If the tree is overhanging his property, generally he has the right to trim the part that does overhang. But he has no right to demand that you trim, or not trim, any of your landscaping that doesn't encroach upon his property unless it is overgrown and becoming an eyesore or hazard.

If I am reading the photos right, it appears that the tree is overgrowing in front of his house (reaching for more light, maybe?) and probably should be trimmed back. Growth that is too heavy to one side can cause some varieties of tree to split. Get an arborist to do it correctly.

Thx for the input. It's not really overhanging his property line.....maybe a little bit of a couple of branches over on the side, but those aren't the ones "blocking his view." (his property line ends on the side of his driveway). His main beef is the branches totally on my property going vertically. I had a landscaper look at the tree earlier in the winter and he thought it was a healthy tree with no issues getting stunted going toward the light (unlike the tree on the left of my driveway, which does have that issue.) I'll see if I can take a better picture later from straight on.

@ShadyWillow, unfortunately he already offered to do it for me, and if I let him do it, for sure he'll denude the tree.

So do you think I can cut a few of the taller branches without harming the tree?T

I can't tell what plant species that is from your pictures so I can't say what is best for the plant itself. I can say it has obviously been pruned, probably topped before. It has an odd prune job. There is a missing tree trunk. Your weird neighbor and that pruning job may belong together.

As far as my experience goes, yes you can cut a few of them "artistically" (not "topping" the whole canopy!) but they will produce more branching below where you cut and grow back eventually. Maybe he will get over it or move by then.

The odd pruning job kept calling me. I'm thinking this tree is the perfect privacy screen for you to keep the annoying neighbor from hovering over your driveway while you are coming and going. Your location tells me you can trim the tree like it is a hedge and not look too weird. Just shear the outer edge to a more even hedge like surface. Still don't know what it is.

Neighbor is a "view-monger." Speaking of views much closer shots needed for identification of tree.

Uh oh. Is it, could it be a Japanese maple?

It doesn't quite have the form of a Japanese maple....but from this distance and lack of clarity, it could be. Can you take a close up photo of a branch with the leaves emerging? And if he insist on pruning and you agree, don't let him do it........if what is showing on the right hand side is his work, he doesn't know what he is doing :-)

btw, there are some view neighborhoods in the PNW that do have height restrictions on trees. But that would have been made clear to you when you purchased the house.

It looks sort of like what is in the middle of the front yard outside of the house I live in now, but only when it's fully leafed out. The photo where it's got branches and yellow-colored but not yet fully 'unfurled' leaves make it resemble the huge (it had been planted back in 1977 by the developer who built the whole community my previous home in a gated HOA was located in) tree that provided shade for my patio thanks to the many, heavy branches that extended from its trunk, which was located at the edge of the man-made pond that was part of the water-scaping the whole property was designed around instead of the usual landscaping with grass, shrubs, and the occasional small tree.

For the life of me I can't remember the names of either tree variety, not the previous or the current - I'm sure it'll finally come to me after I go to bed and have shut down the computer for the night. I have a pen and a pad of paper in the top drawer of my nightstand, if I remember either of the two tree types I'll jot it down and post it next time I log in. :P

The first pictures no good. The last picture was just OK. Could you please show better pictures? Show one face on with your where you are standing with your house in the background. Be directly in front of the tree so not taking at an angle. Then move next to your house and take a picture square from the side. Show the complete tree and some space around it.

It looks as if you're not sure if you want it to be a tree or a bush. It does not presently have a defined tree form. and I think it would be in your best interest to work toward developing it, as presently, it seems to be engulfing your house.

I would ignore the neighbor's thoughts about how/what you should do to the tree, but you can be thankful that he brought it to your attention.

@Embothrium my guess was styrax as well. It's amazing how much growth those things like to cram into a small(ish) envelope.

@OP I'd tell the neighbor to go kick rocks, but that's me. But if you have an arborist or another skilled, knowledgeable person who can prune it come in, they can thin it out and lighten the canopy and that may pacify your neighbor.

Tough situation. I don’t know much about your tree, but I know about bad neighbors. DH and I, just married, bought a small starter home with a bitter, mean old woman across the street. I was very young and she made a HUGE negative impression on me. To this day - 45 years later - I’ve never forgotten how miserable/frightened she made me. She’s surely tormenting the devil now.

Anyway, the point I want to make is you should never undervalue peace.

What benefits does the tree give you? It isn't shading a patio or other outdoor area, just some of your driveway. It also blocks part of your view. And, from your photos, it looks like the wrong tree for where it is. I can appreciate not wanting to give in to an obnoxious, demanding neighbor, but if I looked at it purely from my point of view I would get rid of it and plant something more appropriate to the site. Appeasing a cranky neighbor would just be a side benefit.

