Can I cut my neighbor's tree that hangs over my yard?
Robinson Tree Service · Memphis, TN
We get asked this most weeks, and the answer is more straightforward than people expect — with one real limit worth knowing before anybody starts cutting.
A neighbor's oak leans over your driveway. Limbs drop on your roof every storm. You have asked them twice and nothing has happened. Can you just have it cut?
In Tennessee, broadly, yes — the part over your property. You are entitled to cut back branches that cross your property line, at your own expense, up to the line. You do not need to ask anyone, because the part hanging over your land is your problem to deal with and therefore yours to address.
That surprises people. It is also the single most common reason a job gets delayed for no reason: a homeowner spends three weeks trying to get a neighbor to agree to something the neighbor was never being asked to agree to.
Where the line actually is
Three limits matter, and only one of them comes up often.
- You cut to the property line, not past it. We cut the limb back to your boundary, or to the nearest sensible growth point behind it — a stub left hanging in mid-air over your yard is worse than what you started with.
- You cannot kill the tree. Cutting so much that the tree dies can make you liable for it, and it is still their tree. On a big one-sided removal we will tell you plainly if what you are asking would take too much.
- You cannot go onto their land. This is the one that genuinely needs permission — and it is about the crew's boots, not the tree.
The only thing that needs asking
If the only way to reach the work is from the neighbor's driveway or yard — a crane that has to set up on their concrete, a loader that has to come through their gate — then we need their agreement before the day. Not for the cutting. For the access.
That distinction is worth holding onto, because it is the difference between a job that books this week and a job that stalls. Trimming their limbs from your side: nothing to ask. Standing on their property to do it: ask first, and we will tell you when it applies.
On our estimates, a job that needs to be worked from a neighbor's property says so in red, and we say which side. If there is no such note, we are not setting foot on their land and nobody needs to make a phone call.
When it is not your call at all
Different situation, different answer: a tree standing entirely on their side that you believe is dying or dangerous. You cannot have that one removed, and you cannot cut into the trunk. What you can do is put your concern to them in writing, so that there is a record of the date they were told. If it later comes down on your roof, the question of who knew what, and when, is usually what decides who pays.
An arborist's written assessment carries more weight in that conversation than a neighbor's opinion does. We will walk a property and put what we see in writing whether or not there is work in it for us.
What this looks like in practice
Most of these jobs are undramatic. A primary limb cut back roughly 60 percent to a lateral, so the weight comes off the fence line and the tree keeps its shape. Deadwood cleared out of the part that overhangs a back yard. A low limb lifted off a garage roof. All of it done from the customer's own side, all of it finished in a morning, none of it requiring a conversation with anyone next door.
It is worth telling your neighbor what is happening, as a courtesy. People take a crew appearing beside their fence better when they have had a day's notice. But a courtesy is what it is — not a permission slip.
This is how the work goes in practice, not legal advice. Property law has exceptions and your deed, your subdivision or a protected tree can change the answer. If real money or a bad relationship is riding on it, ask a lawyer before anyone starts cutting.
If this is your situation
Questions about a tree on your property? 901-363-3539, or send us a note. Estimates and preventative check-ups are free.
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