What is the protocol for trimming your neighbors trees?
Asked by
thequan (
16
)
August 13th, 2011
My neighbor’s trees, on her property, are hanging over her fence and actually laying on top of some of the utility wires coming into my home… It looks like my electricity, phone and cable wires are all being affected. They are pressing down on these wires pretty severely and need to be trimmed back. My assumption is that the tree trimming will be her responsibility, but I want to make sure that I am correct in this assumption. Our neighborly relationship isn’t all that neighborly, she has complained often about activities on my side of the fence. In my opinion, she has not been very reasonable, I would describe her as the prototypical crazy lady next door.
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12 Answers
You should contact your electric company. They may do it. My electric company trims the trees around here if they are impinging on the wires.
Don’t bother your neighbor’s property.
Anything that is hanging over the fence over your property you can take down. If they are affecting utility lines, as @lillycoyote suggests, I would contact the company.
In our area anything that hangs over our fence and is in our property is ours to with what we may. In your case, though, if it’s interfering with electrical lines you have a danger component that needs to be addressed through the electrical company.
In our area, you call the electric company and they come out to inspect. If they deem they need to cut, they will. However, the electric company in our area has been sued over neighbor tree disputes, so unless a significant portion is on or interfering w/their lines, they will not touch them.
We’ve cut any branches hanging over onto our property that were interfering with our landscape or the enjoyment of our yard.
Amazingly, my husband & I were just talking about this. Our village is trying to set forth legislation to get rid of the “gray” area over this type of trimming.
When we moved in, one of our neighbors refused to trim a tree pressing on our electric/phone/cable lines. We had the electric company come out…they said they wouldn’t touch it. So, one day we had a landscaper come out and chop the branch off.
Generally speaking:
If the branches are over the fence line, they’re yours to cut. Unless the branches are on a 400yr old tree. Then, the tree is often protected and you may not tamper with it.
If this neighbor is unreasonable, just have the stuff on your property line hacked. She really has nothing to complain about then.
The policy is “you obviously don’t care about this tree, so… brrzzzzz”.
If it is hanging into your yard, you can cut it.
If you give her the branches back I think you can cut them, but not.if they are.protected trees. I would check with your local authority on what their rulings are.
Any branches on your side of the property line can be cut. The branches that are on the utility lines should be reported to the utility and they will cut them.
You have the options of calling the electric company AND cutting them yourself.
You do have another option, you just go to your neighbour and explain the situation. I’m sure she’s not that narrow minded and you can work something out.
ps welcome to fluther xxx
Anything hanging over your property, you can cut, but for safetys sake I would get the electric company to inspect first where the tree is interfering with the wires.
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