Looking for some perspective on how to handle a mess with my neighbor.

A month or two ago, we briefly chatted about a drain tile line having root intrusion. He floated the idea of running an auger through it or maybe having a landscaper regrade down the road. I told him let’s just see how the auger goes first and take it from there. He had the city come out and auger the line and all the water drainage has been fine. I thought this was the end of it.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to heavy machinery. I walked out back to find an excavator digging a 5 to 6 foot deep trench straight across my property to replace the drain tile. They never called 811 for utility marks, were digging inches from my sprinkler lines, and tore right through the root zone of a mature tree in my yard.

I stopped the crew immediately and got ahold of the neighbor. He sent me texts apologizing for not asking for permission and claimed he thought he was doing me a favor, so at least I have his admission in writing. I also filed a police report right away just to start an official paper trail.

My immediate worry is the tree. They chopped right through several thick roots near the surface that look like primary anchor roots. I'm really concerned the tree is no longer structurally stable, poses a fall risk in high winds, or is just going to die a slow death.

The biggest hurdle right now is finding an arborist willing to write an actual report. Every standard tree service I’ve contacted wants nothing to do with a neighbor dispute. I managed to get one person coming out tomorrow who agreed to give me a brief written statement, but I don't know if that's enough if this turns into an insurance or legal claim.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? How do you track down an arborist who actually does formal legal/hazard assessments instead of just trimming work? And for anyone with tree experience, how compromised is a mature tree when it loses thick structural roots on one side like this?

National Grid is apparently installing a transformer on the property. To do it, crews cut trees back along the corridor. They butchered a lot of them. Multiple mature trees, topped and cut back hard rather than pruned properly.

Two problems:

1.I cannot find an easement anywhere in my property documents.
2.Nobody notified me before the work happened. I found out by walking out and asking a worker on site what was going on.

I have photos of the damage and I am pulling the full title record at the county clerk to check for any old blanket easement recorded against a prior owner. I have not signed anything and nobody from National Grid has contacted me.

Anything I should be doing right now that I am not? Preservation letter, DPS complaint, arborist appraisal?

Have seen posts here before about people damaging trees and unfortunately it looks like it might have happened to me this time. I came home from a week long vacation yesterday afternoon and upon pulling into my drive noticed this giant gash and marks in the side of the tree at the end of the drive.

Tree is roughly 2.5ft from the curb of the street. Tree sits about 5ft or so from the property line with my neighbor and we live in a small neighborhood. I’ve attached pictures I took of the damage and a google maps image of what the tree looked like prior to leaving. I haven’t spoken to any neighbors yet about this or the police. Ring camera unfortunately doesn’t look to have picked up the vandal.

After sharing these pictures with my parents and some coworkers they all believe it’s intentional man made damages. Home is in MA and I’m just trying to gauge why someone would do this and what my options are, so any advice would be appreciated.

This question has probably been asked before, so feel free to redirect me if better to answer my question. Our immediate neighbor has a large tree in their front yard that partially collapsed into our driveway earlier this summer during a wind storm. A large branch narrowly missed crushing my car and didn't do any significant damage at that time, so we were lucky. The neighbor was very responsible in having the limb that came down removed the next day as my car was trapped in by it. They paid for it themselves and there were no claims to our insurance.

Jump forward to end of summer and what's left of the compromised tree is still remaining. The arborist who removed the limb at the time told us the tree should come down and I expected they would be back soon after. It's gotten clearer that the neighbor likely can't afford to pay to remove it. We are willing to assist with the cost if we could move forward with an estimate, but we are not willing to pay it outright.

In the meantime, what is the best course of action to keep this off our homeowners policy as a potential future claim? I just talked to our insurance agency call center, and they were not much help to be honest. And if it lands on our cars I guess that would get picked up under our car insurance policy I suppose.

Posting this for an elderly friend. There is a boundary tree on the property line between her yard and her neighbor. They both know it’s on the line and there has never been an issue with trimming and upkeep over the past 25+ years they’ve both lived there. The tree hasn’t been looking great so she had an arborist come look at it and it’s diseased. It’s been deemed a hazard by an arborist and needs to come down. She had several tree companies come look and give her estimates and they agree it’s on its way out.

Here’s the problem: her neighbor doesn’t believe that the tree needs to be removed so he’s refusing to cooperate. From my understanding, both parties must be in agreement in order to remove a boundary tree since they both own it.

The other issue is that the tree company would need to use his yard for the removal. Her yard isn’t large enough to bring in a crane. She tried speaking with her neighbor and he basically told her no one is coming in his yard and the tree isn’t being removed. She showed him the report from the arborist and he said he doesn’t believe them. The tree company also tried speaking him and didn’t get anywhere. She even offered to cover the entire cost of removal. He still won’t budge.

