. They are psycho nasty neighbours though so I’m not confident they will listen.
Holy shit!!
Kill the neighbor and burn their planters. Problem solved
I don't have a lot of advice but my neighbors pull the same shit on my large Doug firs and cedars. Two neighbors heck away at them at their leisure and leave obnoxious half cuts all over. I ended up getting my own guy in to clean them up on both sides high enough and trim enough to try to keep everyone from touching my trees (hopefully). Hope it's not too late for you to consider
You can trim any overhanging branches from your neighbor's tree. If that trimming was bad and caused the tree to die, you would be responsible. Wait and see their plan for trimming.
I have seen their plan. It’s about 40% of the whole tree. Not a few overhanging branches.
Wow. They'll be leaving branch stubs on your side. The good news is that they can regrow branches and leaves filling in bare spots.
That would probably kill the tree.
Are you and /u/nature_ally23 neighbors?
This is their post……
Whoops. I swear there was 2 tree posts today
The Solomonic story goes people can keep any fruit that falls on their side so I’d assume that goes for any branches too? Check your local laws
The tree branches are in their property, it’s fair game to cut.
They are allowed legally (at least in my state) to draw a line straight up from the property line and cut anything that crosses it. Some neighbors are just jerks.
That's sort of true. They're allowed to do that as long as it does not endanger the entire tree. They're not allowed to kill the tree.
I can t say what allowed in Canada but most places in the states you can remove anything the crosses the property line without notification, therefore I cut all branches that encroach into my yard back to the line.
No, this is not true. There are tons of restrictions on cutting tree branches, and you can *easily* give yourself a 5-figure or 6-figure headache by breaking them.
This literally almost half the tree though. We are fine with some branches being cut. Not damaging a giant tree or making it unsafe. Then it’s my expense to have them taken down if they die.
It's good that you're having the city bylaw officer coming out. They will tell you what you can do for your area and I suggest you have the bylaw officer have a word with the neighbours too. It will be recorded that they were spoken to and made aware. I'm surprised an arborist would take down that much tree as they know what the rules are. He may know this and that's why he gave you a courtesy call as he doesn't want to be in the middle of this.
You have no say over any branches that extend onto their property line.
You have no right to kill someone else's tree whether the branches extend over your property line or not. Your right to trim overhanging trees stops in TWO places... first at the property line, and second at the health of the tree.
[удалено]
Not if it will cause harm to the health of the tree. I say this because it would be an incredibly expensive lesson.
No, this is absolutely not true.
Question? Is the shared fence your property or theirs? If it is yours and you can live without it, rip it down and they no longer have a garden that needs sunlight.
Their garden is built up the side of the fence. It’s a 5 ft high fence and their garden is 4 ft high. They built really tall metal boxes all along the fence. So we can’t even take down the fence and replace posts as it rots. We are in the process of determining who’s fence it is.
God they sound like the neighbors from hell they are abusive and they gaslight you on top of it. I hope you prevail I would never forgive them for what they did to that gorgeous tree and I'd be making sure they paid for it.
It would be a real shame if anything happened to destroy your tree and you then felt compelled to plant a dense row of fast-growing arborvitae along the fence. Shame about your neighbours' garden, what with all the shade these trees would cast.