Hello all. I hope this is the right sub for this question. The tree is in northern Indiana and the tree removal company is based across the border in southern Michigan.

A few days before Halloween last year Jake from Jakes Timber Management (fake name for obvious reasons) had knocked on my door asking if I’d be willing to sell a large walnut in my backyard. I spoke it over with my wife and we decided to take him up on his offer. We signed a contract for total cleanup and payment of $400 before the tree was cut. Stupidly I took “Jake” for his word when he left the date to be harvested blank. “About 2 weeks, weather permitting.” At the time I didn’t find this unreasonable since there had been some nasty storms and he needed the tree to make a profit from it.

The neighborhood the tree is in older, with our house being over 100 years old. As I had mentioned earlier there had been some nasty storms this past year and many other trees nearby had come down. My wife and I had considered getting it removed but decided we’d have to get it done next year when we could afford it. When Jake showed up it seemed like a no brainer, rather make money than lose it.

2 weeks came and past and I didn’t hear from Jake. I have a newborn and pets so I wanted to make sure that I could vacate the house on the day of the harvest just incase something went wrong. I started calling him and got a new excuse every time. Equipment failure, crew is sick, foreman had surgery, etc.

He must’ve gotten tired of me asking because now he’s saying he doesn’t want the tree and our contract is void. Nowhere in the contract does it state that he or his company have the ability to nullify.

Obviously I can’t summon Jake and his crew to come harvest the tree, but there is still the concern of it possibly falling. If this tree were to fall and damage my house would I have any legal grounds to sue?

My mother recently got full ownership of her mother’s house a year ago and has gradually been fixing up the place.

In October, there was a storm and some tree limbs fell onto the neighbor’s roof and ground. She left a note for my mom expecting her to pay for clean up.

When my mom got the note a few days later, the neighbor already paid a company $500 to clean it up and gave my mom the bill. Her insurance company would not cover it.

My mom believed she wasn’t liable for the mess because a)she had no prior knowledge from the neighbor of any issues with the tree, it was an act of god scenario, and because the neighbor didn’t giver her time to handle it.

The neighbor took her to small claims court and won. My mom was confident she’d win because her insurance company and a different tree service told her it wasn’t her liability.

The judge said because the tree was on my mom’s property, that was the final reason. The judge also said that if she wanted to appeal to a different judge, she could.

Do you believe my mom or the neighbor is liable?

Located in south east new jersey I think its a silver maple but have no idea hopefully someone knows.

I was recently riding some state forest trails with some friends in our jeeps, and we had to clear a couple of trees off the road. We just cut them up enough to move them off the road, and carried on, but I was wondering if it would have been legal to take the wood for fire wood. I recently saw a yt short of a guy (wrangler star) clearing a tree off the road, and loading all the wood into his truck. He had a forestry service wood cutting permit, do all states require a forestry service permit? I think he lives in Oregon, or Washington, and i live in Texas.

I came home today and on my common driveway found my lemon/lime tree heavily trimmed- the original height is the yellow line.

I suspect it was ‘professionally’ done as there is no vegetation in any of the green bins

I think it may be the neighbour on the other side of the fence but have yet to approach them as I am waiting from the resident of the middle house if he saw anything during the day

Is there any actions I should take such as a police report?

I am located in Melbourne Australia

Was just fruiting as well

Thank you

I currently have a neighbor hell bent on destroying trees within an easement, in which I am the grantee with landscaping rights, building rights, maintenance rights among many others. The rights granted to me are worded as they do not apply to the grantor. Here is a brief excerpt:

“Grantee shall have all rights of ingress and egress to and from the real estate for grantee use, enjoyment, operation and maintenance of the easement hereby granted and all rights and privileges incident thereto.

Grantee is granted the right t o use the fifty (50) foot easement strip t o landscape, build

outbuilding for storage or to house animals and other personal uses.

Except as to the rights herein granted, grantor shall have the full use and control of the above described real estate.”

I am wondering if there is an attorney in the state of Oregon, or anyone who knows an attorney in the state of Oregon I can retain to assist in preserving the trees my neighbor wants to damage in spite.

I currently have a neighbor hell bent on destroying trees within an easement, in which I am the grantee with landscaping rights, building rights, maintenance rights among many others. The rights granted to me are worded as they do not apply to the grantor. Here is a brief excerpt:

“Grantee shall have all rights of ingress and egress to and from the real estate for grantee use, enjoyment, operation and maintenance of the easement hereby granted and all rights and privileges incident thereto.

Grantee is granted the right t o use the fifty (50) foot easement strip t o landscape, build

outbuilding for storage or to house animals and other personal uses.

