On May 27, 5:39*am, 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.

The official may issue an order based on the complaint of encroachment
and ORDER the owner of the tree to remove the limb all the way back
to the tree trunk to once and for all solve that specific encroachment
complaint... The tree limbs in question are clearly causing Bob some
"grief" and are therefore impacting Bob's lawful use and enjoyment of
his
land and the improvements made thereto... Ordering the removal of
the overhanging limbs above Bob's land would not impact Dan's use
or enjoyment of Dan's land...

I have heard enough to determine that if Bob properly documented his
attempts at requesting Dan either correct the encroachment or grant
explicit permission to Bob to do the work necessary entirely at Bob's
cost, by means of certified letter return receipt/signature requested,
and Dan either failed to respond at all after two or three timely
attempts
on Bob's part to obtain a response from Dan that the arborist/tree
wardens
in my state would issue a mandatory ORDER for Dan to remove the
offending tree limb all the way back to the trunk because it is
encroaching
onto the property of an abutter, causing a nuisance to that abutter
and
reasonable requests made by the effected abutter have gone unanswered
the only remedy the arborist/tree warden is issuing an order for the
limb
to be removed -- if that order goes unanswered, the tree will likely
be
ordered removed and fines levied over and above recovering the costs
of the removal...

Not that very many homeowners know enough about such issues
to successfully document a problem like this beyond having a
"gentleman's discussion" with the neighbor about it which is never
the final resolution unless there are uninterested 3rd party witnesses
to the discussion who can provide testimony to clear up any issues
resulting from differing interpretations as to aspects of the
discussion
between Bob and Dan... You can always try asking Dan to remove
the tree branch but if you don't see him cutting it off within a week
you might need to write an official letter asking him to do so if it
is
something that is really all that important to you as some neighbors
really do need to be ordered and told to do things by the authorities
before they will take care of the things they are responsible for...

~~ Evan