hackberry tree and aphids

[Matt Ward]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee

My neighbor has a hackberry tree whose branches overhang my driveway and garage. Two years ago, I hired someone to cut the limbs that encroach over my property back to the property line. Already, I am having to hire a company again to trim the limbs back. The problem has become bigger with the infestation of aphids that have migrated from Asia. They now have reached our region and create a real nuisance. Thousands of them are on his tree. They suck the sap out of its leaves and it goes straight through them, dropping as "honeydew" onto anything below or even near (due to slight breezes). This sap/dung is clear and sticky when it first drops, but within a few days becomes black with mold. It is extremely hard to get off surfaces.

The location of his tree (about 5 feet across the property line) puts many of its branches overhanging my driveway where cars park. The droppings fall on cars, the driveway and the metal garage roof. Then it turns black. It looks horrible on the concrete driveway. A regular car wash is not adequate to take it off the car. I suspect that if it is not removed quickly from the car surface, the paint will be damaged. I paid a pressure washer $300 to clean my driveway this summer. By mid-September it needed it again. I can't find any economical way to clean the garage metal roof. I am hiring a tree trimmer to cut the limbs back again. I ask my neighbor for permission to cut the limbs back beyond the property line because they grow so rapidly I have to go to the expense of cutting them yearly to protect my property. He won't consent.

Here's the question: Is there any law to relieve me of the expense of having to do this trimming yearly in order to protect the appearance of my property? What is the likelihood of winning a suit for damages caused by his tree's infestation? (Damages being the costs I incur with annual trimmings and cleanings.) Is there some legal relief for nuisance?

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee

My neighbor has a hackberry tree whose branches overhang my driveway and garage. Two years ago, I hired someone to cut the limbs that encroach over my property back to the property line. Already, I am having to hire a company again to trim the limbs back. The problem has become bigger with the infestation of aphids that have migrated from Asia. They now have reached our region and create a real nuisance. Thousands of them are on his tree. They suck the sap out of its leaves and it goes straight through them, dropping as "honeydew" onto anything below or even near (due to slight breezes). This sap/dung is clear and sticky when it first drops, but within a few days becomes black with mold. It is extremely hard to get off surfaces.

The location of his tree (about 5 feet across the property line) puts many of its branches overhanging my driveway where cars park. The droppings fall on cars, the driveway and the metal garage roof. Then it turns black. It looks horrible on the concrete driveway. A regular car wash is not adequate to take it off the car. I suspect that if it is not removed quickly from the car surface, the paint will be damaged. I paid a pressure washer $300 to clean my driveway this summer. By mid-September it needed it again. I can't find any economical way to clean the garage metal roof. I am hiring a tree trimmer to cut the limbs back again. I ask my neighbor for permission to cut the limbs back beyond the property line because they grow so rapidly I have to go to the expense of cutting them yearly to protect my property. He won't consent.

Here's the question: Is there any law to relieve me of the expense of having to do this trimming yearly in order to protect the appearance of my property? What is the likelihood of winning a suit for damages caused by his tree's infestation? (Damages being the costs I incur with annual trimmings and cleanings.) Is there some legal relief for nuisance?

Trees grow - it's what they do.

 

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

Is the neighbor in love with this tree for any particular reason? Find out what it would take for him to allow you to remove it. I have several of these on my property, and you can cut any one of them down for what you've already spent on trimming, power washing, etc.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee

My neighbor has a hackberry tree whose branches overhang my driveway and garage. Two years ago, I hired someone to cut the limbs that encroach over my property back to the property line. Already, I am having to hire a company again to trim the limbs back. The problem has become bigger with the infestation of aphids that have migrated from Asia. They now have reached our region and create a real nuisance. Thousands of them are on his tree. They suck the sap out of its leaves and it goes straight through them, dropping as "honeydew" onto anything below or even near (due to slight breezes). This sap/dung is clear and sticky when it first drops, but within a few days becomes black with mold. It is extremely hard to get off surfaces.

The location of his tree (about 5 feet across the property line) puts many of its branches overhanging my driveway where cars park. The droppings fall on cars, the driveway and the metal garage roof. Then it turns black. It looks horrible on the concrete driveway. A regular car wash is not adequate to take it off the car. I suspect that if it is not removed quickly from the car surface, the paint will be damaged. I paid a pressure washer $300 to clean my driveway this summer. By mid-September it needed it again. I can't find any economical way to clean the garage metal roof. I am hiring a tree trimmer to cut the limbs back again. I ask my neighbor for permission to cut the limbs back beyond the property line because they grow so rapidly I have to go to the expense of cutting them yearly to protect my property. He won't consent.

