Can I remove the tree in the way of my fence?

If the trunk crosses the line, it is not only your tree

Two municipalities here define the thing by name. Oak Bay calls it a boundary tree — one whose trunk or visible root flare crosses the property line — and to remove one you have to supply a letter from the adjacent owner agreeing to it. That is the same consent rule the fence itself follows when it sits on the line, which is tidy and almost nobody knows it.

View Royal defines a boundary tree the same way: any part of the trunk or trunk flare crossing a property line. On a View Royal creekside lot the arithmetic gets tighter still, because its thirty-metre rule for trees near a watercourse is the same thirty metres that prohibits a fence there — one distance controlling both halves of the job.

Everywhere else the bylaws are silent on the boundary case, which does not make it simple. A tree growing on the line is owned by both owners at common law, and removing it without the other owner's agreement is a dispute waiting to happen whatever the bylaw says.

The thresholds are not remotely alike

From the smallest protected tree to the largest, this region spans a factor of about twenty-six, and the two ends are forty minutes apart by car.

Sidney: An Arbutus, Cascara, Garry Oak, Pacific Dogwood, Seaside Juniper, Shore Pine or Western Yew at 3 cm in diameter — the lowest threshold in the region. Big Leaf Maple, Grand Fir and Western Red Cedar from 1.2 m tall, and any tree over 60 cm.

Highlands: A Garry Oak, Arbutus, Pacific Dogwood, Pacific Yew, Cascara or Manzanita of any size at all. A Douglas Fir over 60 cm in diameter, and any other tree over 80 cm.

North Saanich: An Arbutus, Garry Oak, Pacific Dogwood, Pacific or Western Yew, or Shore Pine at 10 cm DBH. But the prohibition is wider than the protected list: no tree at all may be cut, damaged or removed without a permit unless an exemption applies.

Sooke is the exception that proves how unusual the rest are: Sooke appears to be the only one of the thirteen with no tree protection bylaw for private property. Its own planning guidance says tree removal does not automatically require a Development Permit.

What getting it wrong costs

The fence bylaw and the tree bylaw are not in the same financial league, and that is the part worth internalising before a Saturday with a chainsaw. A fence built too tall is a bylaw ticket. A protected tree removed without a permit is charged per tree: Not less than $1,000 and not more than $50,000, with each protected tree and each day a separate offence.

Several municipalities also require replacement planting at the offender's own cost, on top of the fine, and several count each day the contravention continues as a separate offence.

What to do before the quote

One municipality cannot be answered from its own bylaw: Langford's tree bylaw PDF is a scanned image, so its thresholds could not be read. This site says that rather than guessing at them.

1. Walk the line and write down every trunk within reach of it, with a rough diameter and, where you can tell, the species. Garry oak, arbutus, Pacific dogwood and Pacific yew are protected far more tightly than anything else in this region.
2. Check whether any trunk or root flare crosses the property line. If it does, the neighbour is in the decision, and in Oak Bay that means a letter.
3. Ask your municipality before you ask a contractor. The permit, if one is needed, is theirs to grant and no fencing company can grant it for you.
4. Only then ask for a fence quote, and say what is standing there. A quote written as though the line were clear is not a quote for your job.