Tree removal
Cutting down a tree on your own lot is rarely as free of rules as it feels.
Whether you need approval to remove a tree on your own lot is usually decided by your declaration and architectural guidelines, not by a general state law. In Florida, a certified arborist's hazardous tree letter waives your city or county's removal permit, but it does not waive your association's own architectural review requirement, a distinction many owners get backwards.
Your declaration controls, not a state statute
Most states in this library have not passed a law that reaches into how an architectural review committee (ARC) handles tree removal specifically. Absent a statute, the rule that governs is whatever your declaration and adopted architectural guidelines actually say, or reasonably imply.
Florida spells this out directly for architectural review generally: a committee's power exists only where the recorded documents grant it.
"Shall be permitted only to the extent that the authority is specifically stated or reasonably inferred as to such location, size, type, or appearance in the declaration of covenants or other published guidelines and standards authorized by the declaration of covenants."
Source: Florida Statutes Section 720.3035, State of Florida
Whether your own state has a similar rule, and how far it reaches, varies. Read your declaration first, then confirm your own state's law before assuming an ARC can regulate every tree on your lot.
The arborist letter myth
A common belief is that a certified arborist's letter declaring a tree hazardous clears the way to remove it, no matter what. In Florida, that letter does something narrower: it stops a city or county from requiring a permit before removal.
"Notice, application, approval, permit, fee, or mitigation."
Source: Florida Statutes Section 163.045, State of Florida
That list describes what a local government can no longer demand. It says nothing about your association's own architectural review, so an arborist's letter does not, by itself, override your HOA's tree removal rule; confirm what your own declaration requires separately.
Two separate approvals, not one
Removing a tree can sit under two independent layers of permission: your association's architectural process, rooted in the declaration and any guidelines adopted under it, and a separate local government ordinance if your city or county has one. Getting a green light from one does not excuse you from the other.
Before cutting anything down, check three things: what your declaration and architectural guidelines say about trees, whether your municipality has its own tree preservation ordinance, and whether either process has a documented exception for hazardous or dead trees. Which of these applies, and in what order, depends on your state and your local ordinance.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A Florida homeowner gets a certified arborist letter calling a large oak hazardous and removes it without ARC approval, citing the state tree statute. The board cites the owner for skipping architectural review. Who is right?
An ARC in a state with no tree removal statute denies a request to remove a healthy shade tree, citing an "aesthetic character" standard that appears nowhere in the declaration or guidelines. What is the owner's strongest objection?
An owner checks the declaration, gets ARC approval, and removes a tree. The city then fines the owner for violating a separate tree preservation ordinance the owner never checked. What did the owner miss?
Sources
- Florida Statutes Section 720.3035, State of Florida
- Florida Statutes Section 163.045, State of Florida
Architectural Review
See how the declaration hands your ARC its power in the first place: Architectural review authority.
Whether tree removal is governed by your association, your city or county, or both, and whether a hazardous tree exception exists in either process, varies by state and by your governing documents.