On Fri, 27 May 2011 02:39:26 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On May 27, 1:05*am, Evan wrote:
On May 26, 11:42*pm, "HeyBub" 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).

Point #1: When one owns real property (absent other considerations), he owns
the property downward to the center of the earth and upwards to the heavens.
(Other considerations include selling the aerial or mineral rights.)

Point #2: When owns real property, he owns, sometimes temporarily, that
which wanders onto his property - the so-called "right of capture" (think
deer or wild game).

Point #3: A tree branch hanging over one's property belongs to the
property's owner and he is free to do with the branch as he sees fit. In
doing so, however, he must take care not to damage the neighbor's property.
That is, he should not do something to the intruding branch that imperils
the rest of the tree on the neighbor's property.

+1... *To the "three points"...

If you want to have this encroaching limb issue dealt with
once and for all in my area of the US you would call the
local city/town arborist/tree warden and that official could
ORDER the property owner on whose land the tree is growing
to completely remove the offending limbs from the tree at
the tree owner's expense or if the tree is in that official's
opinion unsafe in that it is creating a hazard on abutter's
properties or is in danger of falling due to rot or disease
condemn the entire tree and order its total removal...

That official's order/opinion is final and binding...

~~ Evan

"...that official could ORDER the property owner on whose land the
tree is growing to completely remove the offending limbs"

The key word being *could*.

The OP wrote "one branch hangs over Bob's pool causing Bob some
grief." and "Bob wants that branch (and several others) trimmed".

We don't know enough to speculate as to whether that official *would*
order that any limbs be removed.

Not only that, it seems clear that different parts of the US have at
least slightly different rules and the OP is in Canada anyhow.

Almost all of this is state law. The US federal govt. has no laws on
trees unless they are on fed property or tall enough to interfere with
airplanes. And local jurisdictions are subservient to the states
they are in.

I don't know much about Canada, except that it has more differences
from the US than I thought when I was 10 or 20.