Neighboors on both sides have trees on their property that have branches that hang over the fenceline quite a bit.
I know I can trim these back that overhang onto my property. But am I expected to knock on their door and let them know or is it something I should just do?


One tree would likely lose some big branches and probably half the tree will be eliminated.

TIA.

What happens if you trim the tree and it then dies ?

Depends. If it's a sick tree and you can show that there is no liability. If it's healthy and you hack it up you could be liable. It's an issue that gets murky very fast.

If in doubt get an arborist out for an opinion on what you want to do.

My statement was an "if" scenario.

I had a tree company come out for this situation and they would not cut all the way back to the fence line because it would damage the tree.

Fills my pool with leaves so open to ideas on how to kill the tree from my side?!

JBLHAG03 said:

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I had a tree company come out for this situation and they would not cut all the way back to the fence line because it would damage the tree.

Fills my pool with leaves so open to ideas on how to kill the tree from my side?!

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Make your neighbor come get his leaves.

Or scoop and dump over the fence.

Trimming vertically on your property line is legal.

If that causes the tree to die (unlikely) I don't think you could be held liable. Just like if you sprayed herbicide along your fence line and killed neighbors plants.

JBLHAG03 said:

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I had a tree company come out for this situation and they would not cut all the way back to the fence line because it would damage the tree.

Fills my pool with leaves so open to ideas on how to kill the tree from my side?!

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We had the same situation. We even had to build our fence with a notch in it to accommodate the tree. The arborist told us the same thing and said yeah, we'd be liable.

The worst part is that the owner is a kid who inherited the house from his mom and doesn't even live there any more. The yard it never mowed and I think he has a renter who hasn't moved in yet.

If you're in Houston you missed your chance to blame the storm

LostInLA07 said:

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If you're in Houston you missed your chance to blame the storm

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Nope, west Texas. And not even a good windstorm to blame lately.

At our last places I adopted the idea that if the trees weren't causing me trouble, I let them ride. However, once they presented a threat to my fence or property somehow, something needs to be done. I reached out to my neighbor and tried for 6 months and never got any response. So, I hit them all with the chainsaw right up the property line. They became overgrown and the brush was such that I couldn't maintain my fence and then one evening I got popped by Apache wasps in that brush and lost my ****, cut my own fence, took my 8' bush hog and CLEARED 1,000 LF of fence on their side. Scalped it to the ground, trees, brush and all. Chainsaw and bush hog. I never heard from them after that either so I guess truly they didnt care. Looking back, if they had, I guess they'd be more responsive in the future at best, or caused me a lot of trouble at worst. As the wife said "uhm…that was a little extreme dontcha think?", maybe don't go that far but if they won't respond, screw them. Take care of it how you need.

Always reach out and approach with the good neighbor route first.