New house, neighborly advice.

[Gary Fowler]

Neighbor had a tree on there property and lost a huge branch. Branch came down on our fence, and the sunroom on the back of the house. This was one week after closing. I was under the same impression, that we are liable for a tree on our property. I contacted the owner of the property next door. And he paid to fix the fence. The tree limb thankfully did not hurt the house. And I just cut and removed the limb myself, and the fence. Neighbor paid for the material.

That being said, after having two tornado's pass really close to the house, I have since found out that it isn't the case. We got hit buy the first tornado. Neighbors had trees on our property and vise versa. A tree branch from the neighbors actually went through the windshield of my old truck.

Here's what we found out from our insurance company. First, they don't cover tree removal, unless it's on the house, shed, or fence. If it's on a vehicle, whom ever owns that vehicle, there insurance is responsible for damage. So if a tree on your neighbors property falls on your vehicle, home, fence, shed, barn, ect..... your insurance takes care of it. And for a vehicle, it's based on what coverage you have on the vehicle. In my case, since the truck was old and I just had liability on the truck, I had to pay for the new windshield. The neighbors are not liable for it. The only time they are liable, is if they go to remove it, and drop it on your property. Then it's actually a civil matter to be settled by the party's involved or the courts,

That being said, I've gotten together with my neighbors and gone in halves with them to remove nuisance trees on the property lines. Had neighbors drop trees on my fence a couple different times. He was really embarrassed and said he would reimburse me for fixing that section. It was just steel drive posts and welded wire. I just had a good chuckle at his expense, then we straightened it back up as best we could after removing the tree

This is exactly what I have found to be the case regarding trees. Regardless of which side of the property line the tree is own, the damage is taken care of by the home owners insurance (the one that has the damage) even though the tree might be on neighbors property.
As for cutting a limb etc that overhangs a property, sure you might be legally right to do it but it could cause some really bad feelings with your neighbor if it disfigured a tree. Best to get agreement on how to handle a potentially dangerous tree prior to just butchering away.
In the OP's instance, I would just move the shed if possible and it looks like that is the best solution since cutting off the overhang will really make the tree unbalanced so cutting down the entire tree would be the only way and that would only be safely done after moving the shed.

 

[TripleR]

Can't offer anything better than the advice given on the tree, just sorry you had to move into town.

 

[GPintheMitten]

I sure wouldn't get into any letter writing at this point.

Depending on whether you have another spot you like for the shed or not, I would either move it permanently or move it and cut the offending limb and move it back. But I would talk to the neighbor about what I was thinking about. If they have serious objections to cutting the limb off, it would be good to know first.

 

[Coyote machine]

This dilemma give the OP an opportunity to find out who his neighbor is, and what he's like when dealing with property line / tree branch issues. Talk first, write later if it has to go that way. To my way of thinking, if a new neighbor sent me a letter about the branch, instead of knocking on my door to discuss it in person, I would see that as un-neighborly and cold, like they couldn't be bothered to come speak to me. JMHO.

 

[ovrszd]

Can't offer anything better than the advice given on the tree, just sorry you had to move into town.

X2............

 

[Fernland]

Talk first, write later

:thumbsup:

 

[murphy1244]

One thing I hated about city life is everyone plants trees by the property line so they don't have to clean the mess.

 

[2ndhalf]

I sure wouldn't get into any letter writing at this point.

Depending on whether you have another spot you like for the shed or not, I would either move it permanently or move it and cut the offending limb and move it back. But I would talk to the neighbor about what I was thinking about. If they have serious objections to cutting the limb off, it would be good to know first.

I wouldn't write a letter either... just me personally but walk over and talk to them. Better yet, don't even mention the limb the first time you talk to them. Walk over and get to know them first. Then you will almost certainly be able to work something out.

 

[Sprinklerman]

Grab a couple of beers , go knock on the guys door , introduce yourself and after you have had 10 or 12 talk about the tree .

 

[ovrszd]

One thing I hated about city life is everyone plants trees by the property line so they don't have to clean the mess.

Yeah, it's like a Dog peeing on the property boundary, marking their territory.