Neighbour cutting trees

KdjaCL

Anyone know what the laws stand is on a neighbour cutting down a tree on your property and leaving all the wood on your property?

Some of the branches extended onto there property but he cut the whole thing down.



kdjac

okgirl

I think the law is that your neighbour can cut down anything growing on his side or grtowing into his side even if he/she does not own the plant/tree. I was told recently that they are legally within their rights to leave any debris on you side. I am not certain about any of this as I was only told it by a neighbour actually.

dak

As far as I know you can underneath a boundary wall and cut anything straight up that extends into your property ie overahnging branches. Afraid I,m not sure about the debris.

seamus

As okgirl says, they are permitted to remove anything hanging over their side (and bill you for it afaik), but they are most certainly not allowed to remove the tree. That's damage to your property.

Best to contact the local council to see what the story is. I'm sure every post in this thread will give you a different answer

rubadub

okgirl wrote:

I think the law is that your neighbour can cut down anything growing on his side or grtowing into his side even if he/she does not own the plant/tree. I was told recently that they are legally within their rights to leave any debris on you side. I am not certain about any of this as I was only told it by a neighbour actually.

Thats what I understood too. Can cut branches & dump them in.

But in the OP's case the guy trespassed onto his land and destroyed his property, serious stuff.

Trojan911

KdjaCL wrote:

Anyone know what the laws stand is on a neighbour cutting down a tree on your property and leaving all the wood on your property?
Some of the branches extended onto there property but he cut the whole thing down. kdjac

Look at this link http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/trees.html I appreciate it is UK law however they are similar to Irish laws you may also look at the Criminal Damage Act. I haven't the time to look for it.

All the best..


TJ911...

Oryx

I always understood that if you cut off overhanging branches you could put them back on the other side of the boundary (where the tree is) as they are effectively the property of that landowner.

padser

What you need is someone who is studying Tort law at the moment. Its been 4 yrs (almost) since I was a young thing sitting in lectures listening to a very entertaining man tell us all about these little problems.

From memory I am (almost) certain that you have the right (subject to things like protected trees etc etc) to cut down branches that extend over your land.


I am also almost certain you cant cut down the entire tree.

The law wouldn't be particular clear on a minor issue such as what you do with the debris - although I think if its grown over your land its technically yours - which would make it your responsibility.

Shield

Heard of a case similar to this recently, and cutting down your tree on your land, without your consent or knowledge is criminal damage all the way!

rubadub

I am pretty sure you can dump the stuff back over, but I also think you might have the right to keep it, i.e. in the case of fruit trees you can pick the fruit hanging in your garden, cut the branch off and toss it back over. We had an great overhanging plum tree that our neighbour loved!

UrbanFox

Your overhanging branches that invade your neighbour's property constitute a trespass. He is entitled to abate the problem by cutting back to the boundary.

He is entitled to repatriate your trespassing branches to the place from whence they came as part of that process.

Doesn't say much for your neighbour though if this was done without any prior discussion with you. That said, he seems to be on the correct side of right.........