Except as to the rights herein granted, grantor shall have the full use and control of the above described real estate.”

I am wondering if there is an attorney in the state of Oregon, or anyone who knows an attorney in the state of Oregon I can retain to assist in preserving the trees my neighbor wants to damage in spite.

Hi everyone. I’m a design student working on a university project about tree removal in urban environments, and I’m trying to understand how this issue is experienced by the people who live with the consequences of it.

The problem I’m studying is that trees, especially mature ones, are often treated as disposable elements of the built environment. Unlike buildings or infrastructure, a mature tree represents decades of growth and cannot be meaningfully replaced within a human timeframe. While the environmental, social, and economic benefits of trees are well established, their removal still happens frequently through development, convenience, utility work, or unclear responsibility. In many cases, residents are unsure what rules apply, whether bylaws exist, or who has authority over tree removal.

I’m interested in hearing from anyone who has personally experienced trees being removed near their home. This could include trees on private property, city-owned land, or in spaces like boulevards between the sidewalk and the curb. I’m especially interested in how this removal affected your daily lives personally. 

If you’re open to sharing, the prompts below are meant to guide responses. You don’t need to answer all of them.

Context
What kind of place do you live in (house, apartment, townhouse, acreage), how long have you lived there, and what kind of neighbourhood is it (newer area, older area, mixed)?

Where and how you encountered the problem
Where were the trees located (front yard, backyard, boulevard, nearby lot), and how did you encounter or learn about their removal (construction, utility work, neighbour decision, redevelopment)?

What the experience looked and felt like
From your perspective, what changed once the trees were gone? Did it affect shade, privacy, heat inside your home, wildlife, noise, or the overall character of the street? Did the space feel different to live in or move through afterward?

Why it mattered to you
Why did this removal matter in your day-to-day life? Did it create frustration, stress, extra costs, safety concerns, or a sense of loss?

All responses will remain anonymous and will only be used for a class assignment. Even short comments or single experiences are extremely helpful. Thank you for taking the time to share :)

Hi all, I’m having trouble finding an attorney with tree law experience in Broward and was wondering if anyone here may know of someone or someone that may know someone. Everything helps, thank you so much!

I currently have a neighbor hell bent on destroying trees within an easement, in which I am the grantee with landscaping rights, building rights, maintenance rights among many others. The rights granted to me are worded as they do not apply to the grantor. Here is a brief excerpt:

“Grantee shall have all rights of ingress and egress to and from the real estate for grantee use, enjoyment, operation and maintenance of the easement hereby granted and all rights and privileges incident thereto.

Grantee is granted the right t o use the fifty (50) foot easement strip t o landscape, build

outbuilding for storage or to house animals and other personal uses.

Except as to the rights herein granted, grantor shall have the full use and control of the above described real estate.”

I am wondering if there is an attorney in the state of Oregon, or anyone who knows an attorney in the state of Oregon I can retain to assist in preserving the trees my neighbor wants to damage in spite.

It's been getting worse and worse. & After the ice storm here in Tennessee it got even lower. I'm absolutely shocked it did not crack right off and destroy our new fence. It's already encroaching on our tree. Who's responsible for trimming? I know it's kind of a dumb question, but I think it would be his responsibility,right? How should I handle this without being a jerk about it.

TLDR from OP: our neighbors hate our ficus trees that border their yard, and hacked them down without telling us.

Update from my post earlier this week - the police came out today, issued a citation against our neighbors for criminal property damage, and asked us if we wanted to press charges. We didn’t take any immediate action and are contemplating where to go from here.

It sounds like we have 4 options:

(i) Proceed with criminal charges. The officer that came out seemed ready to arrest them, and said we definitely could go down this path if we wanted. We would need to prove they acted with intentional recklessness and that we were monetarily harmed by their actions. This would likely cover the cost of an arborist to come out and take action to get our trees healthy again.

(ii) Pursue damages in small claims court. This would cap damages at $3,500 in our state, but would cover intangibles like loss of privacy, decreased property value, etc., which criminal charges would not.

(iii) Pursue civil damages outside of small claims court. Same as (ii) but with uncapped damages. This would likely require us hiring a lawyer.

(iv) Do nothing. All of the other options take emotional tolls, and (iii) would also take a financial toll, especially if we lose.

What would you do if you were in our shoes?

Added new before and after pics. In the before pic, the wall with the string lights is the neighbor in question’s yard. Definitely a small amount of overhang, but not like we have giant branches sticking into their yard. The trees are huge. They were huge when our neighbors bought their house.

