You are not a lawyer (and I hope we won’t need one). But here’s the situation:
Bad, near-tornado-like storm last night.
Top half of neighbor’s large maple tree snapped off and is entirely in their yard but leaning and entwined with our large maple tree of which half of the canopy is over their yard.
How best to approach this with young couple in their first home.
And to complicate matters, I have been considering having our maple tree removed.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
generally, and depending on the state, its still entirely in their yard, it’s entirely their problem. That’s the short answer. The more nuanced answer is how well do you like your neighbor, and how much do you care about your relationship with them. The answer to THAT question should determine how you proceed, not necessarily the legal answer.
Young couple.
Be gentle. Talk to them.
Suggest you both contact insurance and meet back when answers are available.
(Make sure the broken trees won’t coming crashing down on a passer-by, first of course)
This seems like a good opportunity to get to know them a little better. When you see them outside looking at the mess, join them in grumbling and the arm crossing of neighborly disapproval and buteveryonesokmanship. Say something like, “Have your tree crew knock if they need to come into our yard.”
When it comes to neighbors, and especially when it comes to property lines, there’s the legal way to do things, and the right way to do things. Many times, those ways are the same thing - sometimes they are not.
You are not legally responsible for the portion of the tree hanging over their yard. But as you said, you were strongly considering taking it down quite recently. If you do want that tree down, now’s the time - it will save you both money. Tree cuttings are surprisingly expensive these days.
For context, we moved into our current home about 13 years ago. In our former house, we had absolute assholes for neighbors who were inconsiderate, rude and made selfish but legal decisions that cost us some money. In our new house, we have neighbors on each side who would bend over backwards to help us out.
Having good neighbors is worth every single penny of prevention to avoid so many pounds of cure.
What outcome do you want? Besides no fighting or unpleasantness?
Do you want their tree off your tree with minimal damage to your tree so your tree can thrive for decades providing shade to both families’ yards? Do you want to try to get your maple removed using insurance company dollars because the damage to your tree is sooo extensive that it’ll be dangerously unbalanced after the wrecked half is removed?
Before you do anything, decide what you want. or at least decide what you’re sure you don’t want. Then we can work on tactics to get you there.
In Ohio at least, that would be entirely their problem, unless your Maple tree was previously known to be problematic and needed to be cut down. But it doesn’t hurt to be a good neighbor.
It sounds from the OP as if your tree is not particularly damaged (maybe some smaller branches broken) but it is holding the broken part of their tree and keeping that part of their tree from falling over?
One thing to consider, possibly, is what would have happened if your tree had not been there. Would the broken part of their tree have fallen at least partly on your property? Would it have caused property damage to either property? I’m thinking about this in case they start complaining about your branches hanging over the property line. If your tree’s presence saved some of that potential damage, they can’t realistically complain about it. Just one point to keep in mind, as you go into this with the intent to be non-adversarial as much as possible.
When I dealt with a similar situation with a neighbor a few years ago, if the tree is alive and healthy and an “act of God” breaks off branches it is the property owner whom the branches fell on is responsible, not where the tree trunk is. If the tree is dead/dying the neighbor where the trunk is located is responsible if they have been notified that their tree do to being “dead, diseased, or otherwise compromised” they are responsible for damages to your property.
Yup. We used to have two trees on the border between my property and the neighbor’s. One fell down in a storm, narrowly avoiding doing a lot of damage to their house. Based on what happened to that tree, the other looked like it might be a future hazard to their house. Before the storm, none of us thought either tree was damaged, or at risk of falling.
They were responsible for the downed tree on their property. We were responsible for the upright tree, (barely on our property) and in particular, we had an obligation to mitigate the possible future damage to their house.
So we jointly hired a tree company to take down ours and remove both the trees. They were (understandably) more anxious about the whole thing, and promptly got three quotes. I asked them to let me get a quote from my regular tree people, whom i trusted. That came in slightly cheaper than any of theirs, so we hired my tree guys.
We split the cost, which was substantial. Insurance didn’t pay for any of it. Had there been damage to their house, their insurance would have paid, but “trees” are generally not covered property.
Good suggestions all. Thanks. We have asked the neighbors to let us know who they considering to do the work. I’m concerned they may not be feeling as urgent as I do to get this taken care of.
Suggesting someone and offering to set up a meeting might be a good move.
That’s my thought except the closest thing I have to a “tree guy” retired a couple years ago. Additionally there were lots of downed trees (an actual tornado touched don a couple miles away). I’ll be standing in a long line.
What’s your urgency?
And what outcome are you hoping for?
The portion of their tree that is caught up and leaning on ours is as big as a mature tree itself. If the branches currently supporting it give way it will fall into our yard and take down the wires from the power pole behind our house. (and/ or potentially hit our house).
“And what outcome are you hoping for?” I am hoping to get an expert opinion as to whether our tree should come down (arborist said it was okay 5 years ago but it over-hangs both our houses). If yes, is seems like having it done at the same time as the neighbors have theirs removed might be a good idea for various reasons.
My town hires an arborist who came by and gave us an opinion on the trees. That was nice, because she had no financial interest in the outcome. When she said, “you really should take that down, here’s why”, i believed her. You might check and see if yours does. I think she was also free. I certainly didn’t pay much for that consultation.
That’s something you can arrange on your own, without needing to negotiate with the neighbors. (Even if you need to hire someone.)
I wish but not our city (despite “arbor” being part of its name!). We would need to hire a private arborist again.
If the line for a tree guy is long you really have no choice but to wait.
Use this time to get to know your neighbors ideas on the subject.
They may not be in urgent need because they’ve already looked into it. Found no one available.
One can hope.
Oh, before either of you hires anyone be aware unscrupulous “Tree people” abound where tornadoes just hit. They come outta the woodwork.
Watch out.
If there’s a chance it could take down power lines, try calling the electric company. They will often remove branches or trees at no cost to prevent future power outages.