neighbors tree endangeing my house

[Frank the Tank]

So my neighbor has been very insistant in letting us know that the trees between our property are his. They are on my side of his driveway but according to him the property line puts them in his possesion. I never really cared either way. Now I find out that one of the trees is infested with termites and is in danger of falling onto my house. Do I have a right to insist that he have the tree removed? It provides shade for my house more than his so he isn't loosing much. Should he incur the expense or should I offer to split it?

 

[Agent007]

Its ok him. Its not a fence - if its his tree and its termite infested - it is his problem.

 

[washparkhorn]

Frank - check your city ordinances for dangerous or nuisance trees. A lot of cities have specific ordinance requiring their removal (or the property owner faces a citation and court date). The city will enforce the ordinance, if there is one.

 

[AustinTejasFan]

Any part of the tree extending beyond the property line is yours to prune.

 

[Mrmyke709]

Let him bite the bullet. Tree work is expensive.
If he's been an *** about it, now he's reaping what he sowed.

 

[Frank the Tank]

It is a rent house (bad start) and after the last group of delinquents moved out he had a lot of cleaning up to do. I went over and told him the large item pickup was on the following monday so he should stack it all on the curb. I come out that night and he has stacked everything on my side of the driveway. Now only about 4-5 feet of the property on that side is his, but he stacked 10-15 feet of trash (old fencing, rusted BBQ pit, etc) on our property. If I hadn't spent the last 5 months dealing with his tenants trash, as well as noticing that he always (when there are no tenants) puts trash in front of our house, I wouldn't have said anything.

I confronted him on it and asked why he did this. His response, "well you know my property line goes inside those trees, and you told me to stack it out for pickup" Well I didn't freakin tell you to put it on my yard. So I ask him how it would look to him if our situations were reversed. After a long discussion I told him to leave it but next time put it in his own yard.

 

[hollisdude]

Two things:

1. As stated before - anything that extends over your property line is yours to cut, trim, etc.
2. Do you know what your property line actually is? or are you just taking numbskull's word for it? Maybe it's time to spraypaint a white line of demarcation and purchase a roll of barbed wire.

 

[horn4life]

It's ******* rent house. Inform the owner via registered mail of the tree on HIS property (if indeed this is correct) that he will be liable for.

 

[dustin_c1]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[FAST FRED]

"Good fences make good neighbors" - Robert Frost.

 

[Frank the Tank]

First we are in Irving, and second, I plan on simply talking to him about it. I just wanted any worthwhile advice I could get. If the majority came back and said that I am an a hole for wanting him to pay for it regardless of past incidences I might have rethought my position. Thanks for all the replies. Hopefully it doesn't fall in the next few days.

 

[TaylorTRoom]

I live in Arlington. My smarmy neighbor's tree had branches extending over the fence and near my garage roof (it's really an impressive tree). He let me know that trimming it is my responsibility once it crosses the property line.

This neighbor sued a prior owner of my house, so I knew he'd sue me if I killed his tree. I contracted with a licensed and insured tree guy to prune it, so his insurance would cover it if he killed the tree. Cost a couple of hundred dollars.

 

[hollisdude]

My neighbor's tree branches overhung my driveway (in Houston) and we're talking 2 - 80 foot pines and a scraggly 40 foot water oak. Every rain or wind and branches are all over my driveway. Not little twigs mind you - freaking dead pine tree branches that look like 2x4s. My neighbor might as well as had the 666 brand on the back of her neck for all the asking would do. I also got tired of worrying about 15 foot pine branches falling on my wife's new beetle. So - after consulting with legal types - I cut the freaking branches off her tree that extended perpendicular to my property line. My driveway is now nice and safe and clean - and the she-devil moved away anyhow. I won twice.

 

[washparkhorn]

Frank - if the friendly neighborly approach doesn't work (and I hope it does), call the City of Irving's Code Enforcement Division at (972) 721-2687. Chapter 23 of the Irving Municipal Code prohibits "premises which have for any cause become foul, nauseous or offensive or injurious to the health, or unpleasant to adjacent residences or to persons passing such premises." It makes the Inspector for Irving responsible for enforcement and provides penalties of $2,000 per day and gives Irving the right to abate the nuisance (cut down the tree and charge the owner).

Good luck. I hope he does the right thing.

 

[nativeaustin]

My neighbors tree fell across our fence, knocking
it over and now it is in my pool and part of it is on
our roof. It was a big *** tree. This happened on
Friday night here in Austin and it is still there. I think
she is getting insurance to look it on Monday.

 

[Frank the Tank]

Thanks for all the advice

 

[AustinTejasFan]

Her homeowners insurance will not cover the damage caused by the tree or tree limbs falling on your fence, pool, or house unless she is legally liable (IE: negligent).

Your homeowners insurance will, minus the deductible of course, including the removal of the debris (tree).

 

[NickDanger]

Which is the reason that Frank needs to go ahead and have that talk with his neighbor. Once he has been put on notice that the tree is going to fall he becomes negligent for not dealing with it. A reasonably prudent neighbor will not allow a tree to fall on his neighbor if he knows that the tree is et up with termites.

 

[AustinTejasFan]

I agree Nick. The way to handle that situation is to either cut the tree back yourself or document the dangerous situation with photos or video and send the trees owner a registered letter detailing the potential for damage/injury and demanding action.

I don't know of any jurisdiction with ordinances prohibiting property owners from trimming back tree limbs protruding over the property line. I'm pretty sure that's a common law defense to damaging someone's tree. But, you're the lawyer.

 

[NickDanger]

There COULD be an ordinance in whatever jurisdiction we are talking about, but I wouldn't know. It seems a while back that this issue came up and I did a little research. My weak memory tells me that there IS some support for the notion that you can trim straight up from the property line, but can't butchere the tree so bad that you kill it. It was not a well known concept or one widely approved in lots of cases. I think that I may have even looked at cases from other jurisdictions in an ALR article and it may have been another jurisdiction.

I know that my former neighbor took a chain saw and went straight up from the fence, cutting a diagonal slice that left me with nothing but a 5 foot tall punji stick that used to be a ligustrum. I was pretty pissed and the tree trimmer boss agreed that it was a ****** thing his employee did so he came over and used his stump grinder to fix where I had taken out a huge Hackberry. No worries.

If you go into HEB and slip on a grape on the floor, you have to show that HEB knew or should have known about the grape in order to find HEB negligent. Your neighbor has to know about the grape on the floor.

 

[Frank the Tank]

So he is now selling the house. I finally caught him at the house and spoke to him. After a lot of thought I was actually ready to offer to split the cost provided he wasn't a jerk. I walked over to his house and said hi. His response, He looks and sees who it is, turns back around continuing to work and says "what do you want?". So I told him the situatiuon and that he needed to take care of it. All he would say is I hear you. Over and over. A little to noncommittal for me so I have involved my lawyer buddy to make sure everything is done by the book. It's really sad that if he had just acted civilly it would have saved him a ton of money and hassle.