I’ve always understood that where it lands is who owns it.

I also think that if your tree limbs are hanging over the property line your neighbor can cut them if they choose too.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
A neighbor's saguaro cactus blew over in a storm and landed across my driveway, actually blocking the whole thing.

Saguaros are amazingly heavy and can do considerable damage. We are currently keeping two rabbits for a neighbor who had a saguaro fall on one end of her house. It destroyed that whole end of the house, including ripping out the breaker panel with exposed wires everywhere.

Depends on location. Here is Florida, legally, where it fell, it's that property owner's responsibility.

The exception is if the tree was dead or diseased, had been diagnosed so by a certified arborist and the property owner had been notified so through official channels, i.e. certified mail.

With that said, I have had limbs fall in my neighbors yard and I have cleaned them up. She is a 70 year old lady. However, if something major happened, there would be no choice except for her to claim the damage on her homeowners insurance.

I had this exact situation happen two days ago while cutting down a tree on mine and my neighbors property line. A massive branch fell completely different from how I expected. I of course removed the branch and all remnants from my neighbors property because this is what good neighbors do. They take care of one another. In my eyes, a piece of my property fell onto his so it is my responsibility to fix that.

If it was DIYable, I'd just take care of it myself (assuming the neighbor would allow me on their property). I bought a chainsaw so I could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

We just dealt with a tree behind my house that belonged to my neighbor. It was a 60 foot pine tree with huge limbs overhanging my house, my fence, my neighbor's fence, and her shed. The trunk was entirely on her property. I've wanted it gone for years, but the previous neighbor never cared to do anything about it. This year it started dropping limbs, and I talked to the new neighbor lady and she agreed to split the cost to have it removed. It took 4 guys almost 4 days to get rid of it, but they did a fantastic job and nothing fell where it shouldn't. We were each into it for $1100...at first I thought that it was really expensive, but now having seen what it took to get it down, I definitely feel it was money well spent. No more pine needles on the roof, and it's nice to know it's not going to crush us in our sleep next time there's a storm.

Legalities aside, if you have the ability to do cleanup and removal it could pay dividends in the future.

Example: I’ve got several acres to mow. Once when my ZTR mower was in the shop for repairs the guy across the road loaned me his. I weed trim the bank in front of his house several times each year since.

My wife's family just had this happen to them on a property that they own but no longer reside in. The one factor that in this case made a difference is the kind of neighbor it was, and how it was approached. The guy is a known dick, and when he approached he did so in full dickmode, demanding to know their insurance information (tree fell in the side yard 50 yards from any structure including other trees or ornamental shrubs). The adult siblings have all had bad experiences with this guy, except my wife, who was elected to be the one to deal with him this time.

Within 2 minutes of getting on the phone with him, she ended up telling him to pound sand and deal with it himself. I never got the full story, but if you're able to make someone like her that mad over something so simple that quickly, you're a special brand of a hole. So in this case, I suppose they were not the good neighbors who did the right thing.

Well, at least we're all in agreement on what would be the be the "right", the good thing to do.

It just took a little time and some sweat equity on my part (it was 94 degrees and 43% humidity at the time. UGH!) Over the next two or three weeks I'll get it in the dumpster (the city still allows branches and yard waste to go to the dump) and that'll be that.

I’m lucky I have amazing neighbors on-either side and an arborist 2 doors down. Those guys would probly have clean up started before i even got out of bed. That being said even if I disliked my neighbors I’d work to get it cleaned it up. You still have to live with them next door.

Had this happen a number of times. In Ohio at least, the default is that it belongs to whomevers property it lands on. You would legally be within your rights to ignore everything that didn’t end up staying on your property, and you would not be liable for damages to their property. There are some caveats, but they rarely come up.

That said, when one of my trees has dropped and I’ve needed to have it chopped up and removed, I have never stopped at the property line. I’ve always done the whole tree. However, I do ask for my neighbors permission first and make sure they agree that any additional damage from doing them the favor of getting rid of the tree is not my fault. Hasn’t been a problem so far, but my neighbors are pretty reasonable. The reason I always ask first is because of some potential issues that came up in dealing with windfalls at our business. Some people thought property damage was going to be on our dime, and when they found out it wasn’t, tried to claim it was due to us removing the tree. I don’t like getting screwed for doing people favors, so I set expectations ahead of time now!

