if a tree is mostly on your neighbors side

[catseyesperch]

If a tree is on the property line, but it is mostly on the neighbors side and it is dead, what do you do?

If it falls on your house what do you do? The neighbor is a rental property, the owner lives offsite, and the renters are not responsible. The owner does not make a large effort to maintain the site since it is not his residence. I am not even sure if he has insurance. The deed is paid off.

 

[b1rdman]

What did the land owner say when you discussed the matter?

 

[PA Plumber]

Welcome to AS.

Could you call the owner and let him know the situation? Get a quote for removal and offer to split cost? Get written permission from the owner and take it down yourself? Just ideas.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

If a tree is on the property line, but it is mostly on the neighbors side and it is dead, what do you do?

Laws vary widely across the country. You probably want to ask a local lawyer. OR, you might try asking the city arborist for advice:

http://www.alexandriatrees.com/

or an extension agent:

http://www.ext.vt.edu/offices/?CFID=4839175&CFTOKEN=86542431


If you need a tree guy, you might want to contact Todd who is a member here on AS. He's given me quite a bit of free wood, and seems like he runs a good solid business, but I can't speak as a customer. Nice guy, though.

 

[treeseer]

If a tree is on the property line, but it is mostly on the neighbors side and it is dead, what do you do?

1. call the guy and talk about it. Some good ideas above.

2. if that does not do it, mail a certified letter detailing the hazard. Copy your town attorney. Then if it fails they can be held negligent.

 

[gasman]

Had the same situation myself before. I talked to the guy and he agreed it needed to be removed. He said he'd pay half. I asked him a couple of times for half the money, he said okay, but never gave it to me. I finally just had it taken down, and told him the date, he said he'd give me the money. He never did, and I never asked him again. I am not too upset, thats life. I felt the worst thing was to leave a dangerous tree in place. Just my 2 cents.

 

[JUDGE1162]

Let’s start from the worse case and work back to what you should do

While laws vary from place to place in most cases if a tree falls down it is considered an act of god and the it becomes the responsibility of whatever landowner the tree falls on basically if it falls and hits your house (your insurance and not his covers it and your insurance premiums got up not his) if it falls in your yard you have to clean it up not him. There are things you can do to change this.

OK now we get to what should you do send a certified letter stating that you fell the tree is dead and a hazard, this is considered putting him on notice and in most places this changes the legal liability so now he knows there is a problem and if something should happen now a court might find him negligent or failure to take action now the tree falling becomes his problem. If you want to strength your case first take a ton of “good” photos of the tree and for a slam dunk get a tree profession to state in writing that the tree is dead and or is a hazard. That is a legal CYA

OK now how to go about taking it down, send the certified letter wait 15 days from him getting it and send another if not response then in many location you can have the tree removed and send him a bill. In most cases if any part of the tree is on your property you can be responsible for 50% of the bill.

A less legal way is re moves as much of the tree from your property (re weight the tree) if you remove all the limbs on your side of the property line (no permission needed in most places) this reweights the tree so it is heavy away from your property and this way if it does fall it will fall away from your property. If this is the route you decide to go make sure you have the certified letters as this does open you up to some legal liability if the tree falls.

 

[NEK VT]

The fix

Wait untill the renters are gone for the night and Take it down... then if anyone askes say I dunno...

 

[catseyesperch]

not yet

I haven't talked to the owner yet, still trying to research it to know what to say to him. Looking for ideas from experienced people like yourself. I like the idea of trying to split the cost if it's on the line. How do we decide which company to use?:newbie:

 

[Highclimber OR]

Get a recommendation from someone you know or look in the phone book, I am sure that there are good tree guys in your area. Make sure they are a professional and do not necessarily go with the cheapest bid.Find someone around this site from your area, they may be able to steer you in the right direction. I hope that helps.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I haven't talked to the owner yet, still trying to research it to know what to say to him. Looking for ideas from experienced people like yourself. I like the idea of trying to split the cost if it's on the line. How do we decide which company to use?:newbie:

Catseye, take a look at my post above. There's a link there to contact an Arboristsite member who has a tree service in your area.

 

[DGG]

Let’s start from the worse case and work back to what you should do

While laws vary from place to place in most cases if a tree falls down it is considered an act of god and the it becomes the responsibility of whatever landowner the tree falls on basically if it falls and hits your house (your insurance and not his covers it and your insurance premiums got up not his) if it falls in your yard you have to clean it up not him. There are things you can do to change this.

OK now we get to what should you do send a certified letter stating that you fell the tree is dead and a hazard, this is considered putting him on notice and in most places this changes the legal liability so now he knows there is a problem and if something should happen now a court might find him negligent or failure to take action now the tree falling becomes his problem. If you want to strength your case first take a ton of “good” photos of the tree and for a slam dunk get a tree profession to state in writing that the tree is dead and or is a hazard. That is a legal CYA

OK now how to go about taking it down, send the certified letter wait 15 days from him getting it and send another if not response then in many location you can have the tree removed and send him a bill. In most cases if any part of the tree is on your property you can be responsible for 50% of the bill.

A less legal way is re moves as much of the tree from your property (re weight the tree) if you remove all the limbs on your side of the property line (no permission needed in most places) this reweights the tree so it is heavy away from your property and this way if it does fall it will fall away from your property. If this is the route you decide to go make sure you have the certified letters as this does open you up to some legal liability if the tree falls.

Ditto this!

I like your choice of saws too Judge!

 

[geofore]

tree removal

If you take the tree down get before and after pics. When they say a picture is worth a thousand words it's true. If anyone asks you have pics to show the condition of the dead tree. As for finding the owner, call the municipal building/tax collector and ask who pays the taxes on the place they will have a name address.

 

[NEK VT]

Removal

Remove The Neighbors !!!!!!

 

[whitenack]

If the tree is determined to be dead, and the tree falls, it is not considered an act of God, but of negligence. If the tree sits on the property line, and depending on how your state defines the ownership of the tree, then you could be held just as liable for negligence as your neighbor.

In other words, if it is dead and falls and kills someone, the victim's family would sue both property owners, depending on how the law applied to the ownership of the tree.