I agree, but most trees here aren't protected and most wont die or uproot.
On the Gold Coast for example, if the tree is within 3m of the fence line it's excluded from protection too, quite a few councils have done this for a reason.
With regard to:-
Quote:
Also this could be overided in a court if what you did were extreme enough to cause harm/decline/death/failure of the tree.
Could end up sued for damages.
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That's the case for everything not only trees, if you increase a hazard/cause damage even indirectly you can be sued, of course, and so can you if your tree damages neighbours infrastructure/pipes etc.
In normal years the growth rates of trees here is something else, some of the tropical type trees grow 5m a year no sweat. I have seen near entire back yards some 15m wide of intrusion. The "victim neighbour" gets no sunlight and the tree was a Chinese Elm (Celtis sinensis) that dropped all it's leaves. Their entire yard was 3" deep in leaves. They raked a massive pile of leaves, they're rear deck was covered with black sooty mould, the neighbour refused to prune or remove so we did. Cost her $1000 for us to prune that monster back to the fence line. The neighbour refused collar cuts but allowed us to climb the tree ... whopping stubs left some 12"+ diameter.
It's a weed here anyway. Cant kill them with a stick that's for sure, tough mongrel things.
Weeds Australia - Weed Identification - Chinese Celtis
Hardly what I call responsible tree ownership.
Did it look ugly after we pruned it? My word, but I did it because it was a crap weed tree anyway and I felt sorry for the customer. She was using those wool bale services to get rid of the leaves ... bag after bag, raking, cleaning, no lawn what so ever, other garden plants struggling.
Another example was a row of fiddlewood trees planted 1' off the fenceline along a boundary with a multi-unit carpark. No-one could park under them. The canopies of the trees intruded over the carpark some 7m. Those tree get the lantana bug and drip homeydew, sap ans black sooty mould. Your car was coated with the sticky crap.
Got a tower and as the crow flies belted it back to the fence-line whilst the owner protested. Those trees stopped 6 car parks and people were parking on the road instead.