Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Missouri

This is a common scenario that seldom gets decided exactly the same. Generally, your neighbor owns the portion hanging over his property,. He may cut the branches off at his property line, despite what the tree looks like afterward, or if it will cause the tree to tip over later. For this reason, most treed lot proert owners do not plant trees near the property line, dnpurne both sides of the tree whre their neighbor does not want branches over their property. If you are concerned about the appearnce of your tree, you should have the tree pruned from both sides, so that no branches hang over the neighbor's yard, and will look balanced on your side. You might respond that you will allow the neighbor to cut the offending branches at his property line, and at his expense. Then once he does, you can decide how much of the tree you want to cut on your side. Many cases ahve found that the owner of the trunk is not responsible for the removl of leves on thier nr\eighbor's yard,a nd thus not repsonsible for removing branches that hang over, if the tree has grown substantially since planted. You might also offer to let your neighbor's work men put thier laddrs on your side of the property line to be able to safely cut the barnches.

Of course, if you are in a Homes association, all this may be addressed there, so this answer would be different. In that case, contact your association (your neighbor probably already has) and get the association's opinon on your obligation based upon the bylaws and regulations

Good luck

Good luck