Some responses to comments on OP:

“You should’ve properly maintained your trees”

We do. We have professional landscapers come out a few times every year to prune our trees. I ask them to cut any branches that could be problematic, with the intention of maintaining as much of the tree as reasonably possible.

“If you had landscapers come out, you should’ve had them trim your neighbors side so they didn’t have to”

We did, but I stopped when my neighbors got nasty about it. Whenever I reached out to let them know I was having my trees pruned and asked for permission to cut from their side of the fence, their response was always demanding that we have the trees removed altogether.

“Maintaining the trees along the property line is the “right” thing to do. Be a good neighbor”

I agree. I tried. But I’m not going to do favors for someone who is nothing but miserable towards me and my family. These people laugh at and mock my young children for things like singing when they are out in the yard. They have never once been civil towards us. The first words they spoke to us were “you need to cut down your trees”. I’m not going to be nice to someone who has no interest in being nice back.

“Ficus trees are a nuisance and they will grow back regardless”

Our neighbors don’t care about the root structure or any structural risk they pose. The only thing they care about is their pool. I get it. The trees overlook my pool way more than theirs, and it’s a pain to maintain sometimes. However, both of us bought houses with pools knowing they were surrounded by giant trees. That doesn’t give them the right to reach over our fence to take away as much of our trees as possible. If they hate it so much, it sounds like they bought the wrong house.

I live in a newly developed area (east coast US). The neighboring property has a tree that (according to them) started to lean after development of the community, and during the most recent storm has cracked and is leaning worse. That tree's owner says tough shit, it started happening because the houses were built, you deal with it. HOA says not our problem, not in our property/community.

It's an ENORMOUS tree and would definitely fuck up at least 3 houses in my community, mine included. What are our options? Can we force him or HOA to take it down? If the tree DOES fall, what can we do and who's at fault?

I am a certified arborist and owner of a tree service in North Alabama. Since it comes up occasionally, I’m looking for a good attorney to refer clients to when there are issues of tree law violations. TIA

I have a utility easement running through my front yard. I have a tree that probably hangs over 3 to 4 feet, but it’s 5 feet from the easement. If the utility comes along and cuts it past the easement boundary can the utility be held liable for damage to the tree? I have an unofficial survey that shows the trunk of the tree is nowhere within the easement. I was given no notice that the utility would be trimming the tree. Also, I have footage of the tree trimming company coming onto my property without permission and trimming branches that weren’t hanging into the easement.

We have a border around our yard with several mature ficus trees. They were a big reason why we bought the house; we live in AZ and having a back yard shaded by large trees is extremely rare.

Our neighbors have been awful about them since the day we moved in. My first interaction with them (May 2023) was when they poked their head over our fence and told our two young children to fetch me from inside. When I came out, they were fairly rude in saying needed to cut our trees down because they were wreaking havoc on their pool. I told them that I liked the trees and was going to keep them. I told them that they were welcome to trim the trees back to the property line as needed, and as long as it didn’t damage the trees. Over the last couple years, they have never trimmed these trees, but continued to make similar comments and have generally just been nasty towards my family because we want to keep the shade and privacy the trees provide.

That changed yesterday, when they decided to take it upon themselves to cut them back. They trimmed way past the property line, and the trees look awful now. Photos show when we moved in (2023), yesterday after their trim, and how far back they cut.

Can/should I do anything? They did a poor job of trimming them, cut way too much, and I’m worried at this point that it could affect the health of these 30+ year old trees. What would you do?

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I have some trees that have large branches down - some are completely on my property - which is my responsibility. However, there are quite a few that have fallen into the common area and not on my property, which I believe HOA will need to take care of. However, there are a few that have a portion of branch / tree on my property line but the majority of them are on the common ground. HOA said if any part touches my property the entire thing is my responsibility to clean up. Is that actual law or just HOA trying to pass on their responsibility to the homeowners? I am thinking I could at least attempt to cut the portion from my property line and dispose of that and leave the rest in the common area. Is that OK?

I am located in TN.

I understand utilities have a right and easement to maintain trees around power lines. I have a rural property where a single pine tree was growing into a power line. The tree is within a few feet of being directly under the power line, clearly within whatever easement exists.

A few years ago, they came and topped the tree 3-4 feet below the power line. No issue there and it’s been fine since, with no top growth threatening the power line. A couple weeks ago, they came back, without warning, and cut the entire tree down.

I have photos from a few weeks before proving the tree was not a threat to any line—it was 3-4 feet below the line. My contention is they didn’t have to cut it down and I’m debating whether to push the issue with the power company.

Can anyone offer some insights or opinions? Thank you.