The tree is huge. I’m guessing it’s at least 100’ tall easy. Depending on which direction it falls if it falls, or starts dropping large limbs, it could easily cause damage to structures on either property. The town won’t get involved since it’s a tree on private property. Now she’s really worried that the tree will eventually fail and damage her house. What can she do?

Update- you guys are so great! I spoke with my friend and passed along the suggestions and other info. She’s going to send him a certified letter immediately along with a copy of the report from the arborist and make it clear the liability will fall on him if he continues to not cooperate with getting the tree removed. She is very grateful to all of you. She’s pretty old and doesn’t do the internet (she has no idea what Reddit is lol), so she said “thank your reddit friends on my behalf”.

We live on a 2 acre parcel that was divided off a 60 acre hazelnut orchard. The sellers that own the orchard planted western red cedars along the boundary to delineate the property line. The row of trees is centered exactly along the surveyed line. A couple of them didn't survive and the sellers took it upon themselves to replace them. Unfortunately they planted arbor vitae instead to replace the 3 or so dead cedars. Due to various circumstances we have 11 extra young (2yr old) cedars completely on our side of the line that we want to relocate. We want to dig up the couple random arbor vitae are replace with matching cedars. The sellers don't live nearby and have several other large orchard plots in the area that they tend. Are we asking for trouble if we proceed with the tree swap? How does one handle this boundary situation? We're in rural Yamhill county, Oregon.

Thanks in advance for your collective expertise!

New York Times 8/31/26

Quick summary, I have a neighbor's tree overhanging into my property with a widow maker. The neighbor is an elderly lady and tells me she can't afford to have it taken care of. The branch in question is 90% hanging over my property and is also going through the power lines. I contracted with a company to remove it. They told me they would have to have the power company, BGE; trim the branch around the power line, and they would take take care of the rest.

BGE is contracting with a different company to trim the tree around the power line. They are wanting to do it his week, but are insisting I sign this waiver first.

LEWIS

Employee Owned

TREE SERVICE, INC.

LEWIS TREE SERVICE, INC. WAIVER OF LIABILITY & HOLD HARMLESS

1.1 hereby RELEASE, WAIVE, DISCHARGE, AND COVENANT NOT TO SUE Lewis Tree Service, Inc. and (hereinafter referred to as RELEASEES) from any and all liability, claims, demands, actions, and causes of action whatsoever arising out of or related to any loss, damage, or injury. including death, that may be sustained by me, or to any property belonging to me, while RELEASEES are in, on or upon the premises where the contracted activities are being conducted (said being: Sudkracked property address REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SUCH LOSS IS CAUSED BY THE NEGLIGENCE OF THE RELEASEES, or otherwise and regardless of whether such liability arises in tort, contract, strict liability. or otherwise, to the fullest extent allowed by law

1. 1 further hereby AGREE TO INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS the RELEASEES from any loss, liability, damage, or costs, including court costs and attorneys' fees that RELEASEES may incur due, WHETHER CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE OF RELEASEES or otherwise, to the fullest extent allowed by law.

2. It is my express intent that this Waiver and Hold Harmless Agreement shall bind the members of my family and spouse, if I am alive, and my heirs, assigns and personal representative, if I am deceased, and shall be deemed as a RELEASE, WAIVER, DISCHARGE, AND COVENANT NOT TO SUE the above-named RELEASEES. I hereby further agree that this Waiver of Liability and Hold Harmless Agreement shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of or other proceeding must be filed or entered into only in courts of and that any mediation, suit, (state) and the federal or state (state). Any portion of this document deemed unlawful or unenforceable is severable and shall be stricken without any effect on the enforceability of the remaining provisions.

IN SIGNING THIS AGREEMENT, I ACKNOWLEDGE AND REPRESENT THAT I have read the foregoing Wavier of Liability and Hold Harmless Agreement, understand it and sign it voluntarily as my own free act and deed; no oral representations, statements, or inducements, apart from the foregoing written agreement, have been made; I am at least eighteen (18) years of age and fully competent; and I execute this Agreement for full, adequate and complete consideration fully intending to be bound by same.

This waiver seems absolutely bonkers to me as it seems to not only waive all liability they might have due to their actions, but also requires me to indemnify them. I have refused, but I am concerned that BGE will simply say fuck it I don't. They are known for not taking tree trimming seriously until its already broken a line.

So I got a quote from a company and then reached out saying the quote looks good, let's figure out a date. They call me while at work and leave a message. Message is "we can be by tomorrow." I reply at like 530pm, just outside of work hours that it doesn't work for me. Still need to talk with the neighbors because I want them to trim some overhang as a courtesy, but haven't gotten permission yet.

So a week passes and I'm outside by my Live Oak, and am like "uh, there's a cut in the tree." And sure enough I check my cameras and they started cutting there about a week ago. He's the kicker though, I'm in Texas, and these fuck wits just pack up and go when they figure out it's not the right house. They don't spray over the large cuts they've made in my tree. Oak Wilt is a HUGE problem out here, and the quote specifies they will spray.

