Neighbor wants to inspect my trees

[Suja N.]

Hello BP,

I was wondering if the community could help me with a neighbor's request.  I have some tall trees in my rental property in the city of Seattle.  I have a neighbor who has repeatedly expressed concern that the trees could come down on his house in a windstorm. He wants to come on to my property and inspect the trees with his expert and do a soil analysis.  The trees do sway during heavy winds but they are also holding up the hillside and there is no way the City of Seattle would let me cut them down anyway.   I asked an arborist to look at them once and he said they look healthy but any tree, even a healthy one, could come down in a heavy storm.  Am I opening myself up to liabilities if I let him inspect?  I have owned the property for 13+ years and no neighbor has ever asked me for anything like this. I also intend to sell the property in the next year and I'm wondering if he could get mad and upset the sale process.  

Any thoughts or ideas on what to do?

[Lynn McGeein]

If an arborist told me they were healthy, I'd pass that information on to the neighbor.  Our city arborist will come inspect if there is a neighbor complaint of a dangerous tree to determine if homeowner must remove or not, and I'd understand his concern if they were clearly diseased or damaged. I would understand if he insisted on that type of city inspection, but I wouldn't allow his "expert." 

I do know people who think any tall tree is a huge risk, want them removed anywhere near a home they're considering. My opinion is if the trees have been there much longer than your neighbor has and are healthy, then he should be the one to go, not the trees.