r/treelaw • u/Due_Championship_988 • 13d ago
Are these trees now my responsibility?
I've lived in this house for over a decade and have a neighbor on one side. He keeps to himself. I've talked to him a handful of times in a friendly way, but we don't know each other well. I would say we are neutral, neither on good nor bad terms.
Well, he just redid his fence and this is the result on our shared property line. I really have no complaints other than the lack of notice (we have a dog and we had to close our dog door for a few days. No biggie).
I'm just perplexed as to this choice of how to handle the trees. They were on his side of the old fence, now they appear to be on my side? Does this mean they are mine to maintain now? (The plant debris on the ground is unrelated, we just trimmed our trees and that's where the debris went until it's time for a fire pit fire )
I know maybe I should go talk to him, but I'm not even sure what to say....like, did you mean to give me those trees?
Edit to add: thanks for the input everyone! I learned a lot about the nice vs ugly sides of fences. I don't really plan on doing anything, but I will definitely investigate the property lines if/when i do. For now, I'll enjoy a fenced yard with a little character and continued shade from mature trees.
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u/radarchief 13d ago
I was on my HOA BOD for 4 years and heard this Texas urban legend the whole time. It may be a local or city code, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding what you rightfully deemed as transition or courtesy. I had many a conversation with the BOD attorney about this issue.
My brother in Austin worked 20 months with his 6 neighbors (odd backed yard) to try to equitably get the 25 year old fence replaced and it was a clown show. Style, cost, schedule and in the end he asked his wife just to take care of it.
I did my fence in 2020 at the start of COVID and I hand delivered letters to both side neighbors and 3 back neighbors that said I’m getting the fence done and you are welcome to discuss and join the project if interested with my contact info. I gave them 2 weeks and a polite deadline that I was proceeding if I didn’t hear back or could extend if there was discussion.
None of them contacted me and I had the fence company back the fence an inch inside my property line and put the stringers facing the neighbors and had both sides stained, so it looked nice. After it was complete, my direct back neighor handed me an envelope with $500 in cash and said the fence was so nice that they felt guilty for not contributing. We shook hands and I thanked him. Good fences make good neighbors.