My Neighbor Is Blocking My View - What Can I Do?

Unfortunately, nothing. Unless the view was granted by law or some other rule in your neighborhood, such as a homeowner’s association, you have no recourse to prevent it. The reason for this pretty clear, it would be unreasonable for the city or state to have to enforce this and determine what is considered a view and what isn’t. The only thing they can do is prevent the building if it’s clear that the structure has no value to the owner and was put up just to block the view.

View Ordinances

If you are lucky enough to live in an area with view ordinances, then you might be in luck if your view is obstructed by trees. If you live near the ocean or some other great view, view ordinances might protect your view from growing trees and the owner of the trees have to trim them to restore the original view. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to new buildings or structures.

Who is responsible for paying for the trimming? It depends. The tree owner has to pay if the trees were planted after the law was passed. The view-obstructed homeowner has to pay if they were planted before the law was passed. There are exceptions to this rule and they should be spelled out in the ordinance (such as how city trees are exempt).

Zoning Laws

If you can’t go to a view ordinance, consider checking out the zoning regulations for residential (or commercial, depends on who is block you) buildings because it may require that buildings be under a certain height, be set back from the street a certain distance, or occupy less than a certain percentage of the property footprint.