What is my legal right on overhanging branches of neighbor's trees?

Generally, the law considers shrubbery, foliage, fruit, and branches that encroach onto the land of another a nuisance. The owner of the land encroached upon may abate the nuisance by trimming the overhanging foliage, branches and limbs SO LONG AS the owner acts reasonably and DOES NOT seriously injure or kill the tree causing the nuisance. This will typically require you to hire a licensed professional tree trimmer.

Before trimmimng the tree, or starting a legal battle that could turn out to be very costly, consider informing your neighbor of the law and offering a compromise. This should be done in writing. If two parties each give a little, compromise should successfully resolve the matter. Who are we kidding, if everyone was reasonable, there would be no attorneys and in California there are a lot of them. If reason fails, consider consulting with an attorney regarding your options as soon as practically possible. The attorney should send a written a letter making a final attempt to resolve the matter, and if that fails, then a lawsuit may need to be filed.

For more information on tree law, please see my website. A link is provided below.