🌿 Can I cut my neighbour's overhanging branches in Hungary?

It depends

Quick answer

Yes — but you start with a request, not an axe. Under the Civil Code's neighbour law the sequence is: if the neighbour's tree's overhanging branches or crossing roots disturb you (shading, clogging gutters, touching the building), first call on them to remove the nuisance. If they fail to act within a reasonable time, you may cut branches and roots back to your boundary plane — properly, without needless harm to the tree, at your own cost (and disposing of the cuttings is on you). What you may not do: reach over and mutilate or destroy the tree — that's criminal damage plus compensation. The eternal fruit classic: fruit actually fallen onto your plot is, as a rule, yours; picking from the overhanging branch isn't your right. If the tree was planted too close (planting distances per local decrees and custom), possession protection at the notary settles the dispute — every route is cheaper than chainsaw self-justice.

📋 The key rules

Step 1: warning — the neighbour must handle the disturbing overhang
If they don't: branches and roots cuttable to the boundary — done properly
Mutilating or felling the tree is banned — criminal damage plus compensation
Fruit fallen onto your plot is yours; picking from the branch isn't
Planting distances: local decree/custom — disputes via notary possession protection

🔓 Exceptions

At immediate risk (a branch about to hit the house) prompt action is justified — document it
Protected trees' overhangs also require careful, professional handling
For a tree planted too close, the route is the local planting distance and notary possession protection — not the saw

⚠️ Penalties

Mutilating or felling the neighbour's tree without warning is criminal damage: an expert values the tree, and compensation can run into millions of forints — with misdemeanour or criminal liability in serious cases. Careless cutting that harms the tree grounds compensation even where you were entitled to act. Pruning and disposal stay on your bill, and branches tossed back over are trespass in their own right. It cuts both ways: ignore your own tree's overhang and the neighbour can seek notary possession protection, with courts compelling you — costs included.

📎 Official sources

Verified: 2026-07-12

❓ Frequently asked questions

Must I ask the neighbour first?

Yes — neighbour law starts with a warning, ideally in writing so you can prove it later. Only if they fail to act within a reasonable time may you cut yourself, and then only up to your boundary plane.

Can I throw the cuttings over to them?

Don't — disposing of the cuttings is your job, and that is the price of the right to cut. Tossed branches are themselves trespass, and they sharpen exactly the dispute the lawful route avoids.

Whose fruit hangs over my side?

On the branch it belongs to the neighbour's tree — picking it is not your right, even above your own plot. What falls naturally onto your land is, as a rule, yours: fallen and picked are two different legal cases.

Roots are cracking my pavement. Options?

Same order: warning first, then crossing roots may be cut at the boundary. With a large tree, root-cutting is a stability risk — bring in an arborist and document everything, because harming the tree falls on you.

Who pays for cutting the branches?

You do — cutting up to your boundary is your right and your cost, including the arborist's fee and waste removal. The neighbour only picks up the bill if the notary or a court ordered them to remove the overhang.

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