Question: My neighbor’s trees drop leaves in my yard, which I regularly rake up. Sometimes I also trim back branches that are growing onto our side of the fence. The extra work is not that big a deal, but I hate filling up our green bin with rubbish from their yard! Can I put it in their green bin?
Answer: Not without your neighbor’s permission, according to information provided by the city.
If a neighbor’s tree protrudes onto your property, you can trim whatever is on your side. You can even help yourself to fruit or blossoms from the branches that overhang your property line. However, generally you cannot automatically require your neighbor to pay for the pruning or other yardwork, or force them to repair fence, roof or other damage you blame on the offending tree. You’d have to prove the cause of the damage, by filing and winning a civil claim or lawsuit. There could be exceptions if you have a homeowners association that sets rules and penalties for yard maintenance, or the lack thereof. All of those related questions have been covered in Kokua Line, as recently as last year. Here are links to past columns if you’d like to read more: 808ne.ws/2dHmnFk, 808ne.ws/2eSAAQU and 808ne.ws/2eGULVu.
We couldn’t find an answer to your question about the green bin, though, so we asked the city’s Department of Environmental Services, which oversees the municipal garbage system.
Department spokesman Markus Owens cited the Revised Ordinances of Honolulu in stating that the answer is “no,” because access to waste and recycling bins is limited to the property owner.
Here is his answer, in full:
“Now addressing the carts, I think that the owner of the property onto which the tree is encroaching is able to trim the encroaching branches, but they would not be allowed to put them in the other property owner’s cart. ROH Ch 9, Sec 9-1.4 requires that carts be stored on homeowners’ property in between collection days. In order for the encroached property owner to dispose of the tree trimmings in the tree owner’s cart, the ‘trimmer’ would presumably have to go onto the tree owner’s property to access the cart, which is not allowable. Per ROH, Sec 9-1.6, which prohibits anyone other than the property owner or the city from disturbing any refuse set out for curbside collection, the ‘trimmer’ is not allowed to put the trimmings in the tree owner’s cart even if it was at the curb without the cart owner’s permission.”
Our two cents: It doesn’t seem unreasonable to place green waste from your neighbors’ trees into their bin — especially since you are doing the yardwork — but you’ll have to ask them to do so.
Q: How long are they going to be blocking off parts of Ala Moana Beach Park?
A: A sand-moving project to revitalize the central part of the beach should be finished by the beginning of November, according to a news release from the city. Only the immediate area around the project site is to be closed during that period, it said.
The public is urged to avoid the area during the project, which will see about 1,300 cubic yards of sand shifted from both ends of the beach to the center area, which had been strewn with tons of rocks that volunteers and city crews recently removed.
Following that effort, Department of Parks and Recreation staff began the sand-moving work on Monday evening, using heavy equipment.
The city noted that this is not a beach-widening project, but is designed to add a layer of sand to the formerly rocky area. Future efforts to replenish the sand and widen the beach are being researched, according to the news release.
Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
