Pruning A Neighbor’s Tree
I love the trees on my court. When they bloom, it’s an explosion of pink and white blossoms. They last only for a short time, but I look forward to it each spring. This year I noticed that one of the trees had been pruned back quite a bit, but only on one side. It didn’t take long to figure out that it wasn’t the owners who trimmed the tree.
Legally Right or Wrong to Trim a Neighbors Tree?
I was curious what laws existed about trimming a neighbor’s tree. Here is what I found specific to Maryland; however, it seems that most states follow similar rules.
From: “Trees, People and the Law”, By Kevin J. Best, Esq:
“Maryland subscribes to the “Massachusetts Rule” which states that no cause of action will accrue against the tree owner for the overhanging limb; however, the offended person may exercise self-help in the matter by pruning the tree in a manner that leaves it in a reasonable condition. According to the Court of Appeals of Maryland, “a landowner has a right to cut encroaching branches, vines and roots back to the property line … but may not enter the adjoining landowner’s property … without the neighbor’s consent.” Melnick v. CSX, Md. (1988)
So, legally you can trim a neighbor’s tree, but only to the property line. Double check where that line is before you begin. Don’t go past your property; any further and you are trespassing. Also, the pruning can’t cause the tree (or a major portion of the tree) to die. It’s smart to hire an arborist as they can decide the best way to prune the tree without causing harm.
It’s obviously better to work with your neighbors rather than around them. Hopefully you can work out a beneficial solution for everyone. In my experience, staying friends with neighbors has its own rewards.
This is the poor mangled tree.
What do you think? Do you trim the tree? What do you say to your neighbor? Ever been in this kind of situation?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I can see trimming a neighbor’s tree that is a bit wild on your side of the property line, but that poor tree wasn’t trimmed, it was butchered
June 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am
That’s just horrible. I have to say…seeing stuff like that reminds about the parts of living in cities that I don’t miss. I do miss the city but not that craziness.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I trim a neighbors “peach” tree that grows over my fence.
We live in NE NJ. This tree doesn’t really get a chance to grow
full sized peaches. Instead it drops unripe peaches all over my
yard that my dog eats. Eating these peaches makes her sick.
What I really want to do is ask them to cut it down. They did
not plant this tree, the PO did. Since it gets very little usable
fruit I’m guessing they don’t care for the mess it leaves either.
June 17th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
That poor tree! It looks horrible…
My neighbor did something similar to a large bush on our property- except he cut it down to the ground because it was brushing against his garage…but he didn’t even have the courtesy to tell us about it first… I’m still angry about that one.
June 17th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Oh my gosh, that would infuriate me to come home and find my tree like that. Even if it had some encroaching branches, why would a neighbor do that? It is now an eyesore for both properties. It’s not hard to talk to your neighbor and come up with a common solution.
I recently moved into a place with two giant, overgrown forsythias. But they were touching the lot line so I asked the neighbor for her thoughts before pruning them way back. After all, she’s been looking out the window at these bushes for more than 10 years. Together, we decided it was best to cut them back to the ground.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I think all the other comments are about on track. Joanne, I really like your point about it being an eyesore for both properties now. Seems like a better solution could have satisfied everyone. You may not have noticed the hanging plant. I think the owner put that out there but it doesn’t really help much.
June 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Where I’m from, the local bi-law allows for trimming of a neighbours tree that extends over the property line. But get this - since the tree is their property, you must return the trimmed off branches to their yard. I can’t get over how rude that seems - trim their tree, then throw the branches back in their yard. LOL.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
@Tyler, HAHA. I wonder if they really thought that bi-law through.
June 18th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Wow. If only it were always so easy to talk to neighbors.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Not to be the compromiser here, but we don’t know if the owner of the tree refused to prune it themselves when asked by the offended. The tree looks terrible now, but I could see both sides…
June 18th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
@SSA, Very true. Unfortunately, that will probably stay a mystery. I hadn’t thought of that scenario though.
@Anita, Jocie and I try to take any opportunity to meet neighbors. Some we don’t much like but we try to be polite and that’s usually enough to stay on their good sides. But we’ve never bumped into this kind of problem either.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Living in the city, this is certainly an important issue. I’ve learned that I can legally trim my neighbor’s tree to the property line, without having to ask him first.
I try to be on good terms with everyone, but we moved into a city neighborhood that was in disrepair. We’ve had to deal with plenty of obstreperous neighbors! Fixing up our house and watching the neighborhood improve has been a learning experience.
Some neighbors are more obstreperous than others. I haven’t trimmed the neighbor’s tree that overhangs my house yet, but I know that I can do so legally. I like to think that we’ve had a positive impact on our neighborhood. We’ve made it a better place for everyone, despite (or perhaps because of) our less-than-salutary interactions with obstreperous neighbors.
The story of “Dog Man”- one of the world’s most obstreperous neighbors, is about another neighbor of mine. It’s too long and involved to get into now, but I’d be happy to tell it to you if we meet in person!
June 21st, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Hi Ethan….after we moved into our house, about 15 years ago, we realized the neighbor behind us had a “box elder” (sp?) tree. The tree was a great tree. One problem though. It’s home to millions of tiney red bugs that become flying black and red bugs that find there way into your and leave a mess. We didn’t have air at that the time so the windows were open. Old windows make great entrances for these bugs. We talked to our neighbor, even offered to help pay part of the cost of cutting it down. They were starting to get tired of the buts. I was great on morning to wake up to the tree being cut down. No more nasty bugs.
Out next store neighbors had a wonder japenese red maple that would hang over in our drive way. I couldn’t bring my self to ask them to cut it back, so I came home at lunch one day and trimmed the branches so they wouldn’t hit the car anymore. Couldn’t even tell.
I will agree with everyone else, that tree looks butchered.