I am not suggesting this particular tree doesn’t need removal, but their logic isn’t necessarily wrong. I live on a large, rural property (farm!) and have LOTS of trees, dead and alive. Every tree catastrophe we have had (and there have been dozens over the years – all involvingonly our property because, well, farm) has involved a live tree. Causes have included lightening, ice and wind storms, particularly when the trees still have leaves, and occasionally, flooding which has made roots unstable, especially when the tree top is heavy with growth. We often lament that the dead ones don’t fall as we’re pretty handy with a chainsaw once something is on the ground. We know our limits when it comes to cutting them down! And yes, branches from certain dead trees – but not all of them – sometimes come down in high winds, which we refer to as Mother Nature’s pruning, but just as often, branches come off live trees.
An arborist should be able to not only say if it’s dead (which doesn’t seem to be in question) but if it’s likely to fall or if branches are an issue. I understand the concern (and would personally want to remove a dead tree from a small lot for aesthetics!) and I also can see why this could be a legitimate difference of opinion.
In many states, a property owner has the right to trim any tree limbs that are over his/her land, regardless of where the trunk of the tree is. Have them check with a lawyer.
Based on your post, your D and SIL have made a good faith effort to work with both the owner of the tree and the HOA, without success. Assuming they live in a state where they can trim anything over their property, I would recommend having them schedule a tree trimming service and informing the neighbor that they will be addressing the errant limbs on a specific day, and ask if they want to take care of anything while the trimmer is there. That might prompt them to take action. Note that they are informing the neighbor, not asking for permission.
The bigger issue is the portion of the tree that is not over their property, but is likely to damage their house during a storm. The attorney may provide some options there.
At this point, I would wait to see what the arborist says. If they seem to balk at taking it down and I was really worried about it, I would pay to take it down to a stump. I wouldn’t think an 18" diameter tree would be $40,000? We’ve had several 36-48" diameter trees taken down over the years. None were near that much, even the 100+ year old giant that had grown into our house’s gutter. It might not be fair, but I don’t always worry about fair if I honestly feel my kids’ safety is threatened. I would rather pay the money vs have something terrible happen and worry about suing them.
Years ago, a neighbor’s tree had grown into our shed’s gutter, cutting it all the way through. We offered to pay 50% to have it taken down. At first he agreed. Later, he left us a message saying his lawyer said he wasn’t responsible. At the time, we didn’t know that we could just cut what was over the property line, so we paid to have it taken down. He was fine with that. Just a (very wealthy) cheapskate.
Only partly and only after another tree fell onto it during the windstorm. Right now there is a smaller live tree supporting the dead tree.
A major storm system with wind gusts over 69 mph swept thru the area over the weekend. Falling trees killed 2 people in their cars (separate incidents), destroyed several homes and blacked out power to over 200,000 people. Fallen trees closed the GW Parkway for 3 days.
it been raining here ever since last weekend, sometime heavily enough to cause flooding.
I’m always surprised to hear how much people pay when there is property to be careful of, but I am with you – that sounds very high. Google thinks so too!
Ahh… I forgot where you lived now. I’m familiar with that storm. It might be $$$, but I’d still likely pay if it was my property & kids, and they wouldn’t do it.
One giant branch, but the only way to access it is to climb the dead tree. There’s nothing tall enough near it on our property they could use to reach it.
The crew has a basket truck (two in fact!) , but there’s no way to get it into our backyard and not enough clearance to use it.
Perhaps find a different company? When large trees are cut down they start from the top/branches and work their way down and to the trunk. Meaning if the neighbors decide to take down the tree, the equipment is going to have to go into your D’s yard.
We know they will need to access it from our yard. They did for the blown down tree earlier this week, They needed to cut & remove a bunch of young trees to get to it. The trees guys were here this afternoon replacing the trees they pulled/cut down. I think it might be a county ordinance. (It’s a HOA requirement.)
The issue with basket trucks is they would have to go thru the carport which has a much too low ceiling for the trucks to fit under and the rear exit is only 4-5 feet wide on each side of the carport with a weight bearing wall in the middle. They wont fit
No other way to access the back yard. There’s a retaining wall immediately to the side of the car port that drops down about 3-5 feet into the neighbors yard. The retaining wall belongs to the neighbors, not us.
I wish our county did this! We have a very similar situation (dead tree in neighbors yard, I have proof they opened my email but they didn’t respond to it or another message and they are never outside so can’t easily talk to them.) County said it was a neighbor issue and they don’t get involved. HOA said they would “check with their counsel” but haven’t heard a word. Dead tree will fall, and when it does will clearly harm either person or our our our neighbors property and maybe hit the house. It is also uphill so is a matter of time. It has already dropped huge limbs on our property and pinned a landscape pine. Had to get our landscape guys to stake up our tree and haul off the large branches. So I am all ears. Sure we could do the “certified letter” but often people don’t pick those up from the PO, but I have proof they opened th email I sent almost a year ago. Hoping someone has a solution!
No such thing as a dead stable tree. Nature has a way of making a dead tree beneficial and attractive to other living creatures like fungi, insects, cavity nesters, etc which degrades wood. Plus just the natural decomposition and weathering process aside from biological agents destabilizes trees.
Just a few days ago I was looking at an area that my husband and I had fought a wildfire in three decades ago. The management team set a backfire to reduce fuel for the approaching large fire.
Here’s what it looks like now. The white sticks on the ground are fallen dead trees. The live trees probably are 30 years old that naturally germinated after the fire, or older trees that survived the burn (some species are more fire resistant). Normally, fire killed trees die because the outer layer of cambium is damaged. Most stay standing for a while, then fall as they decompose over time. The same process occurs to trees that die from all other causes. They fall eventually.
Some HOAs have a lot of power and some are just a group of homeowners who might need an agreement for a few things like plowing private streets and driveways, and for ‘someone’ to collect the money to do that. I’ve seen HOA dues be like $100/yr, so they don’t have much power or money and they don’t care if you have a mailbox that looks like a cow or if you paint your house purple or if you have dead trees on your property.
I used to draft HOA bylaws. One for a group of 20 houses on a private road is very different than one for a condo at a ski hill (lots of rentals) or for a group of duplexes with shared walls. It doesn’t surprise me that this HOA would have no power to remove a tree.