While I would never be one to cater to the whims of an obnoxious and demanding neighbor, specially with regards to something on my property, I do agree that the tree is not well suited to that particular location. It does present a pretty massive block of green when in full leaf! I might consider hiring a skilled arborist to evaluate whether thinning out the canopy and somewhat reducing size is feasible but that would only be a stopgap solution at best. Probaby best to remove and replace with something that will remain in proper scale.

Although there is some variation between individual seedlings of course typically this species is more graceful and elegant, yours has been cut back heavily for years to produce a visually unpleasant structure* - except for perhaps some well thought out thinning cuts I don't see much potential for recovering it at this stage. And certainly heading it back at the sides is not going to do this, rather make it look even more like it is part of a sheared hedge. Than it does already.

*In photo number 4 we get a good look at all the explosive growth of long straight shoots it has produced in reaction to excessive heading back, in an attempt to get it to fit within a too small space. Growth that shows it is genetically programmed to grow much larger than it is now - here's some measured height figures from some Seattle specimens, most of them recorded in 2005:

49' (1990)

37'

34 1/2'

31 1/2' x 37 1/2' wide - in this case an example where the crown spread exceeds the height

31'

30'

--Jacobson, Trees of Seattle - Second Edition (2006)

P.S. suggestions on a replacement there are welcome. It gets full sun all morning and shade all afternoon. I will miss the greenery if/when I cut it down and it does give me some privacy when gardening in the front yard from the neighbor, who can otherwise peer down on my from his living room.

First, what's your vision of the fully grown tree? (I don't know what it is so can't know its ultimate height.) Is it's canopy expected to get anywhere reasonably sized as what's shown in green?

If it is, we know right off the bat that only 90% of branches and foliage that exist now, will not exist when the tree is mature. Only 100% of the trunk and just a small percentage of what are now upper level branches, will remain in the finished product. Knowing that tells us that it's far more important to pay attention to what the trunk is doing, that all of the foliage. So long as the foliage exists to feed growth of the trunk, it's OK. But when lower branches remain too long, they become large and get in the way of human activities and interests. It is safe for the tree, once per year, to remove lower, unwanted branches up to 50% of the total tree height.. Doing so, encourages other new growth higher up ... where you want it. Over time this lifts the bottom of the tree canopy so it doesn't impede your interests.

In the following photo, we ask where are the limbs marked in yellow, headed? One is going toward the house and others are going downward. (Lower limbs hang down because they become larger and heavier each year.)

I suggest that you shape the top into more or less a dome. Because the tree is lopsided, this will entail removing some upper portion of canopy, but on the other side of the tree leaving it untouched and waiting for it to grow. Remove the lowest limbs that are going in wrong directions of hanging low. Clean up (remove) any scruff that remains in the lower half.

Overall, pruning as a REACTION to growth, as a way to manage a tree's destiny, especially if waiting too long, is the difficult (and sometimes impossible) way of getting the desired result. It is much easier if one anticipates where a tree is going and takes action before things get out of hand.

@Yardvark, per other commenters it's a Japanese snowdrop tree (Styrax japonicus). See Embothirum's comment right above re: anticipated usual height of these trees, but this one has probably been stunted by bad pruning over the years. It's not a young, immature tree--probably been there 20-30 years based on what I know about the prior owner. Encouraging it to get taller is going to create issues with my neighbor, and if the tree were going to look good and do well, I wouldn't care, but it seems like based on other input it's probably not worth the effort and I should go with a tree that can fit that space better, like something smaller. Agree about taking action before it's out of hand but it seems like the horse is out of the barn on that one already....

I am another that would not care what the neighbor wants. Your house, your yard, your tree, and your bushes. I believe from one of the close ups that the tree has been chopped (pollarded) before and that is why you have all the little sprouts. If you get someone that really knows what they are doing, they can thin and shape back to a more normal shape, until you are ready to replace. (If ever. You might like it.)

With that kind of neighbor, I don't blame you for wanting something between you an him. Good luck.

I'd choose something evergreen for a corner spot like that. Also such would provide year-round screening. When the time comes visit local vendors to see what you like. Looking at public display gardens, even other home gardens in the vicinity may also reveal something that appeals - the only limitation on this is variation in what is in commerce at any one time. For instance in my area there is a double light red camellia called 'Cheerful' that is very common on local properties, yet may not have been in general commerce here for decades. (Print catalogs dating from the 1920's of a now long gone local retail nursery chain describe it as by far the dominant red camellia).

