In law, it is very challenging to take action when fences, plants, and sometimes even people invade other people’s property. Even if there is proof or a risk, sometimes the responsible parties refuse to do anything. For example, a resident in North Carolina reports that the neighbor’s tree fell onto their property and onto their healthy tree. Despite speaking to anyone who might be able to help, the fallen tree remains where it is.
Redditor BluePantherRed reached out to r/treelaw for advice on this frustrating situation in their yard. According to OP, the problem occurred because a tree on the side of their neighbor’s garden fell on their property. However, that tree did not just fall. It is located on the OP’s healthy tree and hangs over the fence that divides the two properties. Concerned, OP tried to contact the neighbor by knocking on her door, calling her, sending texts, leaving notes, and even dropping a certified letter in her mailbox. But months have passed, and nothing has changed; the fallen tree is still in the same place.
OP’s next steps regarding the fallen tree were to contact the non-emergency police enforcement of North Carolina. As expected, no one took action, and they only offered excuses, such as the tree being privately owned or that it hadn’t fallen to the ground. Fortunately, the redditors gave several tips, such as Houndhollow, who said, “I would send the pictures to my homeowners‘ insurance company.” Sadly, Op responded with “Good point, thank you. I actually did this as well, and my insurance company, State Farm, said there was nothing they could do to help. Can’t seem to be able to edit the post to include this.“
Another redditor came up with this creative and complex idea: “Consider: Take down the section of the fence, cut the tree in your air space, let it fall. Cut the rest to the property line, leave her part in her yard alone, put the fence back together. Sucks and it’s expensive to be a homeowner but you would probably have to pay for some portion of the tree removal that fell into your yard anyway and if the tree wasn’t there to catch it, you’d be trying to get her to pay for a smashed fence section too which would suck up more time than its worth.“
Although everyone agreed that it was a great idea, they also acknowledged that it could get OP in trouble. It seems better to leave the tree where it is. It is a risk, but OP tried to do a thousand things to solve it, but no one let them.
