I have a row of 6 white pine trees, each about 30 feet tall. My neighbor hired a tree trimming company to remove all limbs/foliage on the side of the trees facing her property. In-other-word all brances/limbs were clear cut back to the trunk of each tree from top to bottom. The trees are clearly with-in my property line but many branches did overhang her the property line on her side. I was not made aware of the pending trimming action and did not give permission to cut on my side of the property line.

The cutting was done from a bucket lift, in the air, but over the line on my property as everything was cut back to the tree trunks. The truck with the lift was parked on her property.

I have three questions regarding possible recourse. First the appearance of the trees has now been virtually destroyed , what can be done? Secondly, what if one or more trees die as a result of the heavy trimming? Finally because all the limbs were removed from one side of the trees the weight balance is now all contained on my side of the property line. What if a tree(s) fall because of this and lands on my property or my dwelling? I live in Chester county Pennsylvania.

Your advice will be appreciated.

You can sue her - as well as the tree company - for trespass, damaging the trees, destroying your privacy and view. In theory the tree company has a responsibility to make certain that the person doing the hiring actually owns the trees!

Have you had problems with her in the past?

(About a year ago I investigated one of these cases in NY. In that case the neighbor misrepresented the property line, the tree company never checked, the company took the trees DOWN - and they were about 4' from the property line on the neighbor's property. Went to Small Claims and the tree company AND the woman who contracted with them won. Did that bring the trees back, no, of course not, and was the cash award sufficient to replace the trees, no.)

Have you asked the Police Department about this as far as trespass is concerned?

I will agree with Judy on this one, they can cut any branches that are across their property line, They may cut them to the property line, but not over the line.

So if they cut over the line , then they tresspassed onto your property

But they are allowed to trim any limbs up to the property line,
I was out doing something similar to my fence line a couple week ago

I'm not sure what Chuck is disagreeing with Judy about. Sounds to me like that agree as I do.

The neighbor can only trim up to the property line. The tree company should have known that. Therefore you can sue them both for the value of the trees.

Sorry was suppose to say agree,

For JudyKayTee... PA Tree topic... your response seems to say in the NY case the defendants won. Did you mean they found in favor of the plaintiff?

YIKES! Good catch - NO, the woman who contracted LOST!

I'm so sorry - fingers working faster than my brain.

The woman who contracted and the tree company paid the owners of the trees to replace them.

Just one thing before you go to court. Is the property line CLEARLY delineated? So that the tree company would know where it was? Are you sure the neighbor knew where it was?

Before you go into court you need to prove where the line was in relation to the trees and that one or both of the parties should have known they were crossing the line.

I have the 1982 survey I got when buying my property which clearly shows her chain link fence as the property line between my land and her land. However, when I got home on 10/13/09 and saw the cutting, now almost completed, I confronted the employees of the tree company concerning not having my permission to cut over the line (the fence). She apparently overheard the conversation as she came over and told all present she owned seven more feet on my side of the fence. Perhaps she told them that when hiring the trimming company, I don't know. I told her she was in error. But I did not have time to go through my old records to verify I was correct saying the line was her chain link fence. The legal copies of the survey I finally located show I am correct. The funny thing is had her contention been correct the trees themselves would have been on her property as would 1/2 on my driveway. In April of 2009 she stated the fence line was the line and in fact put stones in a line in her front yard to mark the line so our lawn service would not go on her land when mowing. She denied doing that when I mentioned it on 10/13/09.

The bottom line is she didn't like the pine needles that fell on her land and had told us she could force us to remove all the trees (7 not 6 as I stated previously). We did not remove them as she wanted so apparently she acted without our prior knowledge and I also believe the trimming company was obligated to verify the property line prior to cutting/trimming.

She proved by her own actions that she KNEW the fence line was the property line (stones in a line in her front yard).

The primary responsibility was that of your neighbor; however, as long as you are taking her to Small Claims Court I would also sue the tree trimming service. I believe they had an obligation to check the line and they can argue against my belief in Court.

I know when I had a fence blown down in a storm and replaced and it involved trimming back some trees both the fence company AND the arborist (and I used an arborist) checked the survey before they proceeded.

I think you're damaged and I think you can argue loss of quiet enjoyment, privacy, the actual value of the trees.

The award will vary from jurisdiction, Judge to Judge, but the fact that she already marked the property with stones (and she can argue all she wants that the stones simply walked over there by themselves, she didn't place them there) is going to "convict" her.

Please keep us informed - I'm interested because, as I said, I recently "worked" one of these cases.

OK, So the tree trimmer is going to state that the home owner told them she owned the property beyond the fence. They MAY be able to use that to get their liability absolved in court. But, since you have a survey that shows her fence as the line and since that fence represents a physical marker. I don't see how she will be able to get out of her liability. Hopefully, she has homeowner's insurance so you stand a chance of getting paid (you may need to find out who her carrier is and include them in your suit).

But I really don't think she has any case here. I have one pine tree and the needles are a pain, but that is no justification for what she did. You might try offering a settlement to stay out of court.