Giessen (dpa/lhe) – According to a decision by the Gießen Administrative Court, a property owner who has not fulfilled his obligation to cut back overhanging branches and twigs does not have to expect compulsory detention. As the court announced on Thursday, a corresponding application from a municipality in the Vogelsberg district was rejected.
According to the municipality’s statute for street cleaning, overhanging branches and twigs of trees and bushes are to be removed over sidewalks up to a height of 2.40 meters and over the roadway up to 4.50 meters, the court explained. In the summer of 2021, the municipality found that the man did not comply and initially imposed fines several times. Despite this, the man did not take action, so that the municipality finally carried out the work itself at the man’s expense. However, the man paid neither these costs nor the fines, so that a sum of more than 2000 euros came together. The community therefore applied to the Giessen Administrative Court for an order for compulsory detention, also in order to persuade the residents to fulfill their obligations in the future.
However, the court judged the encroachment on the freedom of the person to enforce an obligation, which had already been undertaken by the municipality itself, to be disproportionate. In the Chamber’s view, an order for substitute compulsory detention “in advance”, i.e. in order to enforce future obligations, is also not legally permissible. The decision (decision of January 25, 2023, file no.: 4 L 2623/22.GI) is not yet final, the parties involved can lodge an appeal with the Hessian Administrative Court in Kassel within two weeks.