Here's the question: Is there any law to relieve me of the expense of having to do this trimming yearly in order to protect the appearance of my property? What is the likelihood of winning a suit for damages caused by his tree's infestation? (Damages being the costs I incur with annual trimmings and cleanings.) Is there some legal relief for nuisance?

Nope...not at all. You cannot sue someone for the effects of mother nature even if said piece of nature sits on their property.

As someone else already suggested, what you CAN do is find out what it would take to get the neighbor to agree to let YOU bear the expense of cutting down the tree. However, if he thinks that his benefits are greater from having the tree, or if he is an environmentalist, then what he wants to let you cut down the tree may be more than you are willing to bear...or he may refuse entirely.

I kind of have a philosophy about issues like this one. If you don't want to deal with the issues surrounding trees and/or you don't want to deal with the issues of specific kinds of trees, then you shouldn't buy a house where there are trees...or those kinds of trees.

I had a beautiful peach tree that gave me loads of beautiful freestone peaches every other year.

However it was planted in a location that guaranteed that it was drawfed, over time, by other trees...some of them on my neighbor's property. My peach tree eventually died as a result. It would have never occurred to me to ask my neighbor to cut down their trees to save my peach tree. Nor do I ask the owner of the cottonwood tree down the street that sends massive quantities of "cotton" all over the place including into things where it causes problems.

Nor do my neighbors who end up having to remove baby trees from their gutters because one of my trees sends "helicopters" all over the street.

If you live somewhere where there are trees, you live with the natural results of those trees. If you don't want to deal with that, then you buy someplace where there are little to no trees, or you don't buy a property near a type of tree that you consider to be problematic.

 

[Matt Ward]

response

It would have taken a great deal of foresight indeed to have avoided this problem. I bought my house 41 years ago. The hackberry tree is not that old...it wasn't there then. Even if it had been, there was no Asian aphid infestation of hackberry trees in America at that time. This is a fairly recent blight. I have asked my neighbor to let me cut down the tree at my expense. He refused even though he has a huge sycamore tree within 10' of it that over shadows the hackberry. There is no economic advantage to the hackberry and, being a hackberry...there is no aesthetic value to it. I don't know anyone that considers a hackberry a pretty tree. The only reason I can deduce that the neighbor refuses me any relief is that it gives him a feeling of control. He has no reason for animosity toward me.

It is disappointing that the law has no relief for a situation like this.

 

[LdiJ]

It would have taken a great deal of foresight indeed to have avoided this problem. I bought my house 41 years ago. The hackberry tree is not that old...it wasn't there then. Even if it had been, there was no Asian aphid infestation of hackberry trees in America at that time. This is a fairly recent blight. I have asked my neighbor to let me cut down the tree at my expense. He refused even though he has a huge sycamore tree within 10' of it that over shadows the hackberry. There is no economic advantage to the hackberry and, being a hackberry...there is no aesthetic value to it. I don't know anyone that considers a hackberry a pretty tree. The only reason I can deduce that the neighbor refuses me any relief is that it gives him a feeling of control. He has no reason for animosity toward me.

It is disappointing that the law has no relief for a situation like this.

You do have a solution. You can sell your house and move somewhere where trees are not an issue.

Do not get me wrong, I do understand where you are coming from but the reality of things is that every kind of tree out there can be a "pest" to someone else...be it nuts/fruits falling, cottonwood seeds falling, helicopters falling, leaves/branches/twigs falling etc, etc, etc.

If you want to live in an area that has lots of mature trees then you live with that. If you do not, then you sell and move.

 

[LeeHarveyBlotto]

It would have taken a great deal of foresight indeed to have avoided this problem. I bought my house 41 years ago. The hackberry tree is not that old...it wasn't there then. Even if it had been, there was no Asian aphid infestation of hackberry trees in America at that time. This is a fairly recent blight. I have asked my neighbor to let me cut down the tree at my expense. He refused even though he has a huge sycamore tree within 10' of it that over shadows the hackberry. There is no economic advantage to the hackberry and, being a hackberry...there is no aesthetic value to it. I don't know anyone that considers a hackberry a pretty tree. The only reason I can deduce that the neighbor refuses me any relief is that it gives him a feeling of control. He has no reason for animosity toward me.

It is disappointing that the law has no relief for a situation like this.

Does the neighbor like money?

 

[STEPHAN]

Maybe agree on a different tree as replacement?

 

[FarmerJ]

unless this tree dies and you had sent to the neighbor certified letters pointing out that it is dead and should be taken down and they still wont do it and it falls over and damages your property then you have no recourse against the neighbor but if the neighbor wont agree to cut it down and they really don't have to whether you think the tree holds any value or not all you can do is monitor the tree and should it become ill / not healthy appear to be dying send certified letters to your neighbor and contact your cities forester to learn if your city has a ordinance that directs property owners to cut down / remove diseased trees or not.