Man bills German neighbour €3,500 for leaves falling into his garden

Most people accept that a garden comes with a certain amount of sweeping, raking and clearing up. But one homeowner in Germany says the leaves falling from his neighbour’s trees have become such a burden that he wants more than €3,500 a year to cover the work.

He claims he has to collect around 250 wheelbarrows of leaves annually, as well as repeatedly clearing his gutters and paying  to dispose of the garden waste. His neighbour, meanwhile, owns 14 oak trees, some of which are around 200 years old and stand close to the complainant’s property. The dispute has turned an ordinary autumn nuisance into a costly disagreement over who should pay for the mess created by trees growing next door.

Fourteen oak trees are at the centre of the dispute

The neighbour being asked to pay owns 14 oak trees, estimated to be around 200 years old. Three of them stand just one metre from the other man’s house. The trees are approximately 25 metres tall, with canopies measuring between 18 and 24 metres across. Their branches extend between nine and 12 metres beyond the property boundary, according to the measurements reported by the complainant.

Apparently the problem is not just limited to a few leaves landing on the lawn, the man says the falling foliage and acorns create work throughout the autumn, particularly between weeks 40 and 48 of the year, when he claims he has to clear his gutters repeatedly. He says the trees do not comply with the required distance from the neighbouring property, adding another point of contention to the dispute. The owner of the oaks has not been reported as agreeing to pay the requested amount.

How he calculated the €3,540 demand

The homeowner has put a price on every part of the work he says the trees create. The largest part of his claim is for cleaning the gutters. He says he has to carry out 18 additional cleans each year, taking two and a half hours each time. That amounts to 36 hours of work, which he values at €40 an hour. His calculation comes to €1,800 for gutter cleaning alone.

He then adds the time spent collecting leaves from the garden. During nine weeks of the year, he says he spends four hours each week raking and clearing the fallen foliage. At the same hourly rate, that adds another €1,440 to his demand. Finally, he wants €300 to cover the removal of six containers of garden waste, calculated at €50 each. Together, the three amounts bring his annual demand to €3,540.

A neighbour dispute with a hefty price tag

The case has attracted attention globally on social media because of the sheer scale of the compensation being requested for what is usually considered an unavoidable part of living near trees. For the complainant, however, the issue is not simply having to sweep up a few leaves. He argues that the volume of foliage and acorns creates repeated work, takes up hours of his time and comes with additional disposal costs due to this his demand is for an annual payment to cover the work he says he has to carry out every autumn.

The figures are his own calculation of the time and expense involved. There is no indication in the report that a court has ordered the neighbour to pay the money, or that the €3,540 demand has been accepted. For now, the dispute comes down to 14 old oak trees, one neighbouring garden and a homeowner who says he is tired of spending so much of his year clearing up after someone else’s trees.