Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Missouri

Re: tree hanging over property line

If it is an apple tree, you get the apples that fall or hang over your property. Regardless the type of tree, you are responsible for raking the leaves on your land. Therefore, absent a specific municipal ordinance, most Missouri courts hold that you may prune (without compensation) the portion that hangs over your land. Be careful. Unlike some Western states, you may not go onto another's property to prune branches that merely create a shadow on your land or block your view of something beyond the two properties.

A foreign poster suggested that you write a letter to the other land owner requesting that they trim the tree. This may be the friendlier thing to do. It may also make you appear more reasonable to a court if the other party files suit for damage to the tree, after they refused to cut off the section overhanging your land.

I am not aware of any plaintiff's being successful in suing for the cost to prune a living tree. There have been many that sued an then reimbursed by the other homeowner's policy when a tree fell onto the land of the plaintiff in a storm.

Good Luck