French Civil Code

Any fence which separates hereditaments is deemed to be joint, unless there is only one of the hereditaments in a state of enclosure, or if there is a title, prescription or mark to the contrary. For ditches, there is a mark of non-jointness when the levee or discharge of land is on one side only of the ditch. The ditch is deemed to belong exclusively to the person on whose…

The joint fence must be maintained at joint expense; but the neighbour may avoid this obligation by renouncing joint ownership. This option ceases if the ditch is usually used for drainage.

A neighbour whose inheritance adjoins a non-dividing ditch or hedge cannot compel the owner of that ditch or hedge to surrender the common ownership to him. The joint owner of a party hedge may destroy it up to the boundary of his property, on condition that he builds a wall on that boundary. The same rule applies to the joint owner of a party ditch that is used only for…

As long as the hedge is shared, the products belong to the owners in equal shares.

Trees in the dividing hedge are joint like the hedge. Trees planted on the dividing line between two hereditaments are also deemed to be joint. When they die or are cut down or uprooted, these trees are shared equally. The fruit is collected at joint expense and shared equally by half, whether it falls naturally, or whether its fall has been provoked, or whether it has been picked. Each owner…

Trees, shrubs and bushes may only be planted close to the boundary of the neighbouring property at the distance prescribed by the specific regulations currently in force, or by constant and recognised usage and, in the absence of regulations and usage, at a distance of two metres from the dividing line of the two heritages for plantations whose height exceeds two metres, and at a distance of half a metre…

The neighbour may demand that trees, shrubs and bushes, planted at a distance less than the legal distance, be uprooted or reduced to the height determined in the previous article, unless there is title, destination of the father of the family or thirty-year prescription. If the trees die or are cut down or uprooted, the neighbour may only replace them by observing the legal distances.

Anyone on whose property the branches of his neighbour’s trees, shrubs and bushes are protruding may compel his neighbour to cut them back. The fruit that falls naturally from these branches belongs to him. If it is the roots, brambles or twigs that advance onto his property, he has the right to cut them himself at the limit of the dividing line. The right to cut the roots, brambles and…