Is eating fruit from your neighbor’s tree considered stealing? We asked an NC law expert
If your neighbor has a tree with apples or pears ripe for the picking, it may be tempting to help yourself to a sweet treat.
A tree branch may hang onto your property, meaning you wouldn’t even have to trespass to get your hands on some fresh fruit. A juicy peach or delicious plum could even fall off the tree into your yard for you to claim.
But is it legal to eat fruit from your neighbor’s tree in North Carolina?
To find out, The Charlotte Observer asked Andrew Branan, a lawyer and extension assistant professor at NC. State University.
Can you eat fruit from your neighbor’s tree in NC?
Though no specific law addresses who owns fruit that comes from them, trees are considered real property in North Carolina. That means the fruit that hangs from them “belongs to the owner of the parcel where the tree grows,” Branan told the Observer.
But the answer gets more complicated when the fruit falls far from the tree onto your property.
To help explain, Branan provided a Latin phrase used in common law: “Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos,” meaning “whoever’s is the soil, it is theirs all the way to Heaven and all the way to Hell.”
“The owner of the fruit tree has no right to cross the aerial boundary of the neighbor to harvest any fruit overhanging the neighbor’s property,” Branan said. “I believe any fruit falling from the overhanging branches (e.g., pecans) becomes the property of the person upon whose land they have fallen.”
According to Branan, any overhanging fruit that hasn’t fallen belongs to the person who owns the land where the tree grows. Still, if the tree branches are on a neighbor’s property, they can legally harvest the fruit without their permission.
Branan also noted that people can trim branches that hang onto their property as long as it doesn’t damage the tree.