"Your house, your yard, your tree" except from the more recent pics it appears that about a third of the tree's canopy is, in fact, crossing the property line and fronting the neighbor's house. That is his space. Apparently the neighbor is not objecting to that and only wants some of the higher branches trimmed, so in this case he is not being as unreasonable as he seems to have been in the past.

He would have the legal right to trim those branches without asking, so give him credit that he did.

"It's not really overhanging his property line.....maybe a little bit of a couple of branches over on the side, but those aren't the ones "blocking his view." (his property line ends on the side of his driveway). His main beef is the branches totally on my property going vertically. "

It was already stated that it is not over the property line and his problem is he wants the tree down. I would let it get tall like Yardvaark showed.

@raee, the ones blocking his view aren't, for the most part, over his property line, so no I don't think he can trim the offending branches without asking. He can't even get to the view-blocking branches without being firmly on my property, and if he cut everything extending over his property line (which he can certainly do), he would have the same problem with the view he does now. The view he cares about is to the far right of his house as he's looking out the window--not the front view.

Do you have any of those cameras everyone is getting (like Ring)? I would make sure to have one, or more, recording the area.

ETA: Take one more picture standing at the tree. I would like to see what is so earth shaking awesome.

Yes I have cameras on the tree. @Sherry, the view is of Mt. Rainier in the far distance and a small sliver of Elliott Bay in Puget Sound, partially obstructed by power lines and trees. This is taken from inside my living room at sunrise.

It is very pretty, but I don't know why he is being such a bu**.. My son lives on a mountain edge lot with a little over a 180* view in the winter and much less in the summer. He wouldn't ever try to insist that the neighbor cut down trees. I think it is the insist and the fact that only his wants count that is setting me off.

If you trim the tree like Yardvaark suggested, it will open his view up and it will get the tree back on the path to a healthy growth pattern.

I am just enough of a "don't push me person" that I would replace the tree with some of those narrow, very tall evergreens and block his view for the entire year. He could of been nice, but the pattern of giving you grief, not only over the tree, but the shrubs, suggests that whatever you give in to and do, he will just bully even more and want even more.

Why don't you suggest he buy the house on the OTHER side of you or the other neighbors.

My apologies, HKO HKO, I was going by what your pictures appear to show.

You are correct, if all of the branches in question are simply in the way as he looks across your property he has no legal ground to stand on. If some of them are in his space ("for the most part", you said) then you do need to take that into account -- as it sounds like you are willing to do.

I cant read all those replies. So..to be blunt. You own ever single speck of air on your property. From the ground to the heavens above. From your property line UP, you own everything.

IF anything of yours, crosses over into HIS property line, he can lop it off to his content. So...if he wants to destroy your trees shape, he can cut it back in a horrible way. IF it is on HIS side. And anything of HIS is on YOUR side, you can cut it off as well.

I have major tree problems in my yard from 4 neighbors. With huge trees. Here in south Fla. They cut them back on THEIR sides and make their huge ugly trees lean onto MY side and the shade kills my lawn. But I dont have the $2K a year to get them cut back. They are massive!

BUT as long as it is on YOUR side, he can do nothing!! IF he touches a single leaf from your tree, and it has NOT crossed onto HIS side, you can sue his ass!!

"Encouraging it to get taller is going to create issues with my neighbor..."

As pointed out, the neighbor has a complaint ... but no rights to call the shots on whatever is not on, or directly above, his property. If the problem were resolved, even if it took a little time, the complaint would dissolve. This same dilemma plays out in shopping centers across America. Codes demand that trees be placed along streets or in parking lots. Retailers want their stores and signs seen. So the trees are installed and then the retailers demand that they be pruned like shrubs on stumps so as not to block view of the signs above the storefront! That solution is the expensive, time consuming one that can't do anything but end in deformed trees and an oddball landscape continuing on into perpetuity. If the trees were proactively pruned by chasing the canopy upward creating a view below the canopy, the problem would be resolved once and for all, with less cost and a superior end result: signs and storefronts that are seen AND handsome trees.

Stripped trees (bare bottoms extending from the ground up, for yards, with foliage present only high up in the air) are odd and homely, just like heavily lopped or topped ones. Except where the limbed up trees are already big enough that the denuded zone is very much smaller than the remaining area of foliage.

With all the mountain and saltwater (as well as lake) views here in Pugetopolis there is a heavy concentration of view-mongers - this is where a judge was prosecuted (it made national news) because he paid to have a number of trees on adjacent public park land cut down, in order to increase the size of his view. With this concern about size of view, rather than quality being a frequent driver of involved thinking in this region - completely unbroken panoramas are the recurring goal, with trees being seen as something that takes away a percentage of a view rather than doing something like framing it.

Does your city or municipality have a "view preservation" ordinance? Some areas do.