Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

I’ve dealt with it personally – twice. A tree on one property but hanging over another. In one case it was my tree and in the other it was my neighbor’s tree. In the case of the tree on my property, I’d just closed on the home and the next-door-neighbor came over to greet me and then asked if I was going to have the tree between our homes trimmed up. I told him I had no plans to do so and he then took me to the side of our homes and pointed out a damaged and decaying area of the tree. It was up pretty high where one of the limbs split off and I never did anything with it.

About a year later, that limb did break off in a wind storm and I chopped the limb up and never gave it another thought. But looking back, I see the liability I had. If that tree had fallen the other direction and damaged my neighbor’s home it would have been my fault because I had been made aware of the damage. Thus, I was careless to not have dealt with the tree knowing that it was damaged. If my neighbor hadn’t made me aware of the tree damage prior to the limb falling and it had hurt his house, it’s my understanding that I likely wouldn’t have been responsible. It would have been considered an Act of God and the neighbor’s insurance would have been responsible for any damage to his home. Now please keep in mind that I’m not an attorney and I don’t even play one on TV.

The other situation is a neighbor that simply didn’t take care of their landscaping and a birch tree continued to grow out and threatened to come in contact with my home. I would regularly cut the neighbors limbs back and would even get on her side of the property line to do it. Never had a problem but I knew I could have. The problem wasn’t cutting the limbs back because you’re allowed to do that IF the limbs have crossed over the property line AND you’re only allowed to cut the limbs back to the property line. The problem could have come in when I crossed into the neighbor’s yard and cut the limbs back further than just to the property line.

I could have just asked the neighbor if she was OK with cutting it back but she was a hermit and if you saw the grass growing in the landscaping beds you’d understand there was little point in me asking. Now if you’re on good terms with your neighbor you could ask if they’d allow you to cut it back further than the property line or if the tree is a real nuisance maybe they’d allow you to cut the entire tree down, though it would probably have to be at your expense. Also be aware that if you trim the tree – with or without the seller’s permission – and the tree dies you could be liable for damages.  Or maybe not.  Or maybe you consult an attorney to find out.

Laws vary greatly by state and will differ even in the Kansas City metro area from one side of the state line to the other when it comes to cutting back a neighbor’s tree limbs.  Although it may make them a bad neighbor, there’s also no laws requiring a neighbor to clean up their leaves – whether in their yard or if they’ve blown into yours. There’s also no law against dumping them back in the neighbor’s yard – or wait, maybe there is.

Posted by Jason A. Brown