 Selling
home? Don't focus on lopsided trees
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 Dear
Real Estate Adviser,
We have our home up for sale. Unfortunately, our neighbors
just whacked two big branches off our trees that hang over their fence and now
the trees look awful and lopsided. Is this legal? Can we do anything about it?
-- Woneta
 Dear
Woneta,
Although what your neighbors have done may not have been the
most considerate or tactful thing to do, it was almost certainly legal.
The
root of this tree issue lies in a long-held tenet that homeowners not only call
the shots on their side of the property line, they own the so-called "air
rights" above it. Accordingly, in practically every community across the
land, neighbors can trim to their heart's content when trees or bushes from abutting
properties lop over their side of the boundary line at any height.
There is, however, a "rule of reasonableness"
that applies if the pruning was done in a slipshod manner that kills
or substantially damages the trees. An arborist or a professional
tree trimmer/planter could tell you if this was the case. If it
is, you are due compensation for the tree. There's another exception.
If your trees were of the fruit- or nut-bearing variety and they
were cut in an effort to harvest the produce, well that's against
the law, too, but good luck proving that in court.
Barring such instances, I'm afraid
you're like a guy who got an uneven haircut. You may just have to trim the other
side to fix the imbalanced coiffure if you consider its appearance bothersome.
Sometimes limbs that overhang a yard can cause unspoken frustration
among neighbors due to the regular removal of leaves and fallen branches from
the yard, roof and (or) swimming pool that they necessitate. Other times, one
neighbor's overhanging trees can detract from their next-door neighbor's minimalist
landscaping approach or yard-art theme. As with any
neighborhood issue, the best course is always discourse. In an ideal world, your
neighbors would have expressed their intention to perform major tree surgery over
the course of a friendly fence-side chat. But that, as you've discovered, doesn't
always happen. In fact, there are many instances where neighbors who aren't on
so-friendly terms will do things just to spite the other.
But legally, the removal of any fallen tree debris
outside your property is, in fact, your neighbors' responsibility.
Perhaps a mind-set of "no limbs, then no leaves" on the
part of your neighbor may have spurred this whole limb-cutting caper
in the first place.
If potential buyers of your house mention this Bunyan-esque
hack job, you should be able to dismiss the issue pretty quickly
by just telling them the tree-trimmers went a little overboard but
that the trees are still in good health. Rebalancing the look of
the trees may be a wise idea for another reason: In a less-than-feverish
sales market it would not be savvy to hint in any way that your
potential customer may be buying a problem neighbor along with a
house.
Good luck.
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