On May 26, 12:12*pm, "chaniarts" wrote:
John wrote:
I'm curious about people's opinions on the following not-so-
hypothetical situation:

If you have two neighbors, call them Dan and Bob. *There is a tree
whose trunk is on Dan's property, but there are branches that overhang
onto Bob's property, in fact, one branch hangs over Bob's pool causing
Bob some grief. *The tree is mature, and existed before either moved
into their houses, * Bob wants that branch (and several others)
trimmed, but Dan does not want to trim the tree on his property.
Who's responsibility is it to have the branch trimmed?

I know that Dan has no legal obligation to trim the tree, but is there
an implied moral obligation (it's Dan's tree therefore he should trim
it), or is it implied that the trim is for Bob's sole benefit,
therefore Bob should do it? *(And splitting the cost does not seem to
be an option here).

if the limb is over the property line, then it belongs to bob and can be
trimmed by bob. the cost is paid by bob.

if bob notifies dan that it is in danger of falling and doing property
damage, and it does, then it's dan's insurance that will get eventually get
hit.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I agree in general with the above, however I'd say just notifying a
neighbor
that according to you a tree on his property presents a danger, isn't
sufficient to establish liability. If it was, one could just send a
letter
stating that for any and all trees, thereby covering themselves for
all cases where a tree later falls.

For the neighbor to actually be liable, the tree would have to be an
actual danger, ie it's rotten, leaning, dead, etc. If its a
perfectly
healthy tree on the neighbors property and it comes down in a
wind storm damaging your house, I'd say the neighbor is not
responsible regardless of whether you sent a letter or not. On
the other hand, if you had a credible tree service provide you with
a letter stating the tree is diseased and a danger and you sent
that to the neighbor, then I'd say you'd be in an excellent position.
And if the tree is so bad that is obvious from a picture, taking
a picture before it falls down would be a good idea.

As for the branches over the pool, it's the pool property owner's
responsibility to trim the branches back to the property line.
A couple things come into play. First, if it's easier to access
and trim from one property than the other, then a reasonable
neighbor would allow access. Second, in most cases, it
would be better for the tree, aesthetics, etc for the branch
to be cut off back at the tree, which in this case is on the
other property. But there is no obligation that the neighbor
do it.

If the neighbor is being difficult, I'd send him an email or
letter telling him what you plan to do. I'd say something
like "While the best way to trim the tree would be to do
it from your side and I have offered to pay for it, I'm now
going to have them cut back to the property line from
my side. That way it diminshes his opportunity to bitch
about it or cause trouble later.