A homeowner in San Francisco was recently fined $50,000 for trimming trees in the front of his home.
Though he had been following advice from an insurance broker to reduce risk, the city deemed the work illegal because the trees were publicly owned and could be pruned only by authorized crews.
“If a tree is shading your house, dropping limbs on your walkway, or triggering insurance concerns, you naturally think it’s yours to manage. But in many cities, the closer the tree is to the sidewalk or street, the more likely it is that public rules, not homeowner preference, govern what can be done,” says Raul Gastesi, a real estate attorney and founding partner of Gastesi Lopez Mestre & Cobiella in Miami Lakes, FL…