So now I'm pissed. And of course there's probably very little way to prove it was their fault if in 6 months my tree starts dying. Ugh. I also forgot to take before photos and just took photos after I sprayed the areas.

Hello! We’ve got a camp on the Camden/Westdale border that has several dead trees (presumed ash) that need to come down. Any recommendations?

I've lived in this house for over a decade and have a neighbor on one side. He keeps to himself. I've talked to him a handful of times in a friendly way, but we don't know each other well. I would say we are neutral, neither on good nor bad terms.

Well, he just redid his fence and this is the result on our shared property line. I really have no complaints other than the lack of notice (we have a dog and we had to close our dog door for a few days. No biggie).

I'm just perplexed as to this choice of how to handle the trees. They were on his side of the old fence, now they appear to be on my side? Does this mean they are mine to maintain now? (The plant debris on the ground is unrelated, we just trimmed our trees and that's where the debris went until it's time for a fire pit fire )

I know maybe I should go talk to him, but I'm not even sure what to say....like, did you mean to give me those trees?

Edit to add: thanks for the input everyone! I learned a lot about the nice vs ugly sides of fences. I don't really plan on doing anything, but I will definitely investigate the property lines if/when i do. For now, I'll enjoy a fenced yard with a little character and continued shade from mature trees.

On Tuesday morning a tree that was on city property (Massachusetts) fell onto my yard and my house. The city wasn't negligent by any means, and the tree was seemingly healthy and in full bloom. I called the city and they had a contractor out within a day and the tree was completely removed (unbelievably impressive watching the tree contractor work). The city hired and paid the contractor to remove the tree that fell, and it's sister tree that was still standing but grew directly attached to it.

I put in a claim with my insurance and the adjuster was out today and seemed very thorough. The damage to the house isn't catastrophic but there's a lot of things that are going to add up. I expect to hear back from insurance sometime next week.

When I called the city they set up the work order to have the trees removed, and then proactively said they were going to transfer me to the city law department to explain how to file a claim with the city. The city law department explained that I can send a claim in writing with any relevant photos. I haven't submitted anything to the city yet because I'm not sure what to do. Should I submit a claim to the city as well? Should I submit the adjusters report to the city once I receive it? Will my insurance submit a claim to the city so they get reimbursed for whatever they pay? I genuinely have no idea what to do in this situation.

#FloridaArborist

We are in Seattle. My neighbor has a tree in his planting strip that was planted in 2014 and was roughly 12 feet tall at the time. It is now well over 100 feet tall, roots spilling over the planting strip, pushing up pavement, sends suckers out 100+ feet away, and it gets these awful sticky buds on everything in the spring which affect the cars parked on the street and house paint. I am also certain it is the cause of the tree roots starting to intrud on the sewer line. Plus being absolutely entangled in at least four house worth of electric lines and negatively affecting the 60 year old cherry tree on my half of the planting strip.

To be clear, it is a beautiful tree and it give my neighbors house a ton of shade, and it’s very charming. Its just that m y neighbor does not maintain anything about this tree. He doesn’t even trim the suckers that have taken over the planter strip and make it impossible to park. I am worried this monster of tree is going to ruin my sewer lines or take out my power lines in a wind storm. What options are available in a situation like this? What is legally required of the tree/home owner? What is the city responsible for? Do you have suggestions for socially positive approaches with my neighbor?

What can I do in this situation, I know it’s just a sapling, but it still pisses me off, they also tore up the grass pretty badly.

We have a creek that runs through our back yards in our neighborhood. Last year, our one neighbor (Likley out of spite) decided to illegally build a damn which ended up flooding and pooling the water ONLY on our side of the creek. We have been in touch with the township as well as the DEP, both of whom confirmed he didn't have a permit to do so, nor did he even apply for one. The entire area now looks like a freaking swamp with many of the trees now falling due to root rot.

Here's the kicker, he sent us a notice from his lawyer saying that they have identified our large 80/100 year old Beech tree has clear signs of rot and are putting us on notice to have it removed at our expense because it is leaning towards his property.

The estimate is over $10k for the tree removal. The tree in question is roughly 7- 10 feet or so above the creek (or what used to be the creek) on the hill, but all of its roots clearly go down to the creek. There were times last year where the water would pool as high as the bottom of the tree.

This tree has NEVER shown any signs of rot until he put up his illegal damn. This seems like a clear case of property destruction as a result of his illegal damn does it not?

Any advice is welcomed. Thank you!

Good morning all!

After a round of powerful storms, we have a tree hanging on top of a different tree, both of which are our neighbors. However both are hanging over our fire pit. What is the best course of action here. I plan to talk to the neighbor, but didn't want to assume this is something they have to take care of if it is on me to clean it up. My only concern would be cutting a tree in their yard since it is still attached. I thought about using a pole saw to cut the limbs around it so it falls but unsure if it will break from the split or not.

We are in illinois.

Thanks for any insight!