Tree trimming and neighbor etiquette - opinions please

D

DeFormula

Club Member
I have a large Oak tree that has a large branch hanging over my neighbor's yard. These are large yards and it is nowhere near his house but does hang over some electrical lines going to his house. He got an estimate to have the branch removed as well as many other branches in other parts of his yard. He is a good neighbor, but has said he would help me pay for trimming in the past and has not followed through. Should I help him pay for this or is it totally on him? He did not ask me to. He did not specifically say how much that part would cost just that the total work he was having done was under $2,000. I always heard that any vegetation hanging into ones yard was their responsibility. Opinions?
 
Like others I say don't get involved. You are correct in that any branches overhanging property lines are the responsibility of the owner where its overhanging. I also thought that power companies would come out and trim trees around the lines at no cost?
 
That is 100% on him. The only etiquette I would think is in play here is giving you a heads up. Technically, he can chop it off at the property line without asking you. It is on him though if he wants to trim it or not.

-Geoff
 
I wouldn't worry about it, its one thing if you are both on board with getting it done but if he just wants it done then let him.

CruisnCobra said:
Like others I say don't get involved. You are correct in that any branches overhanging property lines are the responsibility of the owner where its overhanging. I also thought that power companies would come out and trim trees around the lines at no cost?
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Only the main lines, service lines are the home owners responsibility.
 
I'm sure you know but oaks are really temperamental and need to be trimmed ONLY this time year. In addition to that they can not tolerate a lot of trimming all at once. So make sure that what he wants to remove is not going to kill the rest of the tree from stress. It may come out cheaper to have the power lines that are in question buried from the pole to the house. At one time the power company would do it for like $250 if you had the trench dug. Looks a lot nicer too Just my thought. Large oaks add property value to most.
 
I believe that what they want to do will probably kill the tree. It is major, like removing almost half the tree. Then i will have to pay $1000 or so to remove the rest in a few years. He is concerned about safety and it's probably legit. Putting the lines underground is a good idea but would not be the answer in this case. The guy is slightly on the paranoid side. Long story I'm not going into.
 
That's a shame. This scenario is very common. I do landscaping in the same area and I kid you not I probably get 20 phone calls a year from people asking how they can kill their neighbors tree without them knowing. Lol. I got dragged in too a mess two years ago because these two 90 year old neighbors had a tree that was right on the property line and one guy wanted it gone and the other didn't. The guy who wanted to keep the tree got sick and was in the hospital for 2weeks. So the neighbor who hated the tree hired us to remove it. Pretending like it was his, even payed a few grand to have us cut it down. Few weeks later old man gets out of the hospital to find the tree gone, files lawsuit and wins in the range of 75k. Big mess. Good luck
 
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