"TheKeith" wrote in message
...
I live in Brooklyn, NY and in the backyard is a 30-yr old maple tree that
my
parents planted before I was even born. The tree was planted about 2 feet
away from the fence and now, 30 yrs later, is a bit of a monster--part of
the trunk is on my neighbors side.

I don't know the terminology, but there *are* ways a lawyer can arrange for
a neighbor to "use" part of another neighbor's property for structures, as
long as both parties agree. The agreement becomes part of some sort of
permanent record, so new owners of either property know the deal. Talk to a
local lawyer. It might be possible to slightly relocate the fence to
accomodate the tree.

On the sneakier note, I'd slip the tree expert $100 or some Yankees tickets,
in return for saying "Well...yeah...you could remove that root, but it would
make the tree MUCH more likely to fall in that direction during our next
hurricane".

:-)