5 Things Utah Law Says About a Neighbor’s Trees

Grab a saw for your neighbor’s tree, and you’d better know where your rights stop.

Willfully injure a tree on someone else’s land in Utah, and the damages triple.

Here’s what Utah law says about a neighbor’s trees, before you cut a single branch.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Utah laws and court rules are subject to change, so confirm the current details with the Utah State Courts Self-Help Center.

1. Nuisance Test

A neighbor’s tree can count as a nuisance under Utah’s nuisance law.

That law covers anything injurious to health, indecent, offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property.

Each of those has to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.

In the 1954 Cannon case, a Utah neighbor sued over three Carolina poplars and two Siberian elms next door.

He complained that the trees’ branches overspread his lot, their roots permeated his soil, and their leaves, twigs and branches fell on his buildings.

The Utah Supreme Court said the test is whether the use of the property is reasonable for the locality.

The court wouldn’t read the law to cover anything a person finds offensive.

A stricter reading would make community living almost impossible, and the neighbor who sued could face the same kind of suit from the neighbors around him.

So your neighbor’s trees have to be unreasonable for your neighborhood before a court calls them a nuisance.

2. Cutting Right Left Open

The Utah Supreme Court referred to a judge-made right to cut off the offending roots and branches of a neighbor’s tree.

It didn’t decide when, if ever, a neighbor with a complaint can be told to use that right instead of suing.

It also left open whether your neighbor’s tree can face a lawsuit when its roots destroy the reasonable use of your land.

That question stays open for branches that overhang to the same extent.

3. Triple Damages for Injured Trees

Utah law triples the damages when someone willfully injures a tree on another person’s land.

That covers cutting down, girdling (stripping a ring of bark around the trunk) or otherwise injuring a tree without lawful authority.

It also covers trees on the street or highway in front of a house or lot.

Say a court puts the damage to your neighbor’s tree at $2,000.

You’d owe $6,000.

The law’s text doesn’t mention branches that cross a property line, so it doesn’t say whether trimming one counts.

4. Leaves, Twigs, and Fallen Branches

Leaves, twigs and even branches that blow from your neighbor’s trees in the ordinary course don’t make those trees a nuisance.

The Utah Supreme Court called it common knowledge that winds break branches from trees.

Treating that as a nuisance would condemn all shade trees in settled communities.

5. Court Orders on Trees

If a neighbor’s tree turns into a nuisance that harms your property or lessens your enjoyment of it, you can bring a case.

A court that finds one can award damages or order it stopped.

In the 1954 case, the trial judge ordered the three poplars topped by 20 feet.

The judge also ordered dead wood and enough branches cleared to keep the trees from blowing over onto the neighbor’s lot.

The elms got no order.

The neighbor had asked for removal or growth control, and the Supreme Court affirmed the lesser order, so the trees stayed.

A court that issues a nuisance order keeps jurisdiction to enforce it.

If you lose a nuisance case over a neighbor’s tree, a court may order you to pay the other side’s costs and reasonable attorney fees.

Those costs can include investigation and discovery costs.

Proof for Root Claims

Roots from your neighbor's tree stay underground, so the 1954 neighbor's main proof came from the 1952 excavation for an added room on his home.

The expert he hired hadn't examined how far the neighbors' roots had spread into his soil.

The expert saw no sign that roots had raised the sidewalk on his lot.

He offered to let the trial judge dig anywhere on his lot to check for roots.

He also had a Siberian elm on his lot, and it stood closer to the excavation than the neighbors' trees did.

One of the neighbors who owned the trees testified that roots hadn't disturbed her sidewalk.

The trial judge visited the property before ruling, and the Supreme Court said the judge's findings deserve much consideration.

Even without that visit, the record backed the trial court's finding on the roots.

Small Claims Cap and Deadline

A lawsuit over a neighbor's tree can go to Utah small claims court, where you can ask for up to $20,000.

That amount includes lawyer fees but not court costs or interest.

The cap rises to $25,000 in 2030.

You can file where your neighbor lives or where the events happened.

A losing side can appeal within 28 days of the judgment, and a district court then holds a new trial.