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Home > Blog > Real Estate (Commercial And Residential) > Land, Trees, and Property Boundaries

Land, Trees, and Property Boundaries

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When we buy or own property, we are distinctly aware of the boundaries—we know where our property ends and begins, and where our neighbors’ property does the same, and we know what is on our property is ours and the same for our neighbor.

But trees and foliage don’t really care about your property survey. As a result, disputes and ownership problems, and even liability, can happen when foliage and trees traverse property lines, and cause problems.

Whose Property Is It On?

If a tree is partly on your property and partly on a neighbor’s, legally neither of you can do anything with that foliage, without the others’ permission and consent. Damages for cutting or damaging trees on your own when they are on both properties, can include not just the value of the tree, but also, loss of property value from cutting down or damaging trees and greenery.

And before you think this is a rare situation, remember that trees have roots–so even if a tree or foliage looks like it’s entirely on your property, if the roots cross boundary lines, the tree could be considered to be on the boundary line.

Overhanging Branches

A more common problem are trees that are clearly on one owners’ property, but which overhang over another owners’ property.

The landowner with the tree can be liable for any damage caused to the neighbor caused by the tree, but only if the tree is damaged, dead, or not maintained. This means that if you have trees or foliage that overhangs on another’s property, you should ensure that the foliage is maintained, and take steps to get rid of greenery that may already be damaged or dead.

But assuming that an otherwise healthy tree overhangs on a neighbor’s property, The property owner with the healthy tree, cannot be liable for damages to the neighboring property.

The neighbor can trim the tree, at the neighbor’s own expense. However, that is only trimming the tree. The law is unclear whether the neighbor would be liable for killing the tree—for example, if the neighbor tried to trim an overhanging branch, but ended up killing the entire tree, or from a neighbor using toxic chemicals to kill a branch, that ended up killing the entire tree.

Is the Foliage or Tree Healthy?

If an otherwise healthy tree does cause damage to a neighboring property, the owner of the tree cannot be held liable for those damages, again, assuming the tree was healthy and properly maintained by the property owner.

Negligence and Foreseeability

Much of this analysis hinges on whether the tree is dead or alive. But there isn’t really a lot of case law on this topic. It is possible that anybody with a live tree, may be liable to a neighbor, for any damage caused by the live tree which is foreseeable to the owner of the tree, under a negligence theory.

The same goes if the owner of the tree were to do something to the tree, to make it unstable, or more likely to damage a neighbor’s property.

Real estate dispute? Call the West Palm Beach real estate lawyers at The Law Offices of Larry E. Bray today for help with your real estate case.

Sources:

casetext.com/case/elowsky-v-gulf-power-company

edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FE962

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