Comment by newsclues
4 days ago
When a 200 ft tree at the fence line falls into your property that can take away much of your usable land.
4 days ago
When a 200 ft tree at the fence line falls into your property that can take away much of your usable land.
Cleaning up fallen trees is part of owning a property in these areas. Doesn’t matter where the fence is.
But isn't that typically the responsibility of the person who owns the land that the tree was sitting on before it fell?
Nope (though it does depend). I’ve been through several trees falling from storms.
Unless negligence is involve (like an arborist being hired to condemn a tree), they’re generally considered and act of god. They’re the responsibility of the property they fall onto.
So, in the case of OP, the situation is unfortunate, but it’s on him to maintain his properties and his fence lines within his properties. It’s convenient the state has a fence along part of his property, but it’s not their responsibility to fix it for adjacent lots.
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I recently learned at least here in Germany it's not. Because larger trees are protected, you're generally not allowed to remove them even if they are close to another property. When they fall, it's considered force of nature and you won't be blamed. Unless, of course, the tree wasn't healthy in the first place and would be considered a danger.
How that works out in practice is basically you as the owner of the tree have to document it's healthy each year. Then, if it falls and you can prove it was healthy you're fine. Hopefully neighbors insurance pays. If you didn't document the health of the tree, your neighbor can press charges and you (or your insurance) have to pay.
Tree law.
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nope. live in the forest, take care of yourself. a 250' sitka spruce fell from my neighbor's property onto the roof of my detached garage. it cost over 10k to fix it. the neighbor was not liable; it was covered by insurance
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There is the legal responsibility, and the practical ability to get things done/protect/help oneself.
What they are noting is the State is it’s own beast, and good luck getting it to do what you want.
This also is not a city type situation, where the density and value of something makes certain types of situations play out differently.
In the city, if a neighbor’s diseased tree falls on your house, you might have a legitimate legal claim, depending on the circumstances.
Your homeowners insurance will figure that out.
If one of the million random trees on state property falls on your fence? It doesn’t much matter what the law says, good luck.
This somewhat silly statement reminds me of when a city person moved in to a house on a piece of land bordered on all sides by mine in rural Sweden. Come autumn the trees - of which we have many, living on the forest edge as we do - started shedding leaves which also ended up on the gravel path leading to his house. He came to me and asked me to remove those trees bordering the path because they drop leaves on it which he doesn't want there. I had to explain to him that he no longer lived in the city where the streets are swept, that instead he now more or less lived in the forest where trees are the dominant life form and that these happened to be mostly deciduous trees which shed their leaves every autumn and as such the solution to his conundrum is not to urbanise the forest but to accept the occasional cover of leaves and the occasional branch on the path, remove them when they're in the way and otherwise just leave them be. Not long after that he bought a garden tractor which he now uses in a futile attempt to recreate his urban park in the forest. The trees keep on winning though, they're many against his one tractor.
And provide firewood to heat your home for the year. Depending on how much of a problem the broken fence is, you might even like it to fall your way.
Depending on the size of the tree and your home you might have enough to sell to the neighbors too.
I'm assuming the state doesn't come around asking for payment for their fallen trees.
Fences are expensive. Firewood really isn't unless you're silly enough to spend money on the guys who come out and stack it for you for $600 a full cord. Awhile back I was getting 13 loggers cords for $1000, delivered, with the only caveat I had to cut and split and stack it myself. Upshot: I got to cancel my gym membership for the summer because that's a lot of work.
Fences can be made out of the tree that fell. Even post holes are optional. Only thing you need to pay for is some cheap wire mesh, and that may be reusable for repairs.
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