Trees and bushes on a property line

In Kentucky you may trim branches and roots that cross onto your own land, back to the boundary line. You may not cut down or take a tree that belongs to someone else. Most of these rules come from court decisions, not statutes.

Branches, roots and leaves that cross the line

Kentucky courts follow what is called the Massachusetts rule. An owner may grow trees on all of his or her land, even though limbs and roots will naturally spread next door. The neighbor’s remedy is self-help, which means cutting the limbs or roots back to the boundary line. The neighbor generally cannot recover money for shade, leaves, twigs or similar natural debris from a healthy tree. The Court of Appeals adopted this rule in a 1985 Kenton County case, Schwalbach v. Forest Lawn Memorial Park, and applied it in 2019 to bushes that had grown through a fence. The decisions do not authorize going onto the neighbor’s land or cutting down the tree itself.

When a tree falls

Courts separate healthy trees from dead or dangerous ones. In Schwalbach the court said a dead tree that is likely to fall could support a claim for negligence, meaning a failure to use reasonable care, or for nuisance. In Lemon v. Edwards (1961), Kentucky’s highest court noted that courts generally hold an owner liable when the owner knows a tree is defective, but held that the owner of rural, wooded land along a little-used road had no duty to inspect for decayed trees. In 2008 the Kentucky Supreme Court declined to decide whether owners in populated areas are liable when a dead or defective tree falls on a neighbor’s property, so that question remains open.

Trees on the boundary itself

Kentucky’s published decisions do not lay out a detailed rule for a tree whose trunk stands on the line. Both owners may have an interest in such a tree, so removing it without the other owner’s agreement invites a dispute. A survey may be needed to know where the trunk stands.

Cutting a neighbor’s tree

A person who cuts down timber on another’s land without a legal right, in order to take it for his or her own use, owes the owner three times the stumpage value, meaning the value of the standing timber, and three times the cost of any property damage, plus the owner’s legal costs. This applies whether or not the person believed the cutting was allowed (KRS 364.130). A homeowner or farmer maintaining a fence row who makes a good-faith mistake about an unmarked boundary owes only the reasonable value of the timber, actual damages and legal costs.