Jose and Blanca Pelayo argued that the trial court failed.

Jul 20, Washington State has various laws regarding cutting down trees. When a Tree Spreads to Your Neighbor If you plant a tree on your property and it grows into your neighbor’s property, Washington law deems such a tree to be jointly and equally owned by you and your neighbor.

Whenever any person shall cut down, girdle, or otherwise injure, or carry off any tree, including a Christmas tree as defined in RCWtimber, or shrub on the land of another person, or on the street or highway in front of any person's house, city or town lot, or cultivated grounds, or on the commons or public grounds of any city or town, or on the street or highway in front thereof, without.

PARKS: Trees growing within the boundaries of City of Seattle, Department of Parks and Recreation-owned parks and boulevards, as well as City-owned greenbelts may only be pruned after obtaining a permit from the Department of Parks and Recreation. Tree removal is not allowed for view improvement.

Tree topping is prohibited on all Parks properties. Jun 07, An owner that effects the removal of a shared tree, without consent of the other owner, is in violation of RCW and can be held liable for trespass and treble damages for the value of the cut tree by multiplying the tree’s value by the percentage of the tree’s trunks that had been growing on the plaintiff’s property.

Happy Bunch at Any city or town may by general ordinance require the owner of any property therein to remove or destroy all trees, plants, shrubs or vegetation, or parts thereof, which overhang any sidewalk or street or which are growing thereon in such manner as to obstruct or impair the free and full use of the sidewalk or street by the public; and may further so require the owner of any property therein to remove or destroy all grass, weeds, shrubs, bushes, trees.

Jul 20, Trees that start out on your property but grow over the boundary between your property and your neighbor’s property become the joint property of you and your neighbor under Washington state law. You cannot cut down the tree without getting the permission of your neighbor. In Maier, plaintiffs “were entitled to cut back branches that overhung their property” but the trimming became timber trespass when it effectively killed the tree.

The weight of these persuasive authorities suggests self-help trimming of encroaching limbs is lawful in Washington. But there is also good reason to hesitate before trimming. Because legislatively-enacted tree law is so sparse here, much of Washington's law is based on precedent set by court cases. For example, Merullo cites the case of Costina vs. Ryland. The court.