- Bret

Yep a simple fallen tree or branches, helping clean up is just being good neighbors..

As several have pointed it out, legally a falling tree is not the fault of the property owner, regardless of condition of the tree.

In most states if you live near someone who has a tree that presents a problem to your property/home you need to give them written notice that the tree is "dead, damaged etc." and presents a danger to your property., delivery should be by certified mail signature required.

Once that's done liability for the damage is transferred to the property owner where the tree resides.

I've done this to the country club a few times because they are lax in cutting down dead trees, both times the tree would have hit the pool causing a huge insurance claim, I'd rather it be on their dime and not on my insurance less deductible..

So if you have a neighbor who's tree is like that, you should talk with them, let them know you are sending them a letter regarding it because state law requires it.

I told the country club my insurance carrier is demanding we send him the letter to bind coverage and to transfer the liability to them which is true, they now had full liability for any damage from not dealing with the dead trees.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
We just dealt with a tree behind my house that belonged to my neighbor. It was a 60 foot pine tree with huge limbs overhanging my house, my fence, my neighbor's fence, and her shed. The trunk was entirely on her property. I've wanted it gone for years, but the previous neighbor never cared to do anything about it.

We had a kinda sorta similar situation: A degrading wild cherry tree out in the woods that threatened healthy trees in our woods. In fact: Half of it had already fallen onto our property in a storm. Luckily, that half didn't do any significant damage. I cut the fallen stuff up back to his property line and tossed the detritus into his woods. Never even mentioned it to the neighbor.

But the other half had to go. If it'd crashed in the direction it most likely would have, it would have done significant damage. So, when we had a tree crew out for other work, we obtained permission from the neighbor to have the crew cut it down and drop it in place on our dime. Neighbor said "go for it," so we did.

We had a severe spring storm almost three years ago, lot of trees damaged. Early this summer, a large pine branch from one of the previously damaged trees fell across our chain link fence damaging it pretty good. Our neighbors promptly told us they would take care of things albeit not immediately, the reasons were reasonable. They pulled the offending branch back over on their side and a little later repaired the fence. They cut up the fallen branch later when they took down an even more damaged/dead from the previos storm. If that tree had fallen it the condition it was in, things could have been real messy.

Anyway, while we probably would have handled the situation like our neighbor did, we certainly will try to do our utmost to be as good of a neighbor as they were if a future occurrence happens.

Just ran into this at my mothers house, A tree on HOA property which was supposed to have been inspected fell on my parents roof. My parents had to deal with it even thou their house was damaged. Absolutely no help from the HOA....

I think in a lot of states if a tree that is not yours is in imminent danger of falling on your property and you call it to the owners attention and they do nothing - and then subsequently it falls on your property and does damage, the owner of the tree is responsible. If an otherwise healthy tree falls and damages your property it's on you.

I have a township right-of-way that runs behind my property. A tree on that ROW fell and damaged my fence. I paid for the repair. However, a major limb of that tree was now threatening to also fall on my property. I notified the Twp public works and told them. They did nothing. I notified them again. No response.

Ultimately that branch did fall and did further damage to my fence (about $400). I notified the twp, pointing out that I had reported this twice. They sent a crew out immediately to clean it up (tacit admission of culpability), but said that I would have to file a tort with the twp to recover the repair costs.

The twp insurer tried to BS me that they didn't have to pay anything, blah, blah, blah, but offered me half of my damages. I said, "See you in small claims court." I filed and all of a sudden I got paid the full claim plus my filing costs.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

Regardless of the legalities, having neighbor problems is something to avoid at almost all costs. Some are just that way.
Whenever I've had a problem like that, I do what I think is right and go beyond that when necessary to keep the peace.
I live in a rural area so any tree or similar damage isn't likely to be to anyone's house or car, just raw property.

You are only responsible for what falls in your yard. His yard, his responsibility.
Ask me how I know. LOL

Hi Club. Legally I think your inquiry has been addressed here. I love my neighbors and have a great relationship with them all, so if it were something from my tree I'd go clean it up. I've been known to help my neighbors when their trees fall; I am especially motivated when the downed wood is good for firewood.

For me what it comes down to is I like to help a neighbor in need (and I suspect you and most members of this forum are the same).