German Court: Neighbour Cannot Be Forced to Agree to Felling Shared Oak
A district court in Regensburg, Germany, rejected a terraced-house owner's claim to force his neighbours to consent to felling a 60-year-old oak on the property line. The court found the tree important to the local microclimate and gave more weight to the neighbours' interest in keeping it.
The Regensburg District Court (Amtsgericht Regensburg) in Germany ruled on 7 August 2026 in a dispute over a large oak growing on the boundary between two terraced-house plots. It dismissed the claim of one owner who wanted the tree removed, finding that preserving a shared tree can carry real weight. The decision is a useful example of how German courts assess neighbour disputes over trees.
The dispute
The claimant owns a middle terraced house. He wanted to fell an oak with a trunk circumference of more than 200 cm at one metre height, at least 60 years old and predating the current development. The city, referred to in the source as R., had issued a felling permit and an exemption from the development plan, which marks the tree as one to be preserved.
The claimant argued that the roots had lifted and cracked his terrace and balcony, that the tree prevented normal lawn or privacy planting, that it dropped large amounts of leaves and pollen, that he suffered allergic skin reactions, and that many stink bugs entered his home. Removal was estimated at 4,046 euros. He asked the court to order his neighbours, a homeowners' association owning the adjoining end-of-terrace property, to agree to the felling and pay half the cost, 2,023 euros, unless they gave up their co-ownership of the tree.
The defendants offered a safety and maintenance pruning, which the claimant refused. Mandatory mediation failed.
The court's reasoning
The court noted that section 923(2) of the German Civil Code formally lets one owner demand removal of a shared boundary tree, but said this rule is not exhaustive. Preserving a shared tree is no longer irrelevant today, and in condominium law removing a tree can be treated like a structural alteration. Here the oak shades south-facing facades, reduces summer heat and provides evaporative cooling, so the neighbours' interests outweighed the claimant's.
