I’m worried a neighbor’s tree will fall on my house. What can I do?

So, your neighbor has a large, dead tree on their property that's leaning dangerously toward your home. What can you do about it? If a tree poses a hazard to others, the owner is legally obligated to remove it. A tree is considered a hazard if it's dead, diseased, or creates a dangerous condition. You can read more about hazardous trees here.

The first thing to do is give notice to your neighbor about the hazardous tree. While a friendly conversation is a great start, always follow up with written notice, such as a certified letter, email, or even a text message. This creates a record of your communication. In your message be sure to describe the tree and its location, explain why the tree is a concern, describe what would happen if the tree fell over, and include pictures. An example might be this:

Dear Neighbor,
I am writing you about the large oak tree on the north side of your property. This tree has no green leaves on it, has visible rot on its trunk, and is leaning towards my house. The tree looks dead. If this large tree fell and hit my house it would damage the house and may injure me or my family. This tree is a hazard, please either remove it or have an arborist come look at it.

You can also politely remind your neighbor that your City or HOA may send out an arborist, for free, to look at the tree and may even help cover the cost of removal.

Hopefully your neighbor will remove the hazardous tree once they have notice of it. But what if, despite the notice, your neighbor refuses to remove the tree? Your options aren’t good at this point.

You could do nothing and hope the tree doesn’t fall over. If the tree does fall and causes damage you would have a strong claim against your neighbor, with the obvious downside being that you or your property would be harmed if the tree fell.

You could ask your City or HOA to order the neighbor to remove the hazardous tree. This option isn’t available to everyone, and it will depend on your city ordinances or HOA rules. This will probably make your neighbor angry, so it shouldn’t be your first choice.

Finally, you could seek a court order directing your neighbor to remove the tree. I haven’t personally seen this done but it should be possible, legally, to do this. It would be expensive though, and if you’re asking, no, our firm does not do this.

You may think one of your options is to sneak over on your neighbor’s property one night and drop the tree yourself. This is not a lawful option, and is also not a good idea. Your neighbor could sue you for trespass or conversion of timber, and you could also be arrested and criminally charged.

Let’s review. If you are worried about a neighbor’s tree you should have a friendly chat with your neighbor about the tree, followed by an email, text, or certified letter. Encourage your neighbor to have the tree examined by an arborist. If your neighbor refuses to remove the tree your options are to do nothing, ask you city or HOA to order the tree removed, or to seek a court order to remove the tree. You should not enter your neighbor’s property and remove the tree yourself.