North Carolina common law governs boundary fences and tree disputes, with limited statutory livestock fence-out rules.
North Carolina is a fence-out state under N.C.G.S. Chapter 68, meaning landowners must fence livestock off their property rather than fence them in. Boundary fences between neighbors are typically owned by the party who built them unless mutually agreed otherwise; there is no statutory cost-sharing requirement. Trees on a boundary line are jointly owned, and Massachusetts Rule allows a neighbor to trim branches and roots up to the property line at their own expense.
Damaging a co-owned boundary tree without consent can result in treble damages under N.C.G.S. 1-539.1 for willful injury to timber.
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