Do I need permission to cut down my own trees?
While most people understand intuitively that they cannot cut down another person's trees without that person's permission, it's not as obvious that you may need to get permission to cut down your own trees on your own property.
Permitting issues often come up in conversion of timber cases, usually in two ways. First, the party converting the timber (i.e. cutting the trees) will fail to get a permit for the activity that harmed the trees, which opens the door to potential civil and even criminal liability on the part of the converter. Second, timber converters will obtain a permit to remove trees that the converter doesn't own and believe that this permit gives them permission to commit timber conversion. The fact that someone got a permit to cut down trees they don't own does not give them permission to cut down trees they don't own.
Our law firm does not handle permit applications or appeals for removing trees, but below you'll find some information about obtaining a permit to remove a tree, whether or not you need to obtain a permit to remove a tree, and some other considerations.
The three organizations you may need to get a permit from are your county, your city, and your homeowners association (HOA) if you have one. To add to the confusion, you may need some of these permits, all of these permits, or none of these permits. This article will outline the steps you need to take to obtain a permit, and discuss some considerations to keep in mind when obtaining a permit.
You will first need to determine what county you live in, whether or not you belong to a city, and what zoning district you are in. Remember, in Georgia everyone lives in a county, but not everyone lives in a city. You should be able to find all this information on your property record, which is maintained by the county. This information may also be on your annual property tax bill.
Once you determine what county and city you live in, you'll want to check the county and/or city code to determine whether there are any restrictions on you removing trees, and if there are restrictions what permits you need to apply for. The county and city codes can be found online. Don't forget that there are usually different rules and requirements that apply to different zoning districts, which is why it's important for you to know what district your property is in. If you live in a city your situation gets more complicated because you may need to get a permit from both the county and the city. Make sure you know which permit, or permits, you need.
Sometimes there are not any permit requirements, or there are minimal permit requirements, for removing trees. For example, trees under a certain trunk diameter may not require a permit, or if you are only removing a certain number of trees you may not need a permit. In general, the more rural the area, the less restrictions there are on removing trees.
Some cities and counties are very helpful, and you may be able to go to their website or call the permitting office and just ask what the permit requirements are. Some counties and cities even have an arborist who can help you determine the health of your trees for free.
If you are a member of a homeowners association you may need to get approval from your HOA, even if you did not need a permit from the county or city. The rules around removing trees can be found in your HOA bylaws. Understand that just because the city or county gave you a permit to remove a tree does not necessarily mean that the HOA will give you permission to remove the tree. Additionally, while cities and counties are governed by laws, HOA's are much more subjective in whether or not they grant permits.
You may need to get permission from another organization that I haven't listed to remove a tree. For example if you are in a floodplain or subject to certain erosion controls, are in a historic district, abut the “waters of the United States,” or any number of other land use restrictions that apply to your property, you may need to obtain additional permits.
If all of this sounds tedious, it is! You may be tempted to skip the permit process and just remove the tree without getting permission. You may get away with it, but you run the risk of fines if you’re caught. Beyond the fines, which can be thousands of dollars, you may be required to restore the land to its original condition before the trees were removed. This restoration requirement is especially common in wetlands, historic districts, and erosion control cases. The cost to restore and reforest land can be very high; I’ve seen reforestation costs of over $60,000 for areas of less than 1/10 of an acre.
So to answer the original question, you may have to get a permit, or several permits, to cut down trees on your own property, and if you don’t get a required permit it could cost you a